Memory not being "read"

M

MoSpinach

New Member
Hi There.

I'm admittedly not very computer savy, so sorry if these questions I have sound stupid. My stats:

HP Pavilion 525c
2.133 GHz AMD Athlon Processor
512 MB DDR SDRAM memory
80 GB Ultra DMA hard drive
64 MB Nvidia GeForce4 MX graphics

Ok, so I own and love playing Half-Life 2 (especially CS:Source) and World of Warcraft. I live in an apartment with a networked LAN connection (4 of us total) and besides playing these games or whenever one of us is downloading large files, there are rarely connection problems and surfing the net is fast as expected. My question is to try to figure out why the game crashes whenever I play these games. The error message I always get has something to do with my memory not being "read" and it's going to close the application. The graphics card I have is built-in on my motherboard, so I can't replace it I assume. To summarize:
What could be causing my game(s) to crash so frequently?
What can I do about it? (all options welcome that don't invlove hammering my computer...with a hammer)
If is is my nvidia card, is it possible to buy a new video card and install it even if my computer has a built-in card on my motherboard?

If anyone notices anything else or has further suggestions, I welcome them. Thanks.
 
MoSpinach said:
I'm admittedly not very computer savy, so sorry if these questions I have sound stupid.
Click to expand...
We all have to start somewhere:rolleyes:
MoSpinach said:
64 MB Nvidia GeForce4 MX graphics
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Are you sure that it is integrated?
MoSpinach said:
The error message I always get has something to do with my memory not being "read" and it's going to close the application.
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Could you give me an exact message, please?:D
MoSpinach said:
The graphics card I have is built-in on my motherboard, so I can't replace it I assume.
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You assume half-correctly. You cannot replace the integrated video, but you can buy a card.
MoSpinach said:
To summarize:
What could be causing my game(s) to crash so frequently?
Click to expand...
RAM? Video RAM? An exact message would help
MoSpinach said:
What can I do about it?
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Get new RAM or a new video card.
MoSpinach said:
If is is my nvidia card, is it possible to buy a new video card and install it even if my computer has a built-in card on my motherboard?
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Yes, and it doesn't matter whether or not it is nVidia
 
Ok, this is the common message:
The instruction at "0x241769cb" referenced memory at "0x00dd2ed0". The memory could not be "read"
I then have to click OK which closes the program. When I'm playing the game, what always precedes this message is the freezing of the screen and the looping of sound right before it happened. There's no one definite thing in the game I'm doing when it happens either.
Yes, the Nvidia card is integrated.
 
*Merged*

Memory not being read is a common problem and unless you're regularly encountering it than you shouldnt stress too much. That being said, some common causes are:
1. Bad programming
2. A thermally triggered event, usualy memory related either directly via temperature or indirectly via voltage instabilty etc
3. Are these errorrs repeatable?
 
the game is trying to read memory outside of it's allocated stack/heap and windows basically tells it no you this isn't allowed.
 
Praetor said:
*Merged*

Memory not being read is a common problem and unless you're regularly encountering it than you shouldnt stress too much. That being said, some common causes are:
1. Bad programming
2. A thermally triggered event, usualy memory related either directly via temperature or indirectly via voltage instabilty etc
3. Are these errorrs repeatable?
Click to expand...

So what do I do if any of these are the problem, and how do I identify each?
These errors only come up when I'm playing CS:Source (and Half-life 2 though I rarely play that one) and World of Warcraft.
 
how often does it happen? usually there isn't anything you can do. If the problem is your computer and not the games shoddy programming (it's usually the programming) I have heard that slowing your RAM speed down sometimes helps so in the BIOS try slowing the speed of your RAM down 1 step (might be difficult to do on your HP
 
Cromewell said:
how often does it happen? usually there isn't anything you can do. If the problem is your computer and not the games shoddy programming (it's usually the programming) I have heard that slowing your RAM speed down sometimes helps so in the BIOS try slowing the speed of your RAM down 1 step (might be difficult to do on your HP
Click to expand...
Ok, I tried to do that, but I have no clue how. I can get into BIOS, but of course they only use terms that don't make sense to me and all kinds of crazy labels. Hopefully underclocking will fix it, but who knows. The error I still get these days reads exactly as follows:
The instruction at "0x2418c9d5" referenced memory at "0x00dd9530". The memory could not be "read"
those number combos are always the same too. Can someone just tell me what to look for and how to do it? Assume I know nothing about how to do this, cuz I don't. Thanks.
 
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