Bluescreen on Laptop=Bad Memory?

[YetiRancher]

I have a Compaq V2000 laptop with a Sempron processor. The computer is about 1 year old, and it has 256 mb of ram in one stick (a pitiful amount, I know). All of the sudden, it started giving blue screens in Windows XP with the error "driver irql not less or equal." When the computer was powered down and restarted, the error kept occurring immediately after the loading Windows splash screen.

I ran MemTest86+, which detected thousands of errors in my ram. I removed the ram stick and reinserted it. When I retested it, there were no errors at all. Windows XP also began to boot again and run normally. I assumed this meant the stick was just jostled out of its slot or something. However, the same problem has just happened again. Taking out the ram and reinserting it fixed it this time as well. It now passes all the memory tests with no errors

Does this sound like the ram could be going bad? I'm concerned about buying replacement ram only to discover that it is some kind of motherboard issue and the computer is toast. Thanks in advance for any advice.

 

[Xsorovan]

Looks like it's either something with the way the RAM is held in place in your laptop, or it's that certain stick.

Here's what I would suggest: Try to find some RAM locally you can buy, insert it into your laptop and try it out for a few days. If the problem goes away you can do one of several things. 1. Keep the RAM, 2. Return the ram to where you bought it and then go online and search for cheaper RAM.

Either than or find someone you know that has some RAM you could pull out and test in your laptop for a couple of days.

This will pretty much tell you what you need to know. If with the new RAM you keep getting the problems then you'll have to investigate deeper. I think you've already got a great start though.