morning everyone,

i've been having some problems with my dvd writer and some possible problems with a stick of RAM in my notebook, i figured i'd just make one thread here to try and reduce the clutter.

RAM first, so i don't forget about it. ordered a 512M Transcend stick for my thinkpad a week ago. since i put it in, i've noticed some random weirdness that i'm concerned might be caused by the new memory (though it could just be me seeing problems where there aren't). things have happened like xmms hanging randomly for over a minute when i push play, or mplayer responding retardedly slow to commands (15 secs+). does this sound like memory to anyone? is there a linux app/script available to test memory?

the other issue is my dvd burner, which seems to be burning coasters almost every time. it's a toshiba 16x drive that i have in an external usb2 case. whenever i try to burn a dvd it burns some minimal amount and then errs out with a incompatable/incorrect media error. i've tried burning on my desktop and laptop and i get the same error almost every time i burn a disc. i also gave in and tried nero on windows, and got a similar error. under linux i'm using k3b. i suppose it could be bad discs, but i don't understand why the first half of the spindle would work flawlessly and then suddenly none work.

i'd appreciate any thoughts anyone has on these issues.

tom

Regaring the memory, check out memtest86 http://www.memtest86.com/, that should help you determine if your RAM is OK or not.
I'm not sure about the DVD-RW, but it does sound like maybe it has a hardware problem if you tried it on several computers with the same result.