ok, i am currently having a problem with my computer where it goes into a tatl freeze and has to be cold booted to fix it. this only seems to happen when i am playing games or running a large number of apps, it has bees suggested to me that i download a ram checker.

so where can i find a ram checker ond how big are they(ive got dialup so anything above 20mb is insane)

check your cpu fan, maybe its full of dust or something.

nah, my cpu fan is fine. i tryed changing the rams position from slot 3 to slot 1 but nonw it just restarts and claims a windows error, nto sure if its the same problem or not

The real question is what RAM have you fitted. I mean if you have a 256Mb stick in Slot 1 and a 64mb stick in slot 2 that can cause problems. Sometimes RAM needs to work similar to a RAID 0 Array where data is split and sent between all available RAM sticks.

The Data splitting has to be fair in that particular instance, so if one stick is smaller than the other, then the RAM will only function without error up to 2 times the size of the smaller piece. (in the instance of a 64Mb and 256Mb piece, it will function fine up to 128Mb's from it being split between both sticks, but when it runs out of room on the 64Mb stick it could cause problems)

I usually suggest if people ever update A RAM stick, they should replace their whole RAM amount even if it doesn't need replacing. My reason for this might sound a bit bizarre but it's a bit like this:

Metals when set on a board inherit a magnetic alignment from their place of manufacture, so it's suggested if you mix different RAM from different places (and times) the RAM might be more succeptable to error than if you buy afresh.
That however might be a very far fetch reason when you think that most computers are comprised of many different subcomponents from many different regions of the world, However you can suggest that RAM can suffer from problems from energy fluctuations and dust overtime so replacing it can remove the faults.

i have only one stick(512mb), does anyone have a programt that will test it tho, i want to know for sure before i go buying new ram

www.memtest86.com

edit: oh forgot ram error usual give funky boots and read/write errors, not lock ups