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I have got a RAM memory stick for which memtest shows errors for specific memory addresses. I was wondering if it is possible to prohibit the operation system (Win7 in my case) from using these?

I already searched for answers but it seems that I was using the wrong terms, since there has to be some data on such an obvious problem.

Thanks for your help.

(PS: Repost from stackoverflow.com - http://stackoverflow.com/questions/4391829/deactivate-ram-segments)

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Not really. You just have to change the defective ram. You will spare a lot of time trying to fix this for a low cost. – r0ca Dec 9 '10 at 15:05
Replace it. Unless it's DDR1, RAM is particularly cheap right now. – Randolph West Dec 9 '10 at 16:26

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modern OS work around bad ram if they detect it, as far as i know. but thats only a service to allow you to save some data you are working on, shut down your computer and replace the defective part.

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Without ECC RAM, no OS knows that RAM is bad unless the user tells it so. There's no way to do this in Windows that I know of. I've heard of badram for Linux though. Windows will generally just crash as soon as it tries to use the bad memory. – afrazier Dec 9 '10 at 15:20
Depending where in the memory the errors are Windows may not crash but whatever program tries to use it will not operate properly (crashes, unable to save etc etc) – Xantec Dec 9 '10 at 15:37
What is your notion of “modern OS”, and what assumptions are you making on the hardware? Most PC hardware doesn't even try to detect RAM errors, for a start. And even if you have EEC RAM, does Windows support it without having to configure anything (that would be unusual!)? – Gilles Dec 10 '10 at 0:35

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