Thanks for the advice, everybody. Still haven't gotten a response from ATI or FIC tech support. My brother's a starving recent college grad, so he can't afford to buy the RAM, but maybe I'll buy it ...
If you've every used a Windows machine, you've seen it. No, not Clippy, something even more annoying than that. The dreaded Blue Screen of Death. Wouldn't it be great if you could see it every day?