Common symptoms of bad ram

• Computer not booting at all, beeping endlessly. When this happens all you can do is replace the RAM by trying another stick. You wont be able to use any ram diagnostic software in this instance.
• Distorted graphics on the screen. However it is possible this can be video card related.
• Blue screens of death during the installation of Windows XP or Windows 2000. This is an obvious sign of faulty RAM.
• Crashes or blue screens during normal operation of the system (emails, web surfing etc.)
• Crashes during memory intensive tasks such as using Photoshop, playing 3d games etc..