How to memtest 16GB of DDR2?

[Brian \Goober\ Gwaltney]

Ron May's Law:
The quality of correlation is inversly proportional to the density
of of my head. Da da do deee dumb

 

[Yousuf Khan]

Hello.

I'm setting up a new rig, with 4 X 4GB DDR2 modules.

I tried run memtest86 but it only detected 4GB of my memory.

In Linux and in XP-64 I see all 16GB of the RAM.

So how to test the RAM?

Anyone knows?

Please help. Thanks !

The Ubuntu 64-bit live-cd comes with a 64-bit version of Memtest. I'm
pretty sure most Linux distros' live-cd does this also.

Yousuf Khan

 

[Hactar]

Sys_basher will test most of it. Memtest86 runs under DOS so it's a 32
bit program, sys_basher runs under Linux so it can see all of the RAM.
However sys_basher can't identify which DIMM is bad, only that you have a
bad DIMM. The problems is that Linux lacks a call which will translate a
logical address to a physical address, if anyone knows how to do this I'd
appreciate if they would post the instructions for how to do this.


http://www.polybus.com/sys_basher_web/

If it gives the failing address, can't you just divide by 4 GiB (in this
case) to get the bad stick?

 

[Rant By Dopy]

So it depends on how far you go back or at what point you take a
snapshot of the word "DOS" as representing whatever was in most use at
that snapshot's time frame.

DOS the point, isn't it?

HAHAHA

I crack me up.

 

[PeterC]

DOS the point, isn't it?

HAHAHA

I crack me up.

 

[Robert Redelmeier]

Don't test it, run it.

Then when it crashes, how do you know what to fix?
Of course, you can hope it works and run to failure.
The commercial model of PC production.

I prefer to have some justifiable confidence in my machines by
testing upfront. I get parts from all over the place. While they
are to-standards and good quality, no-one can say they'll interact
perfectly. Tolerences could line up just the wrong way.

So I'm a big advocate of testing, especially on homebuilts. Stability
and longevity are the rewards. My main machine is almost 10 years
old and I cannot remember the last crash apart from powerfails.


-- Robert author `cpuburn` http://pages.sbcglobal.net/redelm

 

[beerspill]

I'm setting up a new rig, with 4 X 4GB DDR2 modules.

I tried run memtest86 but it only detected 4GB of my memory.

In Linux and in XP-64 I see all 16GB of the RAM.

So how to test the RAM?

Memtest+, from www.memtest.org, will test it all, but so should the
newest ver