Bad Memory?

Problem: The user reported a memory error at startup. The text of the message was: Instruction at 0x00143A24 referenced memory at 0x000000C7. The memory could not be written. Without any indepth analysis we assumed it was a hardware problem and ordered new memory. When the new memory was installed we got the same error.

Solution: A little internet research showed that this is typically an application error. When I produced the error message again I looked at the title bar of the message, which read: ibmpmsvc.exe - application error. (oops!). This is the IBM Power Management Service. The problem machine is a laptop with no battery; the user always runs with the A/C adapter, so there is no need to use the power management functions. I set the Power Management Service to Manual to circumvent the problem. I know this is not a solid fix for most cases, but it gets around to problem for machines that can live without power management.