RAM troubles

[redbull31]

For the past few months, I keep getting random Bsod's and I think I just recently discovered why. After viewing BlueScreen View, it showed the cause was ntosfkrnl.sys ( I think that's right ). Somewhere I read that Bsod's can be caused by bad ram also, so ran memtest86 and the windows memory tester and both discovered bad ram. I'm assuming this is my problem?

So, after searching for new ram on newegg, I've read a few places that some ram has to be configured or it can become corrupted overtime? I'm a bit new at computers so I don't know much. I currently have Corsair Vengence 8GB 1600 dual channel memory. I'll probably end up downgrading to 4GB dual channel because I think for what I do (not a gamer), 8GB is a bit overkill. Plus it's cheaper.

Which ram would be a good replace that I wouldn't have to configure? Unless configuring is super easy in which case I could figure it out. I'm running a ASRock B85 Pro4 motherboard with an Intel i3 Haswell LGA 1150 processor.
Thanks for any help.

 

[PP Mguire]

Try taking one stick out at a time and see if that helps. Your RAM shouldn't be giving you issues with that board or setup. You can also try going into the bios and making sure the XMP profile is selected.

 

[redbull31]

I selected XMP profile and changed to DDR 1600. For some reason, using CPUID, it showed it was running 1333. I individually checked each ram stick and discovered only one was bad. So if I buy a 4GB dual channel kit, would I be able to still run the one good stick along with the dual channel? I assume it would run, I was just wondering if it's a bad idea.

 

[PP Mguire]

Running in 1333 wouldn't show a difference in performance, but it was running that speed probably due to the board selecting safe settings from not posting previously.

No, buy a single 4GB stick of 1600 to match what you have to run dual channel.

 

[redbull31]

Ok ill give that a shot and see what happens. Thanks for the help man.