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Good Memory Testers?

R

rive22

Supreme [H]ardness
Joined
Mar 10, 2004
Messages
4,645
I heard someone say on here memtest86 wasn't that great and something else was better.

Can't remember what it was :)
 
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Thanks good ones guys. I think it was my SSD, windows started acting up again with my other stable ram in it, then my boot SSD died the next morning. I reran memtest on that new ram for 24 hours or so and it's rock solid. I wasn't aware a dieing SSD would cause this behavior, but it does make sense.
 
Tehpwnzah said:
memtest is the industry standard.
Click to expand...
I thought:

  • Advantest is the industry's standard with their $1M+ testing machines
  • Ultra-X's RST Pro, ~$1,000, is the standard for module manufacturing sweatshops
  • MemTest86/MemTest86+ is the DIYers' standard
  • MemTest is neither popular nor good
 
If you use memtest86 use it on a bootdisk or a booteable ram stick. Do not test it in windows.
Or download hiron boot cd. Its got all the memory testing utilities as well as disk etc etc. Essential for troubleshooting
 
I found using MemTest86+ was better than MemTest86 for testing large quantities of RAM. But I've also been told that you should test each stick of RAM individually.
 
larrymoencurly said:
I've found only one evaluation of memory diagnostics, and it's a very old one that said an older version of MemTest86, Gold Memory, and Ultra-X RST beat MemTest. I'd really like to see some newer unbiased evaluations.
Click to expand...

Memtest86+ can take hours or days for a single error to pop up on faulty RAM.

HCI memtest will usually pop up errors within minutes if you have faulty RAM.

I have used both extensively.
 
cyclone3d said:
Memtest86+ can take hours or days for a single error to pop up on faulty RAM.

HCI memtest will usually pop up errors within minutes if you have faulty RAM.

I have used both extensively.
Click to expand...

so how do you know it isn't giving false positives?
 
I use HCI memtest only. It's faster like cyclone said but it also catches things that memtest86 does not.

I run simulations that crashed (due to faulty calc's in memory) after using ram that was cleared by memtest86 and stability tests, but hci's memtest caught the errors almost immediately.

I run to 1000% on HCI memtest (about 48 hours depending on RAM amount and speed)
 
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Daemas said:
so how do you know it isn't giving false positives?
Click to expand...

Crashing issues... memtest86+ saying everything is o.k.. HCI memtest detecting errors.

Then replacing RAM that HCI memtest detects errors in and not having crashes anymore.
 
cyclone3d said:
Crashing issues... memtest86+ saying everything is o.k.. HCI memtest detecting errors.

Then replacing RAM that HCI memtest detects errors in and not having crashes anymore.
Click to expand...
If MemTest is so good, why did it fail to find errors caught by MemTest86 and Gold Memory in RealWorldTech.com's evaluation? And what does MemTest do differently than MemTest86 or MemTest86+?

I've used MemTest only once, and it said the 512MB Kingston PC3200 modules that failed MemTest86 v. 3.1 and Gold Memory 5.07 were fine.
 
larrymoencurly said:
If MemTest is so good, why did it fail to find errors caught by MemTest86 and Gold Memory in RealWorldTech.com's evaluation? And what does MemTest do differently than MemTest86 or MemTest86+?

I've used MemTest only once, and it said the 512MB Kingston PC3200 modules that failed MemTest86 v. 3.1 and Gold Memory 5.07 were fine.
Click to expand...

Did you test from the boot CD and what coverage did you do?

RealWorldTech.com's test is from 2001 and uses the windows application not the boot cd.
 
I'm currently looking to test my memory on my sandy bridge setup and found this thread.

Am I understanding this correctly? To be able to do the boot-off-CD method with HCI MemTest, one has to buy the deluxe version?
 
I bought HCI mtest after it caught a marginal overclock when memtest86 did not. I had long been frustrated with the time memtest86 took to find errors and its tempermental disposition (failed to boot or run on some systems for no apparent reason and without any error message)
 
DaRuSsIaMaN said:
Also, what is the difference between Memtest86 and Memtest86+?
Click to expand...
They're supposed to use the same test methods, but I've gotten different results from each, just as I've gotten different results from two versions of Gold Memory.

Tgrimley: I used the Windows version, but it wasn't nearly as old as RealWorldTech's 2001 evaluation. I didn't know there was a self-booting version because HCI Design's web page lists only Linux and Windows software.
 
