Errors after upgrading RAM

Hi Guys,

HP Pavilion, 266MHz processor, 32 Meg RAM

Had something weird happen, don't know what to do now, any help would be greatly appreciated.

I installed 128 Meg RAM, and two new printers.
No problem at that point, when restarted Windows found the new hardware and all went as normal until I loaded the Software Cd into the CDRom. The system would not open the CDRom, so figuring something glitched I shut down the computer to reboot.

During boot procedure it went through the normal bios boot then gave me a screen full of error messages and booted to the DOS Crompt and no further. I've checked everything I know to do and I don't see a problem other than the Himem.sys is not present.

I pulled the 128, checked setup, all appeared ok, but error messages persist.

Here are the error codes :

The following file is missing or corrupt : C:\Windows\Himem.sys

There is an error in your Config.sys file at line 6

Windows Expanded Memory Driver Version
Copyright 1988 - 1999 Microsoft Corp v. 4.95

EMM386 not installed

XMS Manager not present

The following file is missing or corrupted : C:\Windows\Himem.sys and C:\Windows\IFSHLP.sys

Warning : The high memory area (HMA) is not available
Low memory (below 640K) will be used

C:\>C:Progra~1\McAfee\viruss~1\scanpm.exe C:\
Bad command or file name

Cannot find Win.com Unable to continue loading Windows


CONFIG.SYS FILE as shown in DOS

Rem to make Dos Boot diskette ; see file C:\Dosboot\Dosboot.txt

dos=high,umb

buffers=40

device=C:\windowshimem.sys\testmemff

device=C:\windows\Emm386.exe

Rem the below DOS CD Rom driver is not required to run Win 95
Rem Device=C:\cdrom\FDataCD.sys/D:IDECD000/C:170,15,376


AUTOEXEC FILE as shown in DOS

C:\>Progra~1\McAfee\Viruss\command
@ IF Error/pause
@ Echo off
Path C;\Windows;C:\Windows\Command
Set buffer=A220 15 D1TZ
Set SNDscape=C:\Windows

Thank you in advance for any help/advice you can give.
Adrian

 

Sorry, did'nt realize the colon would put up smilies!!!

 

Does the BIOS recognize all RAM? Can the MB support that much RAM? It looks like either the hard drive got corrupted (I assume Win95 or maybe 98), or the RAM is bad. What happens if you start up with just the original RAM?

 

Installed RAM and two printers at the same time. Too much at once.

Remove the printers, reinstall the original RAM configuration and start back trying to get the original configuration to work. Next install the RAM and get that working. Then printers , one at a time.

Doing too many things at once makes it hard to pinpoint a problem if one occurs.

Before installing the RAM, be sure it is compatible.

It sounds as if the operating system got hosed. You may need to re-install Windows 98. Just run setup.exe from the installation CD.

Hope this helps.

 

Make sure you have the correct type of RAM. There are several types and installing the wrong type may cause problems. Must match on type (DDRAM, SDDRAM, etc) and bus speed (pc133, etc).
HP does a lot of proprietary stuff. Is the RAM also proprietary? If so, you must buy the RAM from HP.

 

Just my .02. I have a Pavilion also when I tried to upgrade my ram I bought the ram at the big yellow store brought it home installed it and it would not work, uninstalled it exchanged it for another installed that one, it did not work.
Took that one back and went online to Crucial picked out my machine from their list received the ram I put it in and no problems since. When I needed to upgrade my Sons computer I went to Crucial with the same result, no problems.

It seems HP is funny about what Ram you install, everyone of the experts at the store said the ram was the right configuration, but it would not recognize it.

 

Hi Guys,

Let me thank you one and all for the excellent advice, sorry I didn't get back sooner, I was out of town for a couple of days after posting.

I will be working on the computer this weekend and trying all of your suggestions. I'll report back on what takes place.

Thanks again and I wish all of you a great weekend!!!

Regards,
Adrian

 

If this error Msg is on the level you may have to deal with this as well. " Cannot find Win.com Unable to continue loading Windows "

Sometimes you can get lucky & get Win.com back, if not you must reinstall Windows.

Good luck to you.

 

Usually most Himen.sys problems are caused by bad RAM. The RAM checks ok at boot, is written to, but the OS can't read back from it. I've had it happen where files got corrupted because, and had to be reinstalled. HP and Compaq require strange RAM. Sometimes IBM also, but rare in their personal line of computers. Some will only accept single sided modules, some only double sided modules. I know one IMB model I had required gold plated modules. Couldn't use the silver plated ones, although I tried them, and didn't see any problems.

 

Hi Guys,

Thanks again for all the great advice, you guys are fantastic.

Wellllllll....worked on the puter over the weekend and regardless of what I tried there was no going.

SO.....finally, gritted my teeth and used the recovery disc, formatted the drive and started over, lost some files, but nothing really important. All is well now.

Thanks again for all the help,
Adrian