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My kid's PC (Win 10) is having some issues. He suspects a bad RAM stick ( 4 x 16 GB DDR 4 ). How would we determine which, if any?
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Usually, you only have one bad stick.
So, since you have 4 sticks, take out half of them out and test. If you still have a problem, take out one of the sticks still in the machine and swap with one you took out. Keep track of the one stick you took out! If the problem persists, it's on the one stick you didn't remove. If it disappears, it's on the one stick you took out.
If the problem doesn't appear at all with the first half of the RAM you left in, swap both sticks with the ones you did take out and repeat the above.
This is a relatively quick test and works well for non-intermittent failures.
Memtest86 can take quite a while to go through one pass. If you don't find the problem by swapping sticks out, then you can resort to Memtest86 and go catch up on a few episodes of whatever show you're behind on.
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It does appear to be an intermittent issue and I don't want to get involved.
I made the Memtest86 drive and handed it off.
I just finished binging Jonathan Creek and I need something new.
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I'd start by just running memtest86 overnight with all the ram installed. Confirm that the memory actually is a problem before being clever to figure out which stick is bad. Memtest86 is slow, and you need to run several cycles to to be sure it's good; so you're basically looking at nightly runs anyway.
Did you ever see history portrayed as an old man with a wise brow and pulseless heart, weighing all things in the balance of reason?
Is not rather the genius of history like an eternal, imploring maiden, full of fire, with a burning heart and flaming soul, humanly warm and humanly beautiful?
--Zachris Topelius
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Back in my day as a tech, there usually wasn't the luxury of "overnight". On site calls required you to get creative.
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If your kid is of the kind that fiddle around with the PC on his own, check what sort of overclocking he has attempted.
I take '4 x 16 GB' as a hint that he might be a gamer. Gamers are more prone to fiddle with overclocking than those who primarily uses the PC to do schoolwork and writing letters to grandma  Always consider overclocking to be 'On your own risk land'!
Some BIOSes allow you to limit the clocking to even below the nominal frequency, which may help keeping an unstable machine more stable until you get an opportunity to replace the unstable chip.
You say the problem is intermittent. Often, intermittent problems can be provoked by running specially designed stress testing programs. I did that many years ago, but I guess the programs I used back then have been replaced by others today. Googling 'RAM stress test' returns quite a few hits, but as I haven't tried any of them, I do not have the background to recommend one over the other.
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He identifies as a gamer, but no overclocking (to my knowledge).
He suspects that it's when something uses "too much" RAM -- so he has set MineCraft to limit its usage.
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Windas has a windows memory diag which is good as any.
Search for it and when you start it windows will reboot to it and begin testing memory.
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I built a server a decade ago and discovered that when I filled all four memory slots I had problems. If I filled either pair (motherboard docs said to fill in pairs) or put a single stick in any of the slots I had no problems. Turns out the motherboard was bad and the memory sticks were all good.
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So, having selected the option to not install Win 11 yet and continue with 10, it has been forced upon me.
After a power down yesterday, a screen appeared with three options:
1) Decline the free upgrade (which sounded a bit like "now or never" to me)
2) Upgrade now
3) Schedule an update.
No options to close or delay, had to choose one. So I went for "schedule an update."
This, I think also had just two options:
1) Update now
2) Update a few minutes after reaching your desktop.
At this point, there was a mishap and I lost power and when it was returned, hey presto, this had gone and my update page status had changed from Pending Install to the "Your device is compatible, we'll let you know when it's ready..."
Today, everything slowed down, checked update page which told me it was installing Win 11. When this had finished, I was one restart away from completion and nothing I could do.
So, here we are 2hrs 20 mins later, Win 11 is installed and all the other updates just keep on coming. All seemingly for round corners and a relocated Start button.
Can't shift the feeling of being violated by a butt-elephanting from Microsoft.
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That makes me nervous that it's going to push me to upgrade my laptop soon & I really want to procrastinate for another year or so about it.
Things are fine right now. Why do people always got to be "improving" stuff. Just let well-enough alone. 
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There's an entire industry dedicated to "improving" things without giving people a choice. It's called politics.
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My machine, My Choice.
I know how to kill Automatic Corruptdates forever.
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Install the O/S that may not be named? 
Freedom is the freedom to say that two plus two make four. If that is granted, all else follows.
-- 6079 Smith W.
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At least in democracies it's possible to turn the current crop of rascals out. The problem is that the new crop learn "rascaldom" very quickly. Probably via contamination from the walls. 
If while replacing the old crop of rascals we could also simultaneously raze and rebuild all Government buildings (of all branches), we could confirm or refute this theory...
Freedom is the freedom to say that two plus two make four. If that is granted, all else follows.
-- 6079 Smith W.
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Can we accidentally forget to empty the buildings first as an object lesson? 
"I have no idea what I did, but I'm taking full credit for it." - ThisOldTony
"Common sense is so rare these days, it should be classified as a super power" - Random T-shirt
AntiTwitter: @DalekDave is now a follower!
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Pour encourager les autres?
Well, it would have the salutary effect of reducing the size of Government, but it could catch some productive citizens in the buildings' collapse. On the whole, I'd rather not have them on my conscience.
Freedom is the freedom to say that two plus two make four. If that is granted, all else follows.
-- 6079 Smith W.
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This ain't BurgerKing, you don't get it your way.
The most expensive tool is a cheap tool. Gareth Branwyn
JaxCoder.com
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Makes me sort of happy my old clunker is not compatible!
Never underestimate the power of human stupidity -
RAH
I'm old. I know stuff - JSOP
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I believe there should be an option to revert back for the first 10 days or so. They always have in the past I've heard.
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I installed it quite literally on the first day of public release - even now I feel like it was the biggest mistake I've ever made, but I'm sticking with it on my main personal machine, whilst I discretely sit in the corner plugging away on my Mac.
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I'm sorry for you. Win 11 doesn't support my chipset, so it isn't a mistake I can make. And your tale (and other's) make me happy about that.
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Recently I posted about a book I was reading where the author would just leave me behind on stuff (Reading To Learn Tech[^]).
But, this post is about an amazing book and author.
I am probably ADHD or something so I like to multitask -- when doing mundane tasks like shaving or showering.
However, I prefer not to listen to anything political -- and since almost everything is now political I decided to try listening to an audiobook of a technical book.
I wanted to learn WebAPI-related & .NET Core so I picked this book at random and it has been amazing so far:
Microservices in .NET, Second Edition 2nd Edition, by Christian Horsdal Gammelgaard (Manning publishers)[^]
Think WebAPI, MVC, .NET Core
Before you get your shorts all knotted up on Microservices, hold on, this book is really about building solutions.
It's more about WebAPI & .NET Core ASP.NET & MVC & real-world solutions.
Very Clear, Great Author
This author explains things so clearly, provides implementation & then provides explanation.
It's so good, that I can't believe it.
I was so shocked while listening to it that I was actually understanding what the author was talking about.
Explanations are so clear and the author really builds the story.
Now, that I've listened to about 1/3 of I will go back and read the book too (I'm an O'Reilly bookshelf member so it is all available to me).
Anyways, have you ever listened to a tech book? It's (can be) a lot better than you might expect.
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I've never done it. It's faster to read, so that's what I prefer. I've only listened to books while driving, and they were usually fiction. A technical book would work if it doesn't have to get into details that require diagrams or code.
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Yes, you are correct, there are parts that are difficult to visualize where the author goes into some diagrams.
I do like the challenge of trying to "keep up" with the audio material though. Kind of a test of focus.
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