I recently discovered a bad stick of PC133 128Mb after weeks of chasing what appeared to be a software/viral infection. The P3/500 machine running winME would hang up at wallpaper but not give a taskbar or icons- most of the time. It would occasionally boot successfully and I'd get to try something else. Even Safe mode is a 1/20 shot for successful booting.

So I ran a memory check and found one of the two 128Mb sticks bad. I pulled it out and expected !Viola! but instead had the exact same symptom- no boot.

The machine had been running great for years and slowly got buggier.
Can failing memory screw up the ME OS?
If so, Is there a fix?

Hi and welcome to PCHF

Just to be on the safe side, did you also run a memory check after you removed the RAM?

In a word,Yes.
I was actually quite methodical for me: just 2 slots available, 2 sticks@128Mb

Ran test on both installed (as was), failedmultiple times in a minute or less
Pulled a stick (coin toss) I now call stick "A" from slot 2
Stick B running alone in slot 1 still failed (@00008041c3c0 or such: loc'n only differed by 1 digit) in a minute or less
Pulled stick B (for BAD) and put stick A in slot 1.
Passed test for 5minutes
Put stick B in slot 2 (for the heck of it?)
Failed test
Pulled stick B again now known and proven bad in 2 slots- i.e
RAN TEST OVERNITE 7.5 hr w/o any fails.

So we're saying that stick "B" is the good one huh?

For a start your ME installation will slow dramatically with half of the RAM installed. In addition, do you carry out routine maintenance - defrag, hard drive scans etc? I would suggest that you need to buy a new stick of RAM - go for a 512mb module. Also, carry out all of the maintenance you can think of.

EXTRA: Follow the Pre-Work link in my signature and post the 2 resulting logs back here as attachments and we'll let our Security Team have a look at those for you.

Actually, no, my mouse ghost screwed up and SENT MY REPLY JUST BEFORE I TYPED:
"e.e. B IS FOR BOAT ANCHOR
Pulled stick B & labeled it bad in both slots
Ran A alone on memtest for 7.5 hr with no errors"

I've confused things enough...Good thing I don't have more slots, huh?

Regarding new sticks- my y2k mobo can only handle 256Mb according to specs.
So would you suggest I buy another 128Mb/PC100 or just go with a solo 256Mb?
(Function over price of course!)

Regarding Security team: Joe5 already asked for my HJT log on a parallel post in PCHF winME forum. So I thank you kindly for your offer but assume you would've sent it to Joe & co anyway. I imagine its considered selfish to double post the same problem... but I really have two:
1. my weeks old battle with win ME and flaky booting and apparent infections
and then memtest-86 found the bad RAM stick:
2. a more recent interest in how windows could even run with repeatably bad memory and how this new learning may steer my path on the windows side of things: a memory specific view of how or if Windows gets screwed up by bad memory chips.

I hope you understand, because I REALLY appreciate your help here at PCHF!

Call it done. My question was answered by the computer...!
Once 'Rockin' Joe5 pointed me the way to get rid of the Vundovirus, the pearly gates opened wide, etc. The machine is working great on half memory- but I'll get that back soon enough. Apparently:
1. Windows can somehow overcome a failing memory stick & run some...
and
2. Bad memory doesn't kill OS software, viruses do!
VIRUS WRITERS NEED A FREAKIN" LIFE!!!!!