OT: Memory Test Software

Seeing occasionally some strange memory error messages upon close of Paint Shop Pro or Agent.

Looking for recommendations for software to test RAM memory in my PCs.

Thanks!

...Jim Thompson

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|  James E.Thompson, P.E.                           |    mens     |
|  Analog Innovations, Inc.                         |     et      |
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Jim Thompson
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In article , Jim Thompson writes

By the time stamps looks like a bad night!

I use memtest86+ to be found at

formatting link

Makes a floppy boot disk - hope your machine has one of these ('obsolete' in marketing men's eyes) drives.

Roy

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Roy Battell.
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Roy Battell

There is a package from microsoft. You write it onto a floppy or CD, and when it boots, it continually tests. Search for Memory Test on the microsoft site.

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   Robert Monsen
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Robert Monsen

I used to use CkeckIt for this; it's still available, but I found that after version 3 it went downhill a bit, so haven't investigated the current versions.

There are other programmes also, like MicroScope and SiSoft Sandra, that probably all work the same way.

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LAurence
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Reply to
Laurence Taylor

I use memtest86 as well. Once the floppy is created it self boots it's own operating system (hopefully your cmos is set up for a preferential floppy boot). It says it maximizes the memory available for testing (It seems to).

Then it goes through all the tests you can think of. Walking ones, walking zeros, etc.

Regards, Larry

Reply to
ldg

BTW, There is another product called "memtest" and one called "memtest86", neither of which is quite as good as memtest86+ (

formatting link
).

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Guy Macon

In message , Roy Battell writes

I would second this advice, Memtest is excellent, free and very thorough.

Ahh, but there's an ISO version for making a bootable CD now....

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Clint Sharp
Reply to
Clint Sharp

Thanks, Robert, It works great! No RAM problems, it appears to be an IE issue... as if that's a surprise.

...Jim Thompson

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|  James E.Thompson, P.E.                           |    mens     |
|  Analog Innovations, Inc.                         |     et      |
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Reply to
Jim Thompson

I'm cynical also... I'm going to start logging the faults and see if I spot a pattern.

...Jim Thompson

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|  James E.Thompson, P.E.                           |    mens     |
|  Analog Innovations, Inc.                         |     et      |
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Jim Thompson

I have never found a RAM test program that could find anything but the most catastrophic failures in RAM. I have had machines that exhibited flakey problems that looked like probable memory problems. The ram test programs showed everything to be ok. But it was only through swapping out memory sticks that the problem finally went away.

My guess is that sometimes the ram tester programs are testing the wrong thing. For instance, suppose that the problem is related to a timing problem that only comes into play when DMA is accessing ram. A ram test that only tests accesses by the CPU won't find any problem. Or, suppose the problem is related to an interleaving of CPU, cache and DMA accesses?

I always take "good" diagnostic results with a grain of salt.

-Chuck Harris

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Chuck Harris

When you say strange memory error messages, what specifically are these messages?

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    - Win
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Reply to
Winfield Hill

It hasn't happened for awhile... naturally ;-) But something like "Instruction at 0X000... failed to execute at 0X011... "

...Jim Thompson

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|  James E.Thompson, P.E.                           |    mens     |
|  Analog Innovations, Inc.                         |     et      |
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Reply to
Jim Thompson

One thing you can try on many machines, is to select a slower memory access time for the ram. I see this capability on some BIOSs, but not all.

-Chuck

Reply to
Chuck Harris

Hi Clint, Memtest 86 is one of the ones that I have used, but I have yet to have it find a fault in any of the memory sticks in my machines. But I have had memory sticks that behaved irratically in some situations, just not with Memtest 86. And yes, I have left it run for a long, long time.

It certainly is cost effective, but it still doesn't exercise the memory as much as a virtual memory, disk cached multitasking operating system like linux does. Linux is truly intolerant of bad memory. But as I said, when I used memtest86, it couldn't find the offending memory that crashed linux. I had to do a swap job to fix the problem.

-Chuck

Reply to
Chuck Harris

I will second this. I ahve had similar problems: a flakey machine on which memtest86+ failed to show up any problems. Eventually, ond day it flaked out extra early and the BIOS told me that there was no memory plugged in (indicating that it was very likely the memory at fault). Since swapping the DIMMS I haven't had a single crash (down from maybe 1 or more a week at the worst). I think it was a mechanical thing, since the problem usually cleared up when I opened the case (which is normally quite stiff). Maybe a memory tester would show up a problem if I gave the comupter a kick with the bad DIMMS in.

-Ed

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(You can\'t go wrong with psycho-rats.)       (er258)(@)(eng.cam)(.ac.uk)

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E. Rosten

In message , Chuck Harris writes

Obviously the fault has to be present for the software to find it, but I do rate Memtest86 as one of the better ones, there are several memory 'test' programs out there that I have seen pass an obviously faulty system and Memtest86 has pinpointed the fault (one case springs to mind, not actually the memory, but the CPU cache had an intermittent problem) Of course, you have to let any diagnostic have time to find an intermittent fault, but leaving a system running diagnostics overnight isn't a bad solution.

Again, YMMV, I do rate Memtest and have been working with PCs since the

4.77MHz IBM PC so have seen more than a few 'diagnostic' utilities in my time. Of course software is never going to be as good as a dedicated hardware memory tester but it does cost a lot less, especially if you only need it for one machine.
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Clint Sharp
Reply to
Clint Sharp

This would be a typical bug in POS IE or any other carelessly written program. I just stop using the program :)

Another error I see these days is "... the location could not be read" - most likely a bad pointer accessing protected memory. With Win9x, it would've just GPF'd or worse.

Best Regards, Mike

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