the results: I’ve had stable PC’s that have gone for long periods of time without crashing.

Testing is critical when you’re using multiple sticks of memory. It seems there are a number of issues that show up with 4 sticks that get by just fine when only 2 are used.

here are a few links:

Memtest86+ is found at memtest.org – it’s free. Download an iso, burn to CD and  boot it in your pc – wait 24 hours and see if your screen shows any errors – easy easy easy…

http://www.memtest.org

Memtest86.com is by the guy who originally wrote memtest. It wasn’t updated for a few years, so memtest.org sort of took over, but I see he had an update in Jan 09 so it may be worth a look. Free – he also sells a CD for $11.

http://www.memtest86.com

Microsoft has a tool, which is a nice start, except one tiny problem: it won’t test more than 4 gig of ram.

http://oca.microsoft.com/en/windiag.asp