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From: tom@syssoft.com (Rodentia)
Newsgroups: comp.windows.ms
Subject: Can Windows damage hardware (RAM)?
Message-ID: <1991Feb12.220834.1991@syssoft.com>
Date: 12 Feb 91 22:08:34 GMT
Reply-To: tom@syssoft.com (Rodentia)
Organization: Systems & Software, Inc., Irvine, CA
Lines: 28

Ever since I was a little hacklet, I had been told software
cannot damage hardware (walking disk drives excluded).  Imagine
my surprise when my next door neighbor installed windows on his
2.5Mbyte 16MHz 386, ran notepad, and POOF!  He got a crash, and
whenever he boots, the RAM test fails after 512K (the point 
where it starts accessing the 2Mbyte expansion slot RAM).

I tried running the setup from ROM hoping it was just a CMOS 
problem, but to no avail.  Now I'm wondering if there was
some obscure Gate A20 problem that was just waiting for 
certain lines to assert in the right combination.  Actually, 
I'm afraid I'm grasping at straws.  Was it just bad luck?

The machine is some nameless clone.  If I can't figure this 
out, I may have to give up engineering and open a deli ;-{)

-- 
Thomas Roden                                      | tom@syssoft.com
Systems and Software, Inc.                        | Voice: (714) 833-1700 x454 
"If the Beagle had sailed here, Darwin would have | FAX:   (714) 833-1900
come up with a different theory altogether." - me |


-- 
Thomas Roden                                      | tom@syssoft.com
Systems and Software, Inc.                        | Voice: (714) 833-1700 x454 
"If the Beagle had sailed here, Darwin would have | FAX:   (714) 833-1900
come up with a different theory altogether." - me |