Memory is GONE!!!

[kwagner_51]

I shut down my pc about 4 hrs. ago, to go to my son's baseball game. There were storms in the area, so I unplugged the pc and the modem.

When I came home, I turned everything back on and went from 288,000 to 32,000 RAM!!! :mad: I don't have a clue as to what happened and am hoping that you can HELP me before I kill this blasted machine!!!

Thanks for your help!!

[classicsoftware]

You have a modem? and it was un-plugged? Lightning or power fluctuations, they can travel through the phone line and into your computer. Possible, but not likely.

Open the case, blow out the dust, remove and re-seat the memory chips and re-boot.

By the way post more detailed specs on your system.

[kwagner_51]

I went to the help files on 98SE and unclicked the "Process System.ini file"

Rebooted and now I have my memory back BUT the desktop is now in 16 bit color and the res is set to 640x480

Actually, I hace a cable modem. I ALWAYS shut down when it storms.

Win 98 SE
288 RAM
Adm 6

CAble internet
Have run all spy-bot, PC Pitstop, Ad Aware, Hijack This, etc. I am stumped.

Any ideas?

Thanks!!

[kwagner_51]

Everything is back to normal. I have no clue as to what I did!!!

Other that what I posted above.

Anybody have any ideas as to why it would do this?

Something in windows knowledge base maybe?

Thanks!!

[Paleo Pete]

Could be several things, most likely one of those strange things Windows decides to do now and then. My best guess is a bad connection. Lightning is closer to static electricity by far than the type that you plug your toaster into, it can jump a lot further and is many times more powerful. It can do some really strange things. If lightning did manage to find its way into the house it could have traveled by any of a number of paths to get into the electronics in a minor way, but not enough to actually damage equipment. That could cause really strange results with RAM, hard drives etc.

Just guessing, but when you disabled system.ini it probably stopped the video drivers from loading. That's why it was only 16 colors. Any time video drivers are disabled for some reason it defaults back to 16 colors.

[classicsoftware]

Dear K:

Instead of worrying about unplugging things I would get a good UPS by APC. The only time I shut my system down is when I go on vacation.

Glad you solved your problem.