Symptoms of a RAM Problem

1. You turn on your computer and it runs fine. You go about your normal tasks and notice that your computer performance decreases. By lunch time the load times of a typical website seem to be measured in minutes. Does the problem occur not just with internet websites, but also with running local programs? This type of gradual deterioration of PC performance, especially with memory intensive programs, may be caused by a RAM problem.

2. Does your computer restart randomly when you are in the middle of something? Your computer may just have booted and begins to load your desktop and then immediately reboots. It may freeze up sporadically. This could be a sign of faulty RAM.

3. Your screen flashes a blue screen with white text before restarting. Blue Screen errors can be one of the most annoying things to happen to your computer because you don't have a chance to read the error message. Many things can cause this problem and bad memory is one of them.

4. Have you found that files are randomly corrupted? This may happen with files that you frequently access and save. RAM issues can cause this problem or worse. The file structure of your hard drive may slowly go downhill and become unbootable.

5. Your attempts to install a new program repeatedly fail for an unknown reason. Could be a RAM problem. You try to reinstall the operating system, but keep getting odd error messages. If this follows number four above, it is almost a sure sign of bad memory.