Peggy writes in with a troubleshooting question
Q. I have an Acer computer. Ever since I have had it, it crashes. It shows a blue screen and says PFN-List-Corrupt. I don't think I have a memory problem. My modem is from Time Warner and I think that is the problem. I downloaded the latest drivers for it. Somehow the computer thinks I have a Motorola instead of the Atlantic Scientific Web Star Modem. It crashes a lot and keeps getting harder and harder to boot up.
A. If this modem you are referring to is an external DSL or Cable modems then it’s not going to be the problem since it’s not an actual component of the computer. The PFN List Corrupt error usually means that the memory management Page File Number list is corrupted. This can be caused by faulty RAM or even by drivers.
You can test this by taking out some of the RAM assuming you have more than one chip and try running it to see if you get the same blue screen error. You can also try just taking the RAM out and re-seating it in the slots. One trick is to run an eraser along the connector on the RAM to make sure there is no buildup of dirt causing a bad connection. There are memory testing programs available such as memtest that will run diagnostics on your memory as well.
