I would like to know if RAM can get corrupt over time. I had installed a gig of RAM about a month ago, and it was working fine. Then, I started getting blue screens every once in a while. This didn't worry me too much until (I had thought it was an overheating problem, since its really hot these days) I started getting blank blue screens more and more often. I then took off the side of my case to confirm it was indeed overheating...not the case... it still shut down. Yesterday I ran a memtest that reported around 30+ errors before I stopped the test. My memory was working fine when I first got it, now it is trashed. Now, my question is whether RAM can get worse over time. Thanks

Not necessarily corrupt, RAM is cleared every time you boot. But is can fail which looks like what has happened here. Try taking out the RAM stick, cleaning the contacts with a lint free cloth and a dab of denatured alcohol - only handling the RAM stick by the edges, and re-inserting it. Time has little to do with it as I am still using RAM that is ever ten years old. Stuart

Sure it can. It doesn't happen very often, but anything can fail at any time, from RAM to your power supply. Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day; Teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime; Then industry pollutes the water and kills all the fish.

As Memtest86 tells you, other things can cause the ram to fail. These include PSU, CPU and motherboard. The memory is a month old. This is the usual timeframe in which electronic components are likely to fail if there is a manufacturing defect. Once it has been running reliably for about a year, you can usually count on it lasting well beyond its useful life. As suggested by Stuart, clean the contacts and run Memtest again. You might also try running individual sticks to isolate the defective one. Personally I prefer not to touch the contacts with anything. Removing and reseating the modules a few tmes will clear to contacts of any oxide which could induce errors.

Sure can I had it happen after a year where both sticks went bad...after wasting much time with reformat and new OS, I finally realized what was causing all the bizarre things going wrong from blue screens, to programs suddenly not working etc....bizarre enough it even affected a nearby laptop which shut down my wireless network, until I replaced the ram, then everything worked. oh and one more tip, when and if you replace the ram, be smarter than me, reformat and do a clean install of Windows too. That corrupted ram can cause problems to remain in the OS, as startling as it sounds.

In all the twenty years + that I have been messing around with computers I have never had RAM go bad in service. DOA yes, or a victim of abuse, but never for no apparent reason. It is not for nothing the people like Kingston and Crucial give there memory a lifetime guarantee. I supposes it's a case of you pays your money and you takes your choice. Stuart