RAM testing

garcia

Hi all,
upgraded my pc to 1 gig ram yesterday by adding in a 512mb kingston module. System seems to be zipping along nicely, but I got a couple of weird crashes yesterday.

Anyone got any recommendations for testing the ram to uncover any problems?

Many thanks,
Garcia.

nickmack

http://www.memtest.org

garcia

Thanks nick I've tried the basic test of memtest+ and that came up clear. Just wondering if there was anything more likely to uncover problems?

woo

i have used http://www.memtest86.com/ takes a while to run but was very thorough.

gamston

i've found in the past, ram can pass the memory testers, but u still get crashes on the system because the ram has slight faults in it, or inconpatable with other ram or system (motherboard)
in my case the ram was not conpatable with my motherboard

Joe_Bloggs

You might try prime95 on torture test after memtest86. Watch your temperatures though.
J_B.

mfboss

what was the error message (assuming it's not on auto restart)?
It's best if you leave the memory test overnight

If it was working fine before you put the extra ram, then it could be the new ram that is the problem. Take out the old one and leave the new one in and test with something like prime95 as posted above. Do the same for the other one.

John_Gray

Not to be overlooked is the Microsoft Windows Memory Diagnostic (yes, not Diagnostics).

"Windows" is a misnomer, because it will set up a bootable diskette or a bootable CD-ROM, from which the actual memory tests are run.

John

irnbru_2

garcia wrote:

Thanks nick I've tried the basic test of memtest+ and that came up clear.

How long did you test it for?

You should leave it on a soak test (24hrs or more) if you believe there is a memory fault.