Ok 2 completely unrelated questions.
first, I have a computer I am turning into a smooth wall box (Horray free computing). It currently has 512 of ram. However, one of the sticks throws bad bit errors in MEMTEST. Can I continue to run this stick or do I need to replace it?
Other topic: I am refurbishing a precision 530 for a SOHO. It is dual Processor but it has XP Home. (I know I know). What is getting to me is that it is only showing one processor despite the fact that it has 2 hyper threading processors. I understand that Home only supports 1 proc but it should let it hyperthread, at least according to the Microsoft website. HELP!

5/20/2007 2:05:50 AM

You can run with the bad memory, the computer will just randomly crash, and you risk data corruption. It's theoretically possible for someone to write an application so that bit is never used thus never causing problems, but I don't know if such an application exists. Also, it's possible that if one bit is bad, there may be a systemic problem that could cause others to fail in the future. It's just not a good idea.

You might have to enable HT in the BIOS.

5/20/2007 3:05:21 AM

make sure your RAM is getting the voltage it needs or that will cause errors too. The default for mobos now can often be lower than what the memory needs.

5/20/2007 8:55:45 AM

There is no option in the BIOS for hyperthreading. Thanks for the info on the RAM. Sadly, it is a very old Dimension 550C so there are no options for voltage and there are several bad bits. It looks like I'll just have to throw away that stick. OH well, it cost me $2.50. Thanks for the responses... keep the Hyperthreading ideas coming.

5/20/2007 9:33:50 AM