What's a good length of time to run memtest86+ or memtest86?

I still have not tested my memory since I built and began using my new SB-based computer. Not that I really have reason to suspect anything, have not been having weird crashes or anything. But I figure it's something that should be done nonetheless. Right? I downloaded memtest86+ and made a bootable USB flash drive with it, so I'm ready to go. Just need to find a time to let it run.
 
DaRuSsIaMaN said:
What's a good length of time to run memtest86+ or memtest86?

I still have not tested my memory since I built and began using my new SB-based computer. Not that I really have reason to suspect anything, have not been having weird crashes or anything.
Click to expand...
I've had diagnostics run 4-5 hours before finding memory errors, and one person tested for over 9 hours before the same error was reported a second time.

You have no reason to suspect anything only if your DIMMs were made of first-quality chips or they passed a lot of testing when run in different motherboards with something like an RST Pro card. What brands of chips do you have on your DIMMs?
 
It's a dual channel kit 2x2gb by Avexir. It's sold by mwave.com and has come up in the hot deals section more than once when they did free shipping on it. Basically, really good price heh.
 
I had some memory problems myself a few days ago and my experience is that HCI Memtest is far superior to Memtest86+. HCI Memtest found errors even when Memtest86+ said my memory was perfectly fine. It also found memory errors much quicker than Memtest86+. Great program to test your memory.

Be sure to run as many instances of the program as you have logical cores, and then split your total memory between them. So for example, with a Core i7 with Hyperthreading and 8GB of memory, start HCI Memtest eight times and give each 1GB to test. Also test your memory overnight (8 hours at least) and over 1000% coverage.
 
[X]eltic;1037310219 said:
I had some memory problems myself a few days ago and my experience is that HCI Memtest is far superior to Memtest86+. HCI Memtest found errors even when Memtest86+ said my memory was perfectly fine. It also found memory errors much quicker than Memtest86+. Great program to test your memory.
Click to expand...
So why didn't it do so well in RealWorldTech's evaluation?

My experience is that MemTest86 is superior to MemTest86+, and Gold Memory 5.07 is superior to Gold Memory 6.92. Therefore I conclude nothing because I haven't tested nearly enough memory.
 
So why did MemTest86 and Gold Memory do better than Memtest in the same decade-old review?
Click to expand...

Does that make a difference? I mean its not like you will be using the 10+ year old software that was in the round up today with a modern 4 core or better processor.
 
I don't even see what the ram diagnostic is. What is it? I see several antivirus, anti-malware things, Parted Magic and hdd utilities...
 
DaRuSsIaMaN said:
I don't even see what the ram diagnostic is. What is it? I see several antivirus, anti-malware things, Parted Magic and hdd utilities...
Click to expand...

Spooony said:
All diagnostic tools is on there.
Click to expand...

If you click the "See CD contents" it gives the full list which includes the following two memory testers:

MemTest 1.0: A Memory Testing Tool (Windows Freeware).
Memtest86+ 4.20: PC Memory Test (Linux Freeware).

It does not have HCL memtest though.
 
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DaRuSsIaMaN said:
I don't even see what the ram diagnostic is. What is it? I see several antivirus, anti-malware things, Parted Magic and hdd utilities...
Click to expand...

lol when you boot up with it there's on looking you straight in the face. Then don't use live xp use the dos utilities lol

Hard Disk Drive Speed Testing Tool.

GoldMemory 5.07

Memory Diagnostic Tests.

H2testw 1.4

Memory Testing Tool
Memtest86 4.20

PC Memory Test.

MemTest 1.0 a

S&M Stress Test 1.9.1
cpu/hdd/memory benchmarking and information tool, including temperatures/fan speeds/voltages.

System Speed Test 4.78
it tests CPU, harddrive, ect.

Windows Memory Diagnostic
a RAM Test tool.

http://www.hiren.info/pages/bootcd
 
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drescherjm said:
If you click the "See CD contents" it gives the full list which includes the following two memory testers:

MemTest 1.0: A Memory Testing Tool (Windows Freeware).
Memtest86+ 4.20: PC Memory Test (Linux Freeware).

It does not have HCL memtest though.
Click to expand...

nope go to dos utilities there's more. Some of them are with the hardware software in the dos menu
 
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