From: NauticusLX@comcast.net   
      
   When I initially opened the box I did a little vacuuming and "wet-napping"   
   down of flat surfaces.  I was careful to keep myself grounded (though there   
   IS a lot of static in my place, being on a carpet and all).   The next day   
   when I opened the box again  I noticed some dust on the floor of PC box that   
   might have come off one of the fans, which I hadn't cleaned but which, I   
   noticed, had been dusty.  Should I completely remove the fan module for   
   proper cleaning?  Since I didn't touch any of the memory modules while the   
   box was open I wouldn't have expected this particular side-effect with the   
   RAM (which fortunately isn't a serious problem since that still leaves 256MB   
   working, which apparently is sufficient for all my needs - which raises the   
   point: maybe I should NOT re-open the box and just leave everything as it   
   is.   
      
   Thanks again for your response.   
   Brian   
      
      
   "Rich"  wrote in message   
   news:7g4j12h0e6gql32mr7nipsiad8ln3c8q5j@4ax.com...   
   > On Thu, 16 Mar 2006 03:10:29 -0500, "sirocco"    
   > wrote:   
   >   
   >>Maybe somebody recognizes this problem:  there's 512MB RAM installed on my   
   >>Windows XP, and it shows up in all the usual profiles,and everything is   
   >>working just fine.  But just now I noticed that only 256MB RAM is showing   
   >>up   
   >>in the profile.  I did just install an additional hard drive and optical   
   >>drive, but installation went extremely smoothly and everything works just   
   >>fine.  Some of my RAM may have actually conked out before these installs,   
   >>I   
   >>don't know.  Can a memory module just go bad?   I'm sure I didn't knock a   
   >>memory module loose when I had the PC opened up, but could something else   
   >>have disturbed one of the RAM modules, like static or dust?   
   >>   
   >>thanks in advance for any comments or advice.   
   >>   
   >   
   > yup to all of the above.  you may have stirred up the dust inside the   
   > case when you installed your drives which cab cause problems.  or one   
   > of your memory modules may have had enough and died.   
   >   
   > you might want to solicit other comments and ideas but i would   
   > recommend opening the case, vaccuming out the case OR blowing the dust   
   > out of the case (don't forget to clean the fan blades on the cooling   
   > fans).  then, with the proper anti-static protection, remove and   
   > re-seat your memory modules one at a time.  chances are you'll recover   
   > all of your memory.   
   >   
   > good luck.   
   >   
   > 73,   
   > rich, n9dko   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)