Bad Ram?: Help Diagnoising PC Issues

[Gwynplaine]

Issue:
I've had PC issues in the past and after giving it some thought and putting things together I think that a recent issue has actually been the same issue I've had since I've had the PC. To get to the point, my best theory right now is that something has gone bad with my RAM. I'd just like any feedback or suggestions on my opinion before I go out and buy new RAM.

Context:
So last month I began encountering sudden BSOD crashes often. At the same time I had run a virus check and removed a trojan, so I assumed they were related. I reinstalled windows 7 ultimate 64 bit to ensure things were ok. However it turned out I continued to have erratic BSOD crashes, and it was apparent that something was simply not right. Processes would run slow, video would occasionally bleed and blur and smear with artifacts, borders of windows and programs would look broken and wrong. Things like that.

HD and OS:
I replaced my HD about 3 months ago and got a brand new one so to be sure it wasn't an HD issue I hooked up my other backup HD and ran my brand new install of win7 on that. I also experienced BSOD on the essentially blank backup HD. So that makes me confident that it's not an HD issue OR an OS issue. Having both a brand new install and BSOD on both a new HD and another unused HD. And neither was it any virus or trojan I would have had.

Now I began to realize that I've had nearly this same exact issue since I've had this PC. Only it is very erratic, I will get bad frequent BSOD issues for about a week. Then it mysteriously stops and things stabilize for 2 or 3 months until it happens again.

RAM:
Thinking of what the problem could be I remembered the last time the problem happened I investigated my RAM and found the 2nd slot was not reading my 2nd ram stick at all. After switching RAM around to test I found only that specific RAM slot wouldn't read any memory stick I tried and concluded the slot was damaged or bad. I removed the RAM from the slot since it was useless and hoping it cleared up crashes.

I can't be sure it had any effect but my crashes subsided until my most recent round. So what I'm thinking is that the single stick of 2GB RAM I left in may now have gone bad and is causing the issues.

To support this I did checks on all my crash dumps in Windbg. I am not hugely technical so I can't make a whole lot of those results, but the vast majority relate to ntoskrnl.exe and memory corruption.

Bug check strings include: "IRQL not less or equal", "bad pool header", "memory management", "ntfs file system", "system service exception", "page fault in nonpaged area", "unexpected kernal mode trap", "attempted write to read only memory".

To further support this the suspect RAM is the same RAM I've used since I've had the PC. And my BSOD crashes typically happened when I was doing memory intense things like gaming, watching high res vids, or editing etc.

Running the Windows Memory Diagnostic check on both of the different 2GB sticks of RAM I've had around gave results saying there were hardware issues. Testing the diagnostic on a spare 1GB of RAM I had resulted in a no hardware issues message. So everything seems to point to the fact both 2GB sticks are bad. I even ran my pc on the test passed stick of 1GB RAM for a while and for the duration encountered no BSOD.

Conclusion:
So basically, any thoughts? Am I right to have my RAM as my first suspect? I'm going to go out and buy a new stick asap. If for some reason it doesn't fix the crashes my second suspect would be something wrong with the MOBO/memory slots.

Originally I had thought that RAM either just worked or it didn't start your PC at all and I still don't understand what makes RAM corrupted or go bad. Does it just happen over use or pushing it too far? Thanks for any replies or reading this huge post.

[hey]

Run memtest86.

If both sticks fail, you can try them in a different computer to see if it's the mobo, since you mentioned the second slot failed entirely, it is certainly possible that the first slot is starting to fail as well.

[Apelila]

What's the power supply rating? I replaced a video card this year and started to encounter similar errors - BSOD's, freezes, all the error's generated being 'random' (never the same) and it happened mostly when I would kick the PC to work more.

Power supply was underrated for my system by about 20 watts. So it would boot, and very often not have any problems for a week then bam! Lockup's galore. I thought the same thing too at first, that I didn't have enough RAM. I suspected the PSU because the computer itself wouldn't lock up (num lock light would respond for 30+ sec after) and usually changing a component doesn't make RAM that's worked flawlessly for 3 years suddenly go (derp)³.

[Gwynplaine]

If I'm looking at the right statistic, the number on the power supply says 650 watts. It's a bloody huge Corsair power supply.

[Apelila]

http://extreme.outervision.com/psucalculatorlite.jsp

Throw in everything you have in your computer, see what the result is. I slightly doubt your underpowered with a 650 watt, but I didn't think a 500 watt would be to low either.

[Gwynplaine]

Thanks for those suggestions. I'm trying to plug in my PC info to that wattage calculator but I'm having some trouble figuring out some of the stats.
I've bought new RAM though and it passed the memory diagnostic test with no issues so not much to do now but wait and see if I get BSOD crashes.

[Gwynplaine]

Everything's okay so far but how can I make sure that the power or voltage and ram settings or whatever are all set properly? I saw it mentioned on some other sites.

[Apelila]

those settings will be in the Bios

[Gwynplaine]

Right. So like when I installed it a preload prompt came up and i told it to load default settings. But is that adequate? Do I need to adjust hertz or timing or something to ensure my shit is set right and won't fry with heavy use?

[hey]

Default settings should be fine.

[Gwynplaine]

Well everything seems good so far, no BSOD at least. The only oddity is that every single time I restart the prompt before startup asks me to load RAM default settings. And also occasionally the CMOS will just reset on its own like every two times I restart. I guess it could be the CMOS battery is dying, but I feel it's unlikely because it only has ever happened now immediately after I put the new RAM in. Seems like a significant coincidence. Are these related?

[hey]

it only has ever happened now immediately after I put the new RAM in.

Probably not a coincidence, but i have no idea how to solve it, or if it even matters beyond being an annoyance.

[Gwynplaine]

Yeah that's one of my thoughts as well. It's just I'm so paranoid at this point I feel unsure of anything I don't know. Like is my voltage weird and slowly destroying my parts or what lol I can't tell. For now at least things are running great haven't BSOD at all.

[hey]

I'd probably just ignore it myself, but again, i really have no idea, so don't get mad at me if it happens to be

slowly destroying my parts