Bad RAM?

[reprotected]

My refurbished Gateway computer from 2007 (Core 2 Duo E4300, originally 1 GB of RAM, added 2 GB) had started to worsen with occasional freezes and sluggish performance at random times, and usually prevents itself from shutting down. Issues like Windows Explorer freezes would occur where I would have to manually end the explorer.exe process, and maybe after keeping my computer on for a few weeks, I would have to force reset my PC. The PC had been infected a few times and cleaned, but this problem had been existent before that. This issue persisted with my older hard drive from 2010 (possibly from a lot of junk in the drive), until I got myself a new hard drive last year around August. The computer ran faster due to a fresh start and a new drive, but even after with a new hard drive and everything, the explorer windows sometimes freeze, where I used Task Manager to force closure of programs, and whenever most of my other programs start to freeze up, I would have to force shut down. I would not expect that a new hard drive to continue having problems like that, so my question is is it because of bad RAM, degrading of the CPU/RAM/Motherboard? My other gaming computer does not have issues like that. My graphics card is most likely not the problem, because I originally had the 8600 GT, switched it to HD4830, after a while it started to have problems, when I got my new PC, I switched it back with the 8600 GT and the problems continued.

 

[nikorr]

My refurbished Gateway computer from 2007 (Core 2 Duo E4300, originally 1 GB of RAM, added 2 GB) had started to worsen with occasional freezes and sluggish performance at random times, and usually prevents itself from shutting down. Issues like Windows Explorer freezes would occur where I would have to manually end the explorer.exe process, and maybe after keeping my computer on for a few weeks, I would have to force reset my PC.

The PC had been infected a few times and cleaned, but this problem had been existent before that. This issue persisted with my older hard drive from 2010 (possibly from a lot of junk in the drive), until I got myself a new hard drive last year around August.

The computer ran faster due to a fresh start and a new drive, but even after with a new hard drive and everything, the explorer windows sometimes freeze, where I used Task Manager to force closure of programs, and whenever most of my other programs start to freeze up, I would have to force shut down. I would not expect that a new hard drive to continue having problems like that, so my question is is it because of bad RAM, degrading of the CPU/RAM/Motherboard? My other gaming computer does not have issues like that.

My graphics card is most likely not the problem, because I originally had the 8600 GT, switched it to HD4830, after a while it started to have problems, when I got my new PC, I switched it back with the 8600 GT and the problems continued.

Hi there,

Can u run the Memtest or Windows memory diagnostics?
http://hcidesign.com/memtest/
http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/715-memory-diagnostics-tool.htmlI