My computer has had issues for a while, but it is only after a year or so that I finally discovered the (APPARENT) source of the troubles. It would seem that my crashes are due to faulty ram, or at least faulty ram matching. I reached this conclusion after investigating the errors I was receiving from a number of applications. These errors caused said PROGRAMS to crash, and upon occasion send me to the blue screen of death.

his application has encountered a critical error:

FATAL ERROR!

Exception: 0xC0000005 (ACCESS_VIOLATION) at 001B:6F095B15

The instruction at '0x6F095B15' REFERENCED memory at '0x00000008'.
The memory could not be 'read'.

From what I have seen, only bad memory or a bad motherboard would give me these error messages. Sadly, my computer is no longer under warranty, so I will have to put in the time (and money) myself to fix it.

I suppose my question is two fold.
1. How to test that it is indeed the RAM which is to blame
2. How to go about FINDING the correct RAM that will work with my system.

From what I have read, basically you need to test different (and working )of RAM in your system. I don't have any excess RAM on hand, though I can obtain some if strictly necessary. After doing said swap, what tests should be run to see if the RAM is functioning correctly?

My Specs:
Motherboard Model: NF-CK804
Motherboard Chipset: nVidia nForce4
Motherboard Slots: 5xPCI
BIOS Manufacturer: Phoenix- Award WorkstationBIOS
BIOS: Up to date

All of my drivers are up to date.

Thanks a ton for your help.

-JaeganFree RAM checker at www.memtest86.com

Run each STICK for about 30 minutes, then all together.