Random-access memory loss

After a few days of trouble shooting what should have been a simple upgrade installation of Windows 7, I have come to the conclusion that the errors I've suffered thus far...are not the errors of Microsoft.

I have a hardware issue...not a software issue.

What's the difference?
Hardware are the pieces that comprise your computer, your RAM, your CPU, the power supply, video / audio cards, etc.
Software are programs those parts run and project onto your monitor.

Given their nature, these two different spheres of the computer world are helplessly attached at the hip, when one fails, the other usually follows in step (or is the cause of the first failure).
Hardware have programs themselves, called Device Drivers, that are the protocols allowing the parts to interact with the programs.  When the software has a conflict with the Device Driver, the program will crash, but this is not the problem I've had.

The problem I have experienced this time around, faulty hardware. (With the billions of lines of code and microscopic sizes of some computer parts its only inevitable for problems to arise from anywhere, you try keeping track of that much information without slippage!)

So the solution is this.

The BIOS is a manager of your computer parts and basic mechanical function that can be accessed during start-up, all that white text over black background, those are BIOS processes making sure your parts function properly before booting up into your operating system.
(Above is a picture of the BIOS manager menu)

In my case, I have 8-gigs of RAM, yet my BIOS is only registering a little over 6-gigs.  Since I have 4 2-gig sticks of RAM, one bad stick may be my culprit.

So the plan is to take them all out, clean their contact points, blow some compressed air into your saddles on the motherboard, plug them in and see if they all register again.  When your motherboard stops registering things plugged into it, they are usually just dusty not dead, time to clean.

If this doesn't solve my issue the next step is to remove them all once again.  Then insert each stick individually, one at a time and start up.  With only one stick in the computer, once I plug the bad one in (if there is a bad one) the computer won't start up and I'll know which one to have my computer company replace. (Though I can and have built my own in the past, I have a 3 year warranty for this machine and it feels great)

After I've nab my bad RAM stick, or cleaned them so they all register once again, anchors away for Windows 7!