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MemTest 86 Solves Problem!!

Posted: Tue Jul 10, 2012 9:13 pm
by Scorpiuscat
A friend brought his cheap ASUS computer to me today with a BSOD problem.

So I boot it up and see the BSOD for myself.

The BSOD claimed a "Memory Management" problem, alrighty, opened the box up and found three sticks of 2GB each DDRII.

Pulled two sticks out, ran MemTest 86 on a boot disk, 1st stick seemed fine, took it out and put the 2nd stick in.......WOW!!! I have never before seen this many errors on a single stick of RAM ever, I stopped the test after the errors exceeded 21,000.

Did the same for the 3rd stick and it was fine.

Left out the bad stick and the computer now runs just fine, put some stress on it for a couple of hours and it ran great.

That the first time I ever had Memtest 86 solve a hardware problem for me, I have used it to varying degrees for years and I had never found a bad stick of RAM until now.

I had wondered before if MemTest was actuly doing anything since I had never had it tell me that it found bad RAM.

Memtest 86 boot disk gets a big thumbs up from me. 8)

Re: MemTest 86 Solves Problem!!

Posted: Tue Jul 10, 2012 10:12 pm
by DeadOfKnight
This message was brought to you by Memtest86

Re: MemTest 86 Solves Problem!!

Posted: Wed Jul 11, 2012 12:03 am
by Ari Atari
Hey, I'd still give it a thumbs up. My word may mean nothing on the internet, but it worked for me too.

Re: MemTest 86 Solves Problem!!

Posted: Wed Jul 11, 2012 12:24 am
by Firestarter
In this thread, a reliable software tool delivers as promised.

Re: MemTest 86 Solves Problem!!

Posted: Wed Jul 11, 2012 12:34 am
by just brew it!
My experience with it over the years has been that it doesn't always find existing RAM-related issues; but if it says a stick of RAM is bad, it is a near-certainty that there is a problem with the RAM or motherboard. Put another way: it has a less-than-wonderful false-negative rate, but its false-positive rate is close to zero.

I still use it as my 0th order burn-in test (before I try to install an OS).

Also, Memtest86+ (a fork of the original Memtest86 code) seems to be better maintained. I've switched over to it.

Re: MemTest 86 Solves Problem!!

Posted: Wed Jul 11, 2012 12:37 am
by Arclight
just brew it! wrote:
My experience with it over the years has been that it doesn't always find existing RAM-related issues; but if it says a stick of RAM is bad, it is a near-certainty that there is a problem with the RAM or motherboard. Put another way: it has a less-than-wonderful false-negative rate, but its false-positive rate is close to zero.

I still use it as my 0th order burn-in test (before I try to install an OS).

Also, Memtest86+ (a fork of the original Memtest86 code) seems to be better maintained. I've switched over to it.


Y U NO MAEK JOKE?!!!!

Re: MemTest 86 Solves Problem!!

Posted: Wed Jul 11, 2012 12:50 am
by just brew it!
Two DRAM cells are walking down the street. The first one says, "Hey... I lost my electrons!" The other one says, "Are you sure?" The first one replies, "Yes, I'm positive!"

</rimshot>

Happy now?

(And yes, I know this is a paraphrasing of someone else's bad - and rather geeky - joke... ask me if I care.)

Re: MemTest 86 Solves Problem!!

Posted: Wed Jul 11, 2012 1:02 am
by Arclight
just brew it! wrote:
Two DRAM cells are walking down the street. The first one says, "Hey... I lost my electrons!" The other one says, "Are you sure?" The first one replies, "Yes, I'm positive!"

</rimshot>

Happy now?[...]


Very happy hehe

Hmm i think we need a "rimshot smiley".

Re: MemTest 86 Solves Problem!!

Posted: Wed Jul 11, 2012 1:16 am
by just brew it!
Arclight wrote:
Hmm i think we need a "rimshot smiley".

So what would that look like?

Re: MemTest 86 Solves Problem!!

Posted: Wed Jul 11, 2012 1:19 am
by Arclight
just brew it! wrote:
Arclight wrote:
Hmm i think we need a "rimshot smiley".

So what would that look like?


From a random site
http://www.cheapassgamer.com/forums/sho ... p?t=184784

You can see it in the first post.