Can't boot, black screen, "Safe mode" stuck at agp440.sys driver

[Norika]

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Hi, I’m using Dell Inspiron 8600 Laptop running on Win XP Professional with SP2. It has all recent Windows updates. I’m facing a problem since past 6 months which my webcam software also clashes with one of video games installed and hence I always need to re-install them to make them work for next two weeks. Now, since past 2 days my laptop is stuck on black screen. It wont just boot.

When I try to enter Safe mode, it gets stuck at agp440.sys driver. I tried booting with ‘last good configuration’ from the boot menu but that dint worked, neither the instructions provided at http://support.microsoft.com/kb/324764. Can anybody please tell me what is the problem?

[rmkmonk]

Without doubt this is a hardware problem, and you know what, it's that most forgotten piece of hardware - the memory! I had excatly this problem, and only after I NOTICED THAT THE bios WAS POSTING AN INCORRECT memory size did I remove two 512mb chips (I already had 2 other 1 gb chips) and hey presto, not only did everything work, but is has never run so fast!

I think what must be happening is that AGP440.sys must be loaded into a part of the memory which has failed, so there it hangs.

Another point, my sister had a Dell with the same problem, and it was down to the extremely cheap (sorry Dell, but it is true) memory chips Dell uses in their home computers!