How to verify that your computer's RAM is working fine

Well .. just recently I've been plagued with a series of Blue Screen of Death (BSOD) and it was very very inconsistent, as some days it would work well .. then some days I can't even start the computer and have to wait before restarting and upon boot, another BSOD.

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How do you identify that its the RAM ?

When you have a BSOD, its normally relatable to soo many things like a driver which is causing it or even a software which you've just installed. How do you narrow this down to the RAM ? These are just a few key indicators which you may look out for :-

• BSOD appears are very inconsistent and not when you are only running a certain program
• The Stop Code consistently change and if you google up the stop code it always shows as something else
• Your PC seems to be much slower then its suppose to be

How to further verify it ?

Here are ways to do a proper check on your RAM. Even windows have a built in tool which you can check on it.

• You can use the built in Windows Memory Diagnostic, just goto your search and type out Windows Memory Diagnostic. Then click open you would see a screen as below.

You then need to restart your computer and it would reboot and do a full memory diagnostic on your RAM. However once its done, it would automatically just restart your computer. If you do have a problem, you will see the status.

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• So thats one way to check however its not detailed enough and I do recommend this tool which I found and its free to use. However to get started into using it, you would need to have a USB Drive with about 2GB . What this tool does is that it would format your USB Drive and create a bootable USB.

This tool is called Memtest86 ( https://www.memtest86.com/ )

You just need to download the tool, and using the installer it would create your installation on your USB Drive. It would format and delete everything in it, so make sure you use a USB Drive which does not have a lot of important data on it.

Once you boot up with the USB Drive, you can just click START and it would run a full diagnostic on your RAM to ensure all areas are tested.

If you have errors, it would look like the image above. I really hope that you don't get this as you would then need to buy new RAM chips and also go thru the hassle of opening up your machine to do the replacement. If you are using a PC then its not too bad however if you are using a laptop .. you may need to get a T5 screw driver set so you can open up your laptop.

Oh well .. i guess there is a first time for everyone, for me I'm just glad that I was able to identify the problem and it was easy enough to replace the hardware. So next time your Windows does a BSOD and its very inconsistent in the stopcode do try doing these diagnostics. It would save you a lot of time with the proper tools.

Cheers and have a great day !