So I'm suspecting that one of the two sticks of RAM in my laptop are faulty, as an error I got while I was running an application was fixed by another person on the interwebs by replacing a bad stick of RAM he had. This might have been a stupid thing to do, but I took out one stick of RAM and tried booting up but it didn't turn on at all. I put the one I took out back and it boots up fine. (Don't worry, I didn't do anything too stupid I think; I grounded myself, didn't spill any liquids, etc.) So I'm assuming that the one I left in was the bad stick. But before I go off blowing some money on RAM when I could use it on something else, I'd like to validate that this stick is bad.
I remember reading off of here to use memtest86 to test for bad RAM, problem is, I'm slightly confused on how it works. Do I download it onto a flashdrive and then have it plugged in while I reboot? The other question is, if I do find out one of them are bad, should I replace both sticks or buy an individual 2GB stick? I just want to know if it'll run dual channel if they're two different brands of sticks (current ones are OCZ the 2GB stick I'm considering buying are Crucial but they're both DDR2 667 I think, or they're 800).
I remember reading off of here to use memtest86 to test for bad RAM, problem is, I'm slightly confused on how it works. Do I download it onto a flashdrive and then have it plugged in while I reboot? The other question is, if I do find out one of them are bad, should I replace both sticks or buy an individual 2GB stick? I just want to know if it'll run dual channel if they're two different brands of sticks (current ones are OCZ the 2GB stick I'm considering buying are Crucial but they're both DDR2 667 I think, or they're 800).