Hello, in the last week, I receive this message when I start my Dell Inspiron 600m laptop:

Amount of memory decreasing

The computer then hangs. If I push the on button again, I receive the following message at startup:

Memory write/read failure at ... read ...expecting ...
Memory address line failure at ... read... expecting...
Memory write/read failure at ... read... expecting...
Decreasing available memory
Strike F1 key to continue F2 key to run setup utility

The ... are things like IFFE0008, FEIIFEI0 and they change each time I reboot the computer.

I hit F1 and the memory is still listed as 256 which is what it should be. However, the computer is running very very slow. I have been working through the Dell help with this and it hasn't been helpful so far.

To be on the safe side, I'm doing the prework to see if I have some sort of virus or spyware, but it is taking days (because I can only do it at night and because it's so slow).

My questions. Is it likely a hardware problem or software (or virus) or could it even be both? I'm trying to be strategic here because if it's hardware, a virus is probably not going to matter so much.

And, what should I do next?

Thanks!

Heya and welcome to PCHF

I suggest you try resetting the BIOS, hit F1 to enter setup and select "load default" or "factory settings" and Save&Exit, see if that fixes it

Other then that it sounds like your RAM's going down the toilet

I'm inclined to agree. I reset the BIOS--no luck. I removed one of my 256 DIMM cards and it was worse than before. Then I swapped it with the other one and it's running better. But still slower than my desktop which is a slower computer with less RAM.

The search continues. Thanks for your help.

Steph