🚀 go-pugleaf

I am only a very minor hardware guru but to my knowledge a memory parity error
involves a faulty memory chip.  The error msg may give you a code number
which, in consultation with a technical reference manual, will identify the
precise chip at fault.  I have been able to troubleshoot this problem three
times over the past 6 or 7 years, and each time with the help of the code
number I was able to pinpoint the chip in terms of bank & location, and
replace the chip myself, after which the parity error no longer appeared.
However, all these instances were on 8088 machines.  I assume the procedure
would be similar on a 386.

Interestingly, the first time it happened was when I set up NB with a RAM
drive many years ago.  There had never been any indication of a problem before
because previously I had probably not been accessing that particular location.
I've heard it said that standard diagnostics don't always find such bad chips.
 If the testing they do is very brief, and the failure is heat related, the
chip may not warm up sufficiently during the test to fail.  In my experience
even repeated tests don't always show the error but when the parity error msg
appears it should give you the code I referred to above.