Bad RAM and a dumb question

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intraloper

Greetings,

I have a machine with some bad memory. The diagnostic tool I am using
gives me the addresses of the bad memory. Is there any way to prevent
XP from trying to access the bad memory ranges?
 
Greetings,

I have a machine with some bad memory. The diagnostic tool I am using
gives me the addresses of the bad memory. Is there any way to prevent
XP from trying to access the bad memory ranges?
Click to expand...

No. You need to replace the memory. Make sure you buy the correct memory
for your motherboard. Crucial.com has a "wizard" on their site to help
you identify your memory if you don't already know what you need.

Malke
 
Greetings,

I have a machine with some bad memory. The diagnostic tool I am using
gives me the addresses of the bad memory. Is there any way to prevent
XP from trying to access the bad memory ranges?
Click to expand...


No, replace the memory.
 
I have a machine with some bad memory. The diagnostic tool I am using
gives me the addresses of the bad memory. Is there any way to prevent
XP from trying to access the bad memory ranges?
Click to expand...

Yes, swap the module out with a known good one. Why would you want to
leave bad memory in your machine?
 
Greetings,

I have a machine with some bad memory. The diagnostic tool I am using
gives me the addresses of the bad memory. Is there any way to prevent
XP from trying to access the bad memory ranges?
Click to expand...

Wow, this is a great question. I have to admit that I don't know the exact
answer to your question but I suspect that the answer is yes. I suspect
that there is no such thing as perfect memory. Maybe someone with memory
expertise will enlighten us. Furthermore I suspect that the ability to
bypass those flaws is built into the memory.

Dave H.
 
Greetings,

I have a machine with some bad memory. The diagnostic tool I am using
gives me the addresses of the bad memory. Is there any way to prevent
XP from trying to access the bad memory ranges?
Click to expand...

As a general rule, no. And if one or more addresses in a memory
module are bad then it is likely that there will others that will
develop in the future.

There is one possible exception to this principle. That would be in
the case of a large memory module such as 1 gb or perhaps in some
instances 512 mb where the bad area was all concentrated near the top
end of the memory module (e.g. all within the last 50 or 100 mb of the
module). In that instance you could use the module in conjunction
with the /MAXMEM= setting in the BOOT.INI file to prevent Windows from
using the bad portion of the module. If there was more than one
memory module in the computer then the module with the defective area
would have to be installed as the last module, which would be the
highest numbered RAM slot.

But this procedure would still be risky, and I would not consider
doing it on a machine that was in any way doing important work or
storing valuable information.

Good luck

Ron Martell Duncan B.C. Canada
--
Microsoft MVP (1997 - 2006)
On-Line Help Computer Service
http://onlinehelp.bc.ca
Syberfix Remote Computer Repair

"Anyone who thinks that they are too small to make a difference
has never been in bed with a mosquito."
 
I think this is a fantastic question. It might not be viable, but it SHOULD
be. In fact, Windows should be sophisticated enough to compensate for some
amount of shaky hardware.

jm
 
Sure, do you suppose eventually it will be sophisticated enough to
ignore "shaky" operators?
 
axe said:
Wow, this is a great question. I have to admit that I don't know the
exact
answer to your question but I suspect that the answer is yes. I suspect
that there is no such thing as perfect memory.
Click to expand...

It better be perfect or else you're into a very unstable system, if your
system will boot at all.
Maybe someone with memory
expertise will enlighten us. Furthermore I suspect that the ability to
bypass those flaws is built into the memory.
Click to expand...
Nope. It's not like FAT where bad sectors on a hard drive can be flagged and
not used. Your memory better work perfectly or you need to find out what
the problem is. Memtest86 is such a program that will do a thorough testing
of RAM. Sometimes the test will fail, but that doesn't mean the RAM itself
is bad. Some motherboards can be finnicky (sp?) as to what RAM slots one
uses or how well they'll work with RAM sticks of different speeds.

Dave H.
Click to expand...

--
Linux is ready for the desktop! More ready than Windoze XP.
http://tinyurl.com/ldm9d

You just can't play games on Linux!
http://tinyurl.com/kgszl
 
JM said:
I think this is a fantastic question. It might not be viable, but it
SHOULD
be. In fact, Windows should be sophisticated enough to compensate for
some amount of shaky hardware.
Click to expand...
Windoze isn't sophisticated enough to be all that stable on good hardware. I
think you're asking alot to expect it to "compensate" for "shaky" hardware.

