Recently when I upgraded the RAM for my new Windows 11 laptop that came with only 8 GB RAM, I noticed that it started to turn off in the middle suddenly. Since the only change was the new 8GB RAM module that I purchased from Amazon, I decided to test it for any possible problems.
I used open-source software called Memtest86+ to run tests on my computer’s RAM sticks. I must have run the test only for 30 seconds when it showed errors on the newly bought SODIMM RAM module. The faulty memory as causing the Windows 11 PC to hang up and freeze.
Here is how we can quickly run Memtest86+ on a Windows 11 PC:
- Download Memtest86+ from https://www.memtest.org/. The download is available in many formats – USB creator and also as a Live Linux ISO image. We are going to use the USB creator version.
- Insert a USB pendrive with capacity of at least 1 GB into any USB port of your PC.
- Launch Memtest86+ USB Installer setup, choose the USB pendrive drive letter and click on the Next button. This will prepare a bootable Memtest86+ pendrive for you.
- Restart your Windows 11 PC and when PC is starting to boot, press F12 to open the boot drive list. Select the USB pendrive from the list to start booting from the pendrive. If your pendrive is not listed in the boot list that appears when pressing F12, you have to make changes in the UEFI/BIOS and allow “USB Legacy Support”.
- When your PC boots from Memtest86+ pendrive, it will start running the test automatically. You can wait to see the results but the whole progress is displayed on the screen.
Upgrading your Windows 11 PC with larger and faster RAM modules is easy but you should use Memtest86+ to check if the newly bought RAM modules are not faulty. This can save us from a lot of headache later if we can perform these tests on any newly bought RAM modules whenever possible.