I am using a IBM think pad 600. Running on win Xp professional,300mhz processor, 194mb RAM and 40gb(HrdDisk mem). I have been having problems with my Ram memory of late. On starting up, my RAM goes to 160MB instead of 194MB. I then have to reset the memory chips or interchange them. I ran a diagnosis in BIOS and got a device error on the system board. The problem was solved automatically, but now it has resumed. What could be the problem? Please Help... DAVE SUJEET

How many sticks of RAM do you have? Can you remove one and see if you lose the configuration again after correct to the new ammount.

Two possibilities I can quickly come up with are either your Batter for the Configuration information is failing (not likely) or you have a failing memory chip on your memory sticks.

Well,my initial RAM size was 194MB. Suddenly it went to 64MB. I removed the memory chips and re-inserted them back (I have 2 sticks). The RAM came back to normal, then went back again to 64MB. I then interchanged the chips and now the RAM has gone to 164MB. This is now something permanent. I ran a test in BIOS and got a device error on the system board. So what's next?

Sounds like you've got a faulty 128Mb memory module. Although your numbers don't quite tally up with what I would expect, here are the standard memory sizes that are available in any PC or laptop:

64Mb: One 64Mb module
128Mb: One 128Mb module
160Mb: One 128Mb module + one 32Mb module
192Mb: One 128Mb module + one 64Mb module (or one 128Mb + a pair of 32Mb modules).

Some older laptops (around the Pentium / Pentium II era when your IBM was made) did seem to bump up the RAM by a couple of megabytes, probably due to some additional memory built into the motherboard. That was a long time ago though and no modern systems show this quirk.

Try and download a thorough memory / component testing program. I would recommend trying to get hold of a trial or demo of SiSoft SANDRA. This used to be available from the SiSoft web site (www.sisoft.com) but, if it's not there any more, you can probably still find it on www.download.com. Run the diagnostics and see what is reported - it might take several hours to do an intensive, repeated test on the memory so you may want to run it overnight.

Let us know how you get on but, like I said, it sounds to me like you have a faulty 128Mb module that needs replacing. At least, I'm hoping that's what it is - otherwise, it would appear to be a faulty motherboard, which probably means it's time to sell it on Ebay for parts and for you to buy a new laptop - laptop motherboards are extremely costly to replace, especially for one as old as that as any company that is still holding your motherboard in stock will be charging the equivalent of just slightly more than its weight in gold

If you do need new memory, consider buying more than you've already got as that will give you improved performance with Windows XP. I'd recommend using www.crucial.com for memory.