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Yesterday, I upgraded my RAM (from 4 x 2GB, to 4 x 4GB).

  • POSTed fine; booted fine; seemed to run fine.
  • ~ An hour later got a BlueScreen. Rebooted and it all ran fine. I decided to let it slide until it happened some more.
  • It ran fine for most of the day; maybe 14 hours, and I started to think the BS was a fluke.
  • Then it BlueScreened again.
  • Then it BlueScreened 2 minutes after the reboot.
  • Then it sat in a reboot-2 minutes-BS loop, for maybe 5 iterations whilst I tried to fully save all data and find advice forums.
  • Then it started to crash during OS boot.
  • Then it failed to pass POST.

At this point I opened the tower up, and tested each individual memory stick. 3 of the 4 sticks of RAM would pass POST just fine; 1 stick consistently hung on the VGA phase (i.e. immediately after the DRAM phase).

2 questions here: A) It seems like the stick of RAM actively degraded over the course of 24 hours? Is that perception correct, or is something else going on? Assuming it is degrading ... what the hell? That seems really fast. Is that a thing?

B) As part of the crashing-a-lot-whilst-booting phase, it managed to changed the BIOS boot settings so that it was trying to boot from a different drive. Is that a normal thing to happen? Is it something that the BIOS did in some sort of self-defense, because of the boot-crash-loop? Did the BIOS settings get corrupted by an unlucky reset moment?

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  • Memory doesn't degrade over time. The module was faulty the entire time. Any number of reasons it didn't originally show up. Just replace the module under warranty.
    – Ramhound
    Aug 6, 2017 at 16:19

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A) It seems like the stick of RAM actively degraded over the course of 24 hours? Is that perception correct, or is something else going on? Assuming it is degrading ... what the hell? That seems really fast. Is that a thing?

Assuming your testing is accurate and confirmed by the manufacturer, then it's not a case of :degradation", but rather infant mortality.
Component failure-rates tend to look like a "bathtub".
A new component is more likely to fail in the next hour or day than one that has been in use for a year.
See The Bathtub Curve and Product Failure Behavior, or Component Failures, Infant Mortality, and the Bathtub Curve for a quick read.
That's the purpose of performing a "burn-in" for electronic components/systems.

B) As part of the crashing-a-lot-whilst-booting phase, it managed to changed the BIOS boot settings so that it was trying to boot from a different drive. Is that a normal thing to happen?...

That's probably not explainable, and could have been a coincidence.
Just be sure to observe proper ESD (static electricity) precautions with electronic components (e.g. touch grounded metal before touching the PC).
Also avoid putting fingerprints and skin oils on electrical contacts.

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