Cheers.


--
Linux is ready for the desktop! More ready than Windoze XP.
http://tinyurl.com/ldm9d

You just can't play games on Linux!
http://tinyurl.com/kgszl
 
Ron said:
As a general rule, no. And if one or more addresses in a memory
module are bad then it is likely that there will others that will
develop in the future.
Click to expand...

Yeah, I wouldn't normally be doing this. The machine is a
"franken-puter" with which we're ammusing ourselves by seeing how long
we can keep the thing going using only components from "the box of
stuff". The bad RAM (or, perhaps, bad memory controller) seems to fail
reliably near the end of physical memory (except for one itty-bitty
little block near the start, but we'll just ignore that one).
There is one possible exception to this principle. That would be in
the case of a large memory module such as 1 gb or perhaps in some
instances 512 mb where the bad area was all concentrated near the top
end of the memory module (e.g. all within the last 50 or 100 mb of the
module). In that instance you could use the module in conjunction
with the /MAXMEM= setting in the BOOT.INI file to prevent Windows from
using the bad portion of the module. If there was more than one
memory module in the computer then the module with the defective area
would have to be installed as the last module, which would be the
highest numbered RAM slot.
Click to expand...

That's exactly what I was looking for, thanks.
But this procedure would still be risky, and I would not consider
doing it on a machine that was in any way doing important work or
storing valuable information.
Click to expand...

The machine functions only as a game machine, a video player and a
source of amusement. Besides, what's the worst that could happen?
It's not like the filesystem driver is going to get confused and
overwrite all coppies of the root MFT with garbage. Bad
processor/mb/ram could never cause such a thing to happen.
(cough-cough)
Good luck

Ron Martell Duncan B.C. Canada
--
Microsoft MVP (1997 - 2006)
On-Line Help Computer Service
http://onlinehelp.bc.ca
Syberfix Remote Computer Repair

"Anyone who thinks that they are too small to make a difference
has never been in bed with a mosquito."
Click to expand...

....or a blackfly.

Thanks for your help,

Sean
 
NoStop said:
It better be perfect or else you're into a very unstable system, if your
system will boot at all.

Nope. It's not like FAT where bad sectors on a hard drive can be flagged
and
not used. Your memory better work perfectly or you need to find out what
the problem is. Memtest86 is such a program that will do a thorough
testing
of RAM. Sometimes the test will fail, but that doesn't mean the RAM itself
is bad. Some motherboards can be finnicky (sp?) as to what RAM slots one
uses or how well they'll work with RAM sticks of different speeds.



--
Linux is ready for the desktop! More ready than Windoze XP.
http://tinyurl.com/ldm9d

You just can't play games on Linux!
http://tinyurl.com/kgszl
Click to expand...

I understand what you are saying and appreciate the response but if ram was
perfect, we would not need ecc ram.

Dave H.
 
axe said:
I understand what you are saying and appreciate the response but if ram
was perfect, we would not need ecc ram.

Dave H.
Click to expand...

The need for ecc RAM isn't to compensate for bad RAM. Rather it's used to
compensate for when a memory glitch happens, which can be caused by such
things as alpha particle or ionizing radiation and cosmic rays.

Cheers.

--
Linux is ready for the desktop! More ready than Windoze XP.
http://tinyurl.com/ldm9d

You just can't play games on Linux!
http://tinyurl.com/kgszl
 
Greetings,

I have a machine with some bad memory. The diagnostic tool I am using
gives me the addresses of the bad memory. Is there any way to prevent
XP from trying to access the bad memory ranges?
Click to expand...

There is a BadRam function in many of the linuxes, and a similar
project for DOS/win9X (alpha, at best). Not currently for XP or, AFIAK,
vista. That Said: Microsoft did develop a tool for testing RAM. One
wonders if they plan to integrate it into the OS at some point.

http://badmem.sourceforge.net/

https://sourceforge.net/projects/badxms


http://www.softwaretipsandtricks.com/forum/windows-xp/19730-badram-program-windows-xp.html
 
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