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Old PC says no
Rhonda
Posts: 248 Forum Member
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When I turned on my old desktop today I got a message saying it required 512 and could only find 508 memory. So I guess the memory is full, and I need to delete some old files, which of course I cannot do until I can open the thing.
My question is, could I start it up by installing a Seagate plug and play external hard drive? They just go into your USB port I believe. Or are these devices only good for backing up files?
Many thanks
My question is, could I start it up by installing a Seagate plug and play external hard drive? They just go into your USB port I believe. Or are these devices only good for backing up files?
Many thanks
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On limited information this sounds like a problem with the RAM, not disk storage capacity.
Are you trying to start pc up, and getting a error.
How old is desktop - it is a long time since desktop PCs had less than 1 or 2 gigabytes of RAM.
It may be that some memory has failed?
What is your operating system - XP?
and if its only got 512mb of ram its probably better to visit the local tip and pick up a machine with more pew pew from the skip as it'll probably be something heading to 15 years old
Yes, it is quite ancient- built just after the Boer War, I believe, lol. But it serves a purpose.
The operating system, you rightly guess, is XP.
The message I am getting is : windows NT has found only 508k of low memory. 512k of low memory is required to run windows NT. You may need to upgrade your computer or run a configuration program provided by the manufacturer.
Hope this helps
It looks like one of your RAM chips has failed. You might be able to replace the memory but frankly, probably not worth the effort.
No disrespect, but your question suggests replacing the memory youself is not a realistic option. If you have a friend good with PCs, they might be able to get and replace memory (if so upgrade to at least 1GB).
A computer repair person would probably charge around £50-70 to repair. You could buy a better one secondhand off gumtree for that much. You can buy windows tablets for <£100 with windows 8.1 upgradeable (free) to windows 10.
If I was you, I would consign this PC to the scrapheap.
Typically this has nothing to do with RAM memory, but rather a corrupt boot setting being read by Windows. You are probably running Win XP, but it says WindowsNT due to the pre-boot process.
Start the computer from a WinXP factory install CD and go into Recovery console. Change Directory to C:\ and run FIXMBR Then run FIXBOOT Then restart the computer. If it was a corrupt boot setting you will typically be able to get windows started.
http://superuser.com/questions/713728/error-when-booting-windows-xp-windowsnt-has-found-only-495k-of-low-memory-512
So the suggestion there is that it's not "memory" (RAM) but a problem with your hard-drive becoming "corrupted".
If you don't have a Windows XP factory CD (the software that XP comes on) then I don't know just yet what you can do. I will look around.
I'm not sure I would go online with it though, XP is obsolete when it comes to online safety.
The memory is probably 1MB.
Looking around I would say it probably is a hard-disk "corruption" problem, although lot's of people go on the wrong track and think it a memory issue.
As mentioned above it's likely fixable but a Windows XP Installation CD is needed.
Could also be a few variants of nasty stuff causing the problem as well
We have two or three possible reasons, and it might take a bit of investigation to sort things.
The question is whether Rhonda wants to go through all the possible hassle?
As an aside, I've now got a Beach Boys record stuck in my head :-).
I do want to revive this old thing, if only so that I can retrieve files and store them before buying a new device, hence my question.
I will have all the CDs that came with it somewhere, and will have a go at a fix.
The reason, Oilman - God Only Knows !
Another option is to physically take the hard disk out, and use a cheap usb disk connector to connect it to your new computer as an external drive. Then just look for your files and copy them over.
Agreed - see
http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B00BF9MI9G/ref=pd_lpo_sbs_dp_ss_2?pf_rd_p=569136327&pf_rd_s=lpo-top-stripe&pf_rd_t=201&pf_rd_i=B002K00G0W&pf_rd_m=A3P5ROKL5A1OLE&pf_rd_r=0TX02EF5VYHFBN29BY1T
Aha! Sounds like a plan. First I need to get a new computer. Or, I do have a laptop as well. Supposing it has the capacity ( it's 3GB memory and 250GB HDD) I could put it all on there for the time being? Then delete what I don't want (some of it is backed up elsewhere) and transfer the rest over to the new device when I get one.
Thanks for all your ideas and solutions.
You could just take out drive from old machine, and get a usb caddy and transfer to new
machine. Copying it to laptop is good as a backup idea though.
When you start up, do you see a screen showing a key to press to enter BIOS or "setup"? If so, try pressing it to enter the BIOS & see if the time is correct.
Even if it is, it might still be worthwhile putting in a new battery.
http://ccm.net/faq/625-replacing-the-battery-of-your-motherboard-cmos-battery
That's the only other thing which appears.
Will that be a reset to factory ?
Careful you don't overwite your files.
First, do you know how many slots of memory you have? Downloading a small utility called CPU-Z will tell you the number of memory slots used and their size.
To test memory in XP you need to copy the memory checker from Microsoft to a CD and boot from it.
There are no easy answers but if you simply want to take out your hard drive and connect it to a USB on another computer the one I use is from Amazon.
Have tried the cheapest option- replacing the battery. No dice
But reading through this thread something occurs to me.
If the hard drive is corrupted how is removing it and putting it in a caddy going to help?
I'm no expert, but it I think it depends on what exactly is corrupted. If you attach the disk to another computer you might be able to see your files. Even if you can't, you will get further information on the problem. Depending on what this is, you might then be able to run some free recovery software to see if you can get your files back.
If it is the HDD then you will have to do this anyway, as opposed to messing with the current PC.
you could try this then ..
https://security.symantec.com/nbrt/nbrt.aspx
or another bootable recovery tool.
You'll have to check if your PC can boot from usb.
Or see if it can be installed on a CD/DVD instead of usb.
Thanks for this. If it worked that would be great, especially as it's free.
You can download this recovery tool to a CD, which I tried. However it did not complete formatting.
With your PC running this, you will be able to transfer files to your laptop without needing to buy any fancy connectors etc.