[semi]

it's not really possible to say if ecc would prevent the issue you're describing.. but that's why imo it is worth having ecc--so you don't have to worry as much about if the weird behavior you see is due to random memory errors.

On the more immediately practical side.. if this is happening frequently enough then running memtest86 or GSAT google stressful application test and see if it can pick up any errors.

You also might be able to improve things with a bios upgrade, or by lowering the clock speed of the ram.