Possible bad ram stick

[dmcmahon]

System is using the Gigabyte P35 based DQ6 motherboard. I have a 2x1GB pair of DDR2 ram sticks, the Dominator Twin 2x2048-8500C5D. Built the system for a friend. System is run with all the default settings, no overclocking. It worked fine for a few days then crashed and somehow trashed the file system and became unbootable - it would get past the BIOS splash screen, then try to boot, then after a few seconds of thinking about booting, it would go back through the POST to the BIOS splash screen and try again ad infinitum. System was bootable into DOS using a diagnostic CD from the disk mfg, disk tests all passed. Tried to reinstall XP, got a blue screen memory error at the point where the installer itself needs to boot XP from the CD. Possibly DOS is not using the bad area of memory but XP is. Removed stick in 2nd memory slot and retried install, blue screen again. Swapped the stick in the 1rst memory slot and retried, this time the install went fine and the system is now up and running on one stick. I will try memtest but I'm not sure I can run it safely (or at all) with the suspect stick in the machine - I don't want to accidentally trash the file system again, and the system might not boot with the bad stick in.

[RAM GUY]

Let's get them replaced, please use the On Line RMA Request Form and we will be happy to replace them.

[dmcmahon]

In the works. FWIW I ran memtest with the good stick in, it passed. Tried the bad stick, can't even boot memtest, the system gets stuck at the BIOS splash screen.

[RAM GUY]

NP Please submit them for replacement and we will be happy to replace them.