RAM problem

_X_

I just bought 1gig of RAM(2x512MB). I installed it and I kept getting a black screen when turning on the computer which means a bad stick of RAM. So I tried out different combos using all 4 sticks and It works fine with both new sticks and 1 of the old ones but when I put all 4 in it sits at the black screen. So I just threw the oldest stick into my girlfriends computer and am using the 2 new ones and an old one. I just booted up windows, went to open my email and it reboot on its own. So far it's fine this time but what is causing my computer to act all screwy like this?

_X_

Alright, it seems to me like one of the new sticks is corrupt or something. Right after I made the first post there the computer reboot itself again when trying to open MSN and showed up at a blue memory dump screen. After 2 more reboots it kept doing it again so I took out all except for 1 stick and its fine now I think. I'll just return the 1 stick for a different one tomorrow I guess.

vonPoonBurGer

If you want to be absolutely certain, download memtest86 and burn it to as a bootable CD, or copy it to a bootable floppy. With one stick of RAM in the system, boot from the memtest86 CD or floppy, and let it complete one full pass. Repeat for each stick of RAM. Never have more than one stick at a time in the system, so you can isolate problems to a single stick. The bad stick(s) will be the one(s) that fill the screen with nasty red errors. Return any bad stick(s) still under warranty, trash any stick(s) not under warranty.

If all sticks pass the test, and you've got dual-channel memory, test dual-channel pairs of sticks. If you get errors in dual-channel mode, try disabling dual-channel in the BIOS and retesting. It could be that your pairs are of slightly different timings, and that's screwing up dual-channel mode.