How reliable is Memtest86+ ??

St. Ares · 2008-12-18 17:51:16

I installed memtest86+ a little while ago and ran the test. After a short amount of time all I get is what seems to be a lot of errors. But yet my computer still works perfectly fine all the time. Even in windows which uses more ram. Could it still mean that I should get new ram? Or is the test wrong, and I have nothing to worry about?

R00KIE · 2008-12-18 19:14:56

memtest should run without errors on a system that is 100% ok.
Give more info about the errors, they can very well be harmless as you can use your computer without problems.

St. Ares · 2008-12-18 20:52:48

Okay I'll run the test again and post what errors it gave as soon as I can

St. Ares · 2008-12-19 08:04:42

Well I don't know how to explain why it is working now, but I ran the memtest for the same amount of time I did the last time, and it came up with no errors for that time. I am going to run it for a longer period of time, but since my computer works fine I doubt that I will have any terrible problems.

iBertus · 2008-12-19 09:22:48

Memtest is pretty good at finding memory problems, but I'd say that it isn't as aggressive as a test like prime95/mprime that is going to utilize memory for actual work. I've had memory errors not show up in memtest and still cause failures in other apps. Perhaps you have intermittent thermal issues with the memory, timings that are too tight, too little voltage, or any combination of these. It could also be that the memory isn't seated correctly. If you moved the box between tests, I'd check this first. Also, some memory just isn't fully compatible with all boards. Check the manufacturer's site.

St. Ares · 2008-12-19 17:16:50

Well the memory is still what I got from the manufacturer when I originally bought it, because the computer is relatively new. Also, if it isn't seated correctly then it could have moved any number of times due to the fact that it is a laptop and is always moving.

I only ran the memtest because I had some issues in windows and thought it could be my RAM. there was no other reason I suspected a ram problem. I ran memtest for quite a few hours overnight now and it came up with no errors, so I'm not worried anymore. Thanks for your time guys!

dav7 · 2008-12-20 03:10:21

There is an extremely low chance that the CD is a little corrupt, and read wrong on the first run (maybe a piece of dust managed to get into just the right place), causing the memtest86+ check code to fail.

-dav7

St. Ares · 2008-12-20 03:55:56

I wasn't running it off of a CD actually, I installed it and configured grub so that I could run it when I restart my computer. I realize that there could have been some odd ram problem, maybe windows didn't shutdown correctly, who knows. All I know is that all is fine now :-)

R00KIE · 2008-12-20 13:59:26

Just like iBertus said, thermal problems, timings and voltages can be the cause of a problem, it can also be caused but a faulty motherboard or connector, I had a dieing computer a few years ago that would have intermittent problems like memory errors and wrong detection of hard disks.
As for prime95/mprime I thought they were designed to stress the cpu, but if they can catch memory errors give them a try, any errors are a sign of faulty hardware no matter where they come from.

Arch Linux

#1 2008-12-18 17:51:16

How reliable is Memtest86+ ??

#2 2008-12-18 19:14:56

Re: How reliable is Memtest86+ ??

#3 2008-12-18 20:52:48

Re: How reliable is Memtest86+ ??

#4 2008-12-19 08:04:42

Re: How reliable is Memtest86+ ??

#5 2008-12-19 09:22:48

Re: How reliable is Memtest86+ ??

#6 2008-12-19 17:16:50

Re: How reliable is Memtest86+ ??

#7 2008-12-20 03:10:21

Re: How reliable is Memtest86+ ??

#8 2008-12-20 03:55:56

Re: How reliable is Memtest86+ ??

#9 2008-12-20 13:59:26

Re: How reliable is Memtest86+ ??

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