• Some users have recently had their accounts hijacked. It seems that the now defunct EVGA forums might have compromised your password there and seems many are using the same PW here. We would suggest you UPDATE YOUR PASSWORD and TURN ON 2FA for your account here to further secure it. None of the compromised accounts had 2FA turned on.
    Once you have enabled 2FA, your account will be updated soon to show a badge, letting other members know that you use 2FA to protect your account. This should be beneficial for everyone that uses FSFT.

accurate memory test

C

colore

Limp Gawd
Joined
Sep 18, 2010
Messages
419
hello

memory is something extremely crucial for a system

but I read that no single tool and procedure can test it 100% accurately

so, is there a 100% accurate procedure and tools that I can use to test memory and be 100% sure it has no errors?

thanks
 
The problem is a memory tester may take days (or longer) to find a single bit error so not getting an error is no proof that the memory is stable.

I recommend whatever program you use to test memory stability to run it for a weekend. And not just 1 or 2 passes. I have many times found bad ram (home and work) that performed fine on the first few passes..
 
drescherjm said:
The problem is a memory tester may take days (or longer) to find a single bit error so not getting an error is no proof that the memory is stable.

I recommend whatever program you use to test memory stability to run it for a weekend. And not just 1 or 2 passes. I have many times found bad ram (home and work) that performed fine on the first few passes..
Click to expand...

and use more than one tools as well?
this makes memory testing so inconvenient

anyway, what happens with memory where an error is found? do companies accept it for return?
 
colore said:
and use more than one tools as well?
Click to expand...
If it makes you feel better, go for it.
colore said:
this makes memory testing so inconvenient
Click to expand...
So is an unstable system that you haven't fully troubleshooted.
colore said:
anyway, what happens with memory where an error is found? do companies accept it for return?
Click to expand...
Companies do accept RAM that's been shown to have errors for RMA as long as it's still under warranty.
 
memtest86 will do it. Let it run for 48 hours or something like that to be totally sure.
 
Run Gold Memory, MemTest86, MemTest86+, and Microsoft's memory diagnostic, each overnight on at least two different types of motherboards (different chipsets or, if the memory controller is built into the CPU, different brands of CPUs) and with the case temperature warmer than normal. Test each module in each DIMM slot, including running with 2 or 4 slots filled.
 
I've never had any trouble with running MemTest 86 or MemTest 86+ for all my memory testing....if it passes 1 time no errors, in my experience it will pass 1000 times without errors. If a stick is bad, it usually finds it within one minute, sometimes it takes 10 minutes to 30 minutes...results will vary.

But I only test with MemTest after I know the memory is faulty, I just need to confirm. Random BSOD's, strange errors, no POST, beeps, etc, all can be faulty RAM.

Nothing is 100%, well MemTest comes close enough. Replace faulty memory that tests bad, with memory that tests no errors with 1 or 2 passes, and *BAM* computer runs trouble free.

Also any decent aftermarket memory company is going to have a lifetime warranty. Unless you are trying to return EDO memory, I think they will honor it. I've never had an issue returning memory from PNY, Corsair, Crucial, ADATA, Kingston, etc....any of good brands are fine and trustworthy.
 
I've never had any trouble with running MemTest 86 or MemTest 86+ for all my memory testing....if it passes 1 time no errors, in my experience it will pass 1000 times without errors. If a stick is bad, it usually finds it within one minute, sometimes it takes 10 minutes to 30 minutes...results will vary.
Click to expand...

I have seen at least a dozen times at home and at work where a dimm would take 50+ passes to find the first problem. I have such a dimm right now at home that have to RMA. What happens is after the dimm warms up a single bit on the 4GB DDR3 1333 dimm can flip (I wrote the address down during testing) but most of the time it does not.. This was in a triple channel set and it took over 8 hours to find the first error. Then it took me days to isolate what dimm was the culprit. Even with that bad dimm as the only dimm installed it will take hours to find a single problem.
 
drdoug99 said:
I've never had any trouble with running MemTest 86 or MemTest 86+ for all my memory testing....if it passes 1 time no errors, in my experience it will pass 1000 times without errors. If a stick is bad, it usually finds it within one minute, sometimes it takes 10 minutes to 30 minutes...results will vary.

But I only test with MemTest after I know the memory is faulty, I just need to confirm. Random BSOD's, strange errors, no POST, beeps, etc, all can be faulty RAM.

Nothing is 100%, well MemTest comes close enough. Replace faulty memory that tests bad, with memory that tests no errors with 1 or 2 passes, and *BAM* computer runs trouble free.

Also any decent aftermarket memory company is going to have a lifetime warranty. Unless you are trying to return EDO memory, I think they will honor it. I've never had an issue returning memory from PNY, Corsair, Crucial, ADATA, Kingston, etc....any of good brands are fine and trustworthy.
Click to expand...
Of those brands, if I had to buy modules with unbranded chips I'd probably choose Kingston because if you talk with their higher level tech support about an RMA, the replacement memory they send you will have better reliability than what they normally sell.

I test for a long time because I've had MemTest86 run fine for as long as 4-5 hours before it reported an error, sometimes errors that Gold Memory found in a few minutes. And at other times Gold Memory found nothing, but MemTest86 reported errors quickly. One person ran one of those programs, and it detected one error, but another 9 hours passed before the error was reported again.

OTOH I wouldn't bother with MemTest, a program that's never detected an error for me.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top