Interesting that you got a crash using 10.04 which you said worked
perfectly well before and it was 10.10 that that had the problems, or
was that a typo ??

Also interesting that changing the memory sticks gave *some* sort of
improvement but what does Ubuntu and WinXP say about the memory you
have installed now ?

BTW - did some more reading on the Dimension 2400 and whereas Dell say
that the slots can take up to 512Mb sticks, there are only 2 slots but
in the next paragraph they say maximum RAM is 2Gb, how that's supposed
to work is anybody's guess so there's a muck up somewhere. Also there
are comments about getting 1Gb sticks working or not so there seems to
be some sort of issue going above 512Mb per slot.

I'd be inclined to run with one memory stick at a time and see how it
goes regarding stability - you may find that some modules give lockups
and some don't. If so then memory timing differences may be throwing
Ubuntu into a spin whereas WinXP doesn't drive the memory as hard ?

To throw another item into the mix, the Dimension 2400 was made when
the infamous 'bad capacitor plague' was around so have you checked for
leaking electrolytic capacitors on the board ?

No I tried 10.10 upgrade from 10.04 but reverted to 10.04 because 10.10
did not improve things.

It 10.04 that we have and are talking about now.


XP was happy with the 2gb but 10.04 is not or is it something else.

XP read the 2gb and now reads the 1gb.

10.04

mem Total 495 Used 386 free 109 buffers 15 cache 214

Will try the one stick, am up for any answer now.

Capacitors are I believe OK.

Looks like Ubuntu is only reading one memory stick and not all of it
either !! As well as trying one stick of RAM try using it in each slot
to see if one of them isn't being detected correctly. That might be
the root cause at long last but if it is it's not clear how to go
about sorting it, if it even can be !

You and me have to accept this is an older computer. I get them given to
me. I give the best to deserving causes. Perhaps I will keep a good one
myself next time.

I've been called worse right here on this list so am with you on that.

if the capacitor is bulging on the top or you can see a crack then its faulty

100% Microsoft free zone.

Yes as you say that is one way to tell.

Are the memory contacts clean? If changing memory helped a
little, perhaps the contacts are tarnished. This will cause memory/computer to
act squirrelly.

I have been repairing and building computers for many years so seldom miss out on those tasks.