I had a blue screen and I took a restore to an earlier date. So far so good. can someone tell me how to check if i have bad ram in baby steps ty ema

Download this: http://www.memtest.org/download/2.0... Extract it and use whatever you use to burn CD's. If you can't open it by double-clicking on it, then open the burning application and open it from there. Don't ass the ISO file to a blank CD image and burn it, it won't work. Once I know what you use, I'll be able to help you better.

What was the Stop: error message on the blue screen? There are lots of causes for those messages, and they are not necessarily caused by ram problems. It is extremely rare for ram that worked fine before to suddenly go bad, but sometimes the ram can deveolop a poor connection, or if you have installed ram that was not in your mboard before, you may have installed ram that is not compatible with your mboard. If you have NOT installed ram that was not in your mboard before See response 2 in this - try cleaning the contacts on the ram modules, and making sure the modules are properly seated: http://www.computing.net/hardware/w... If you do a ram test, do that AFTER having tried cleaning the contacts and making sure the ram is seated properly - otherwise any errors found may be FALSE. If the ram is incompatible with the chipset, it will likely FAIL a ram test - that is NOT a true indication of the ram being faulty - there is probably nothing wrong with it, and it will pass the test if installed in a mboard it is compatible with. If you want to try a memory diagnostic utility that takes a lot less time to run a full pass than memtest86 does, this one is pretty good - Microsoft's Windows Memory Diagnostic: http://oca.microsoft.com/en/windiag... It can be toggled to do a standard or a more comprehensive set of tests - use the default 6 test one first - if it passes one pass of that, use the latter one. A few of the tests in the latter set are intentionally slower. ...... If you HAVE installed ram that was not in your mboard before..... Ram that works in another mboard , or any ram you buy or have lying around, may not work properly, or sometimes, not at all - even if it physically fits and is the right overall type (e.g. SDram, DDR, DDR2, etc.; PCxxxx, xxx mhz) for your mboard. In the worst cases of incompatibilty your mboard WILL NOT BOOT with it installed, and the mboard may not even beep - the ram has to be compatible with the mboard and it's chipset. See response 5 in this for some info about ram compatibilty, and some places where you can find out what will work in your mboard for sure: http://www.computing.net/hardware/w... Correction to that: Mushkin www.mushkin.com Once you know which module ID strings work in your mboard, you can get them from anywhere you like that has ram with those ID strings. If you have brand name ram, it is usually easy to look up whether it's ID string is in a list of compatible modules found by using your mboard or brand name system model number. If the ram is generic, that may be difficult or impossible. ..... It is easy to test for whether incompatible ram or faulty ram is causing your problem, or it's caused by another problem. Make sure you have a speaker or speakers connected to the mboard so you can hear mboard beeps (see your mboard manual). Remove the AC power to the case/power supply. Remove all the ram. Restore AC power. Try to boot. If nothing else is wrong, you will hear a pattern of beeps that indicate no ram is installed, or a ram problem. E.g. for an Award bios or a bios based on one, that's often a beep of about a half second, silence for a half second, a beep of about a half second, silence for a half second, continuously.