RobMc

Yes wise old words from a 'Southerner' in Darlington, a check on the internet often shows the same problem with other people, I hope it's that simple saves a lot of hassle, I hope they don't close your market FledMarshal I love the mince and dumplings from the butchers on a Saturday morning. But as I said before the computer is the last resort not the first in most cases, its usually software problems., I know its cold in Ohio at the moment, it is here in Northumberland too.

Yes wise old words from a 'Southerner' in Darlington, a check on the internet often shows the same problem with other people, I hope it's that simple saves a lot of hassle, I hope they don't close your market FledMarshal I love the mince and dumplings from the butchers on a Saturday morning. But as I said before the computer is the last resort not the first in most cases, its usually software problems., I know its cold in Ohio at the moment, it is here in Northumberland too.

Oh Oh remember hardware last? if you do pull the ram check that remaining ram will work in those slots, you need to read the mothernoard manual, I must admit I would suspect ram but perhaps look at other things first, a longshot but check the ram you got from your friend is compatible with your motherboard, and = (I hope I don't regret this) the bios is set correctly for the memory. IF YOU DO NOT KNOW WHAT I MEAN ABOUT THE BIOS PLEASE DON'T TOUCH IT.

Does your son play on the same computer with the same link to the internet??, if not it could still be either, but presume your household has a network in which case yes your computer looks likely as you say, so yes try experimenting BUT WRITE DOWN EVERYTHING YOU DO and do one thing at a time, then if same issue persists restore it. I like to put things in simple terms initially, your picture is stuttering, so there is a bottleneck somewhere, or interference, stopping the information flowing correctly and fast enough to your picture. Now this could be a number of things,start with the programme itself then progress to the computers software and last of all the hardware. If you are unsure of what you are doing, especially if interfering with the OS or hardware then do not do it, better safe than sorry, do not touch the bios unless you are absolutely confident in what you are doing, remember one thing at a time if that doesn't work put it back.

Firstly you need to narrow it down to 1/. Computer or 2/. Internet, i.e. does this only happen to gaming online or does it happen offline, the comments on the modem may be valid and you may want to check firmware/software.
If computer the mostly likely culprits are the ram or the video card, if you can swap these out then fine, if not then it becomes a lot more difficult, if online then try turning off background programmes one by one. I had this years ago when the ram on my bang up to date video card was incompatible with the motherboard, fixed by a (very dangerous in those days) motherboard flash.