How To: Diagnose Faulty RAM

[One4yu2c]

Diagnosing system failures and quirky behavior can be a crap shoot, as the same symptoms can point to any number of culprits. But unless you have reason to believe a specific component is at fault, most troubleshooting quests usually start with the RAM.

Telltale Signs
If you've recently started experiencing those dreaded blue screens of death (BSoD), then the first question most techs and forum gurus will ask is, "Have you checked your RAM?," and with good reason. Bad RAM is usually associated with the PFN_LIST_CORRUPT and PAGE_FAULT_IN_NONPAGED_AREA errors, but it's not exclusive to just these two. Other warning signs include system stalls, reboots, and generally abnormal behavior.

Read More and Digg It!...

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On a side note, this is my last analytical and/or informative blog entry for Maximum PC. Starting in September, I'll be posting daily news updates from around the web with capsule summaries and appropriate linkage. I'll also continue to contribute to the magazine on occasion, including November's cover story, but no more of the types of blogs I've linked to in the past few months.

And also on a related note, look for similar Editorial type content on HardwareLogic by both Rich and myself in the coming months. It's something we've planned on doing at HL since the beginning, but wanted to establish the site first, as well as build up a full time (and reliable) staff. I think we've succeeded in the former, and we're just about there with the latter. So coming soon, in addition to our usual content, be on the lookout for rants, industry analysis, and general commentary on what's shakin' in Silicon Valley.

[halutzparilla]

its very worth reading to the last word... reminds me of my old WinME in my college... BSoD, wow how terrifying...

i had bad experience with RAM behaving badly...

[duckingzebra]

i couldn't get memtest to work, it opened easy cd creator...

[Telexen]

Originally Posted by duckingzebra

i couldn't get memtest to work, it opened easy cd creator...

It's a CD Image...you burn it to a CD, then boot to it ;)

[duckingzebra]

Originally Posted by Telexen

It's a CD Image...you burn it to a CD, then boot to it ;)

ya but then it says no supported cd recorders available...

[One4yu2c]

Originally Posted by duckingzebra

ya but then it says no supported cd recorders available...

Do you have a CD or DVD burner (not just a reader) installed? If not (or if you still can't get it work), have Rich burn you a copy next time you're over there.

[duckingzebra]

Originally Posted by One4yu2c

Do you have a CD or DVD burner (not just a reader) installed? If not (or if you still can't get it work), have Rich burn you a copy next time you're over there.

ya its a cd/dvd burner, idk why roxio wont recognize it...

edit:ok i got another program to work, so now i restart my computer with the disc and the full amount of ram in?

[One4yu2c]

Yes, and if it finds errors, test one stick at a time to see which one is defective.

[halutzparilla]

Well idk if i would try to test my other set of PC2 9200 2GB, everytime i pair those dual RAm with my current DDR2 800 it causes me problem... but if its just my DDR2 800 sticks it works perfect... oh well...

[duckingzebra]

ok so i got errors, but i don't think that its the memory or the slots, because i have ran both sticks, one at a time, and in both slots, one at a time, and the comp works fine.