"Error in first 1MB of system memory"- What does this mean?

Question

I have a 2 year old T60, no prior problems. Today, when attempting to start it up (after already running it for a few hours this morning), the screen remained blank and it gave the following series of beep codes- 1 long, 3 short, 4 long, 3 short.
After some research, I have discovered that this beep code means that there is an "error in the first 1MB of system memory". What exactly does that mean, and how serious is it?
Message Edited by jchapm12 on 07-03-2009 01:35 PM
Message Edited by jchapm12 on 07-03-2009 01:36 PM

Answer 1

Hi jchapm12,
Welcome to the Lenovo forum 
I was unable to find your beep code in the T60 Hardware Maintenance Manual. And I don't know exactly what your error code code means, other than what it says. But I'd still recommend booting from the Memtest86+ CD and letting at least 1 complete set of tests complete. For a more complete test, let it run for several passes, or overnight.
In case Memtest finds any errors, then most likely either some of your RAM has gone bad, or the connection between the RAM and its socket in your T60 has become poor. You can try removing and re-inserting the DIMMs to scrape off any surface oxidation that may be giving a bad connection. (See Hardware Maintenance Manual for instructions on adding/removing RAM.) Run Memtest again after any changes to verify that it no longer finds any errors.
RAM errors are serious: even if they don't cause boot problems, they can lead to filesystem errors and thus unpredictable system instabilities and/or data loss.
Good luck and please let us know how it goes...
-Frank
Results of Your Ideal Business-Class Laptop survey, concluded 2009-07-29.
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