Wizard001
asked on
I need some help badly
hello, i have a little problem, i bought a computer from a company called cyberpower incorporated six months ago, about 2 months after that time i have started having problems with my ram, first it is running considerably slower than since i purchased it and i keep getting "runtime error 216" and all data stops loading into ram i can move the mouse, i just cant open any programs, the computer doesnt freeze but the ram stops working.
So like any other person would do i emailed them with my problem below:hello, i purchaced a computer from you about six months ago, since this time i have been having several problems, first off i belive my ram modules are going out because when i try to load a game i get a runtime error 216 and everything stops loading into ram and i have to restart. I am also having problems with my sound card, it doesnt play mp3's at all and plays sound on games every once and a while. thank you for your time
Brian
they responded with
Hi, Brian, I have read your mail. and the problem you have with the runtime error 216 and also cause your computer freeze. I think you have loading too much game or downloading too much software. I recommend you to remove all the unnecessary game program or file you download from internet. also for playing mp3 no sound. Try to remove sound card driver and reinstall again. If you still having and difficulty, please feel free to call our tech-support from Monday thru Friday 9:00 am - 6:00pm pacific standard time.
Thanks
and i countered with
I dont believe this problem is associated with my trying to load to much of a game considering the problem happened on startup too.. also the game fit the specifications of the computer and i have tryed the game on another system with 64 megabytes of ram but a 200 mhz processor and it worked fine.. this computer with a 433mhz processor and 64mb of ram should work just fine too. also if i had to much information for the ram to hold i wouldnt get a runtime error 216 i would get insufficiant memory to run this program, a program overloading my ram should not make the whole computer stop loading anything into ram, the computer itself is not frozen just the ram is not working what so ever. My hard drive doesnt have very much information, i still have 8 gb left out of 10gb meaning i have only used one gig considering windows98 and all its little extras are around a gig.. i dont believe this problem should have anything to do with the hard drive anyway, it obviously has sufficiant swap space.
I will try removing the soundcard drivers and reinstalling them.
i would try calling tech support but when this problem started happening six months ago i called every day for a month from 2pm-6pm and only got ahold of a tech support member once, he told me to call him back and i never got ahold of him again.
SIR, TRY DISABLING ALL OF YOUR STARTUP PROGRAMS BY GOING TO "START", THEN
"RUN", THEN TYPING IN "MSCONFIG". THIS WILL THEN TAKE YOU TO THE SYSTEM
CONFIGURATION UTILITY. FROM THERE, YOU CAN THEN DISABLE THE STARTUP
PROGRAMS. ALSO, DISABLE ANY VIRUS SCAN AND ANY PROGRAMS RUNNING IN THE
BACKGROUND AND TRY SETTING THE RESOLUTION TO 800X600 AT 16BIT COLORS. IF
THIS DOESN'T FIX THE PROBLEM, TRY CONTACTING THE MANUFACTURE OF THESE GAMES
TO SEE IF THERE ARE ANY FIXES OR PATCHES. IF YOU ARE STILL HAVING THE SAME
PROBLEM AFTER TRYING ALL OF THESE THINGS, YOU WANT TO CONSIDER FORMATTING
YOUR HARDDRIVE AND REINSTALLING WINDOWS BECAUSE YOU MAY OF CONFLICTING
SOFTWARE, CORRUPPTED FILES, OR MISSING FILES.
they are obviously getting a little aggitated.. i want to know a way to prove to them that this is a ram failure because i dont think it resides within the software i have had two friends that do tech support for respectable companys look at it and they seem to think the same thing is wrong.. anyone have any answers to what i can do?
So like any other person would do i emailed them with my problem below:hello, i purchaced a computer from you about six months ago, since this time i have been having several problems, first off i belive my ram modules are going out because when i try to load a game i get a runtime error 216 and everything stops loading into ram and i have to restart. I am also having problems with my sound card, it doesnt play mp3's at all and plays sound on games every once and a while. thank you for your time
Brian
they responded with
Hi, Brian, I have read your mail. and the problem you have with the runtime error 216 and also cause your computer freeze. I think you have loading too much game or downloading too much software. I recommend you to remove all the unnecessary game program or file you download from internet. also for playing mp3 no sound. Try to remove sound card driver and reinstall again. If you still having and difficulty, please feel free to call our tech-support from Monday thru Friday 9:00 am - 6:00pm pacific standard time.
