I was doing some maintenance on my laptop, and I wanted to check the current state of the RAM in my computer.  I found a very useful tool from Microsoft that does just that.  It’s a very small disk image that you can burn to a CD and have it run at startup.

“The Windows Memory Diagnostic tests the Random Access Memory (RAM) on your computer for errors. The diagnostic includes a comprehensive set of memory tests. If you are experiencing problems while running Windows, you can use the diagnostic to determine whether the problems are caused by failing hardware, such as RAM or the memory system of your motherboard. Windows Memory Diagnostic is designed to be easy and fast. On most configurations, you can download the diagnostic, read the documentation, run the test and complete the first test pass in less than 30 minutes.”

Get more info and the free download from here.

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