Thanks
and i countered with
I dont believe this problem is associated with my trying to load to much of a game considering the problem happened on startup too.. also the game fit the specifications of the computer and i have tryed the game on another system with 64 megabytes of ram but a 200 mhz processor and it worked fine.. this computer with a 433mhz processor and 64mb of ram should work just fine too. also if i had to much information for the ram to hold i wouldnt get a runtime error 216 i would get insufficiant memory to run this program, a program overloading my ram should not make the whole computer stop loading anything into ram, the computer itself is not frozen just the ram is not working what so ever. My hard drive doesnt have very much information, i still have 8 gb left out of 10gb meaning i have only used one gig considering windows98 and all its little extras are around a gig.. i dont believe this problem should have anything to do with the hard drive anyway, it obviously has sufficiant swap space.
I will try removing the soundcard drivers and reinstalling them.
i would try calling tech support but when this problem started happening six months ago i called every day for a month from 2pm-6pm and only got ahold of a tech support member once, he told me to call him back and i never got ahold of him again.
SIR, TRY DISABLING ALL OF YOUR STARTUP PROGRAMS BY GOING TO "START", THEN
"RUN", THEN TYPING IN "MSCONFIG". THIS WILL THEN TAKE YOU TO THE SYSTEM
CONFIGURATION UTILITY. FROM THERE, YOU CAN THEN DISABLE THE STARTUP
PROGRAMS. ALSO, DISABLE ANY VIRUS SCAN AND ANY PROGRAMS RUNNING IN THE
BACKGROUND AND TRY SETTING THE RESOLUTION TO 800X600 AT 16BIT COLORS. IF
THIS DOESN'T FIX THE PROBLEM, TRY CONTACTING THE MANUFACTURE OF THESE GAMES
TO SEE IF THERE ARE ANY FIXES OR PATCHES. IF YOU ARE STILL HAVING THE SAME
PROBLEM AFTER TRYING ALL OF THESE THINGS, YOU WANT TO CONSIDER FORMATTING
YOUR HARDDRIVE AND REINSTALLING WINDOWS BECAUSE YOU MAY OF CONFLICTING
SOFTWARE, CORRUPPTED FILES, OR MISSING FILES.
they are obviously getting a little aggitated.. i want to know a way to prove to them that this is a ram failure because i dont think it resides within the software i have had two friends that do tech support for respectable companys look at it and they seem to think the same thing is wrong.. anyone have any answers to what i can do?
barrow some ram from someone and install to see if ram truly cause your prob as you are finding out tech support usually a joke also go to windows update and make sure you have ALL the criticle updates installed advise of your progress after these and with a little more info should be able to help you out
ASKER
lol i knew tech support was a joke =0) i just want new ram or a motherboard whichever will make the system run.. when i called them they seemed like they were going to do everything in thier power to not send me a new chip.. i hope they just go against thier warranty and ill be happy to send it back to the credit card company and let me buy a new computer.. thanks for the comment and im headed to the microsoft page now
If they want prrof, then very simple.
I hope your drive has at least 2 partitons.
I would copy the roo directory of to a backup dir , say c:\back1
this should include all the hidden files in the root of c:\, including msdos.sys
Next install win9x onto the D: drive, you normally have an option during install to put it in a non-standard location.
choose d:\windows.
After installation, see if the problem occurs with a bare system.
If it does, you have proof. If not, then maybe it is somrthing you installed.
To get back to the original install on C:, copy the back1 dir to C:\, overwriting as necessary.
I hope this helps.
If you do not have 2 partitons, see
http://www.users.intercom.com/~ranish/part/
Ranish partiton manager.
For some general info, and a partitioning program that may be useful.
It allows multiple operating systems on up to 31 partitons and can hide partitons or boot from any hard disk or primary partiton.
I hope this helps.
I hope your drive has at least 2 partitons.
I would copy the roo directory of to a backup dir , say c:\back1
this should include all the hidden files in the root of c:\, including msdos.sys
Next install win9x onto the D: drive, you normally have an option during install to put it in a non-standard location.
choose d:\windows.
After installation, see if the problem occurs with a bare system.
If it does, you have proof. If not, then maybe it is somrthing you installed.
To get back to the original install on C:, copy the back1 dir to C:\, overwriting as necessary.
I hope this helps.
If you do not have 2 partitons, see
http://www.users.intercom.com/~ranish/part/
Ranish partiton manager.
For some general info, and a partitioning program that may be useful.
It allows multiple operating systems on up to 31 partitons and can hide partitons or boot from any hard disk or primary partiton.
I hope this helps.
ASKER
great idea.. i have partition magic from installing linux into computers.. im going to go try it right now.. thank you
Wiz,
I can understand that you think the tech people are being patronizing but remember that win9x isn't too bright, really, and the tech people are right that loading too much software at once, even if there is still more ram, can overload it. Just to humor them, try their suggestions about removing all resident programs and see what happens.
What game, and is it only crashing on that one game?
I wish MS could be bothered to supply a list of runtime errors and what they mean, but I've never found such and so questions like yours are really hard to diagnose...
Also, if the sound card works at least part of the time, that suggests a driver problem, not a physical problem. I know you say you uninstalled and reinstalled the sound card drivers, but try to find a newer or at least different version and see if that helps. Intermittant sound card locking is also indicative of an i/o address or irq conflict that isn't quite serious enough to prevent it from completely working. Again, hard to track down... Sound cards and modems and printers all like the same irq's so just check the settings for all of those in the devices manager.
regards,
magarity
I can understand that you think the tech people are being patronizing but remember that win9x isn't too bright, really, and the tech people are right that loading too much software at once, even if there is still more ram, can overload it. Just to humor them, try their suggestions about removing all resident programs and see what happens.
What game, and is it only crashing on that one game?
I wish MS could be bothered to supply a list of runtime errors and what they mean, but I've never found such and so questions like yours are really hard to diagnose...
Also, if the sound card works at least part of the time, that suggests a driver problem, not a physical problem. I know you say you uninstalled and reinstalled the sound card drivers, but try to find a newer or at least different version and see if that helps. Intermittant sound card locking is also indicative of an i/o address or irq conflict that isn't quite serious enough to prevent it from completely working. Again, hard to track down... Sound cards and modems and printers all like the same irq's so just check the settings for all of those in the devices manager.
regards,
magarity
ASKER
magarity,
thank you for replying, see the reason im arguing with the tech support people is because i opened up my box and took out the chip and put it into a different slot.. now i get the error every once and a while.. and its completely out of the blue.. the computer will be just sitting there and boom runtime error 216. age of empires and rainbow six are the only two games that i have tryed and they dont give me the error i just get dumped back into my desktop.
i looked at microsofts runtime error page kindly supplied by a responder and it said that the problem was from a smart wheel program for a mouse.. but i dont have a wheel mouse.
im starting to lean toward just reformatting the hd because i have another computer that is networked to it so i may just put all the files that i need in that other one and go at it.
thank you for replying, see the reason im arguing with the tech support people is because i opened up my box and took out the chip and put it into a different slot.. now i get the error every once and a while.. and its completely out of the blue.. the computer will be just sitting there and boom runtime error 216. age of empires and rainbow six are the only two games that i have tryed and they dont give me the error i just get dumped back into my desktop.
i looked at microsofts runtime error page kindly supplied by a responder and it said that the problem was from a smart wheel program for a mouse.. but i dont have a wheel mouse.
im starting to lean toward just reformatting the hd because i have another computer that is networked to it so i may just put all the files that i need in that other one and go at it.
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Just verify that you don't have a Virus in your system. I have come across random Runtime 216 errors that were due to viruses.
Good luck!
Good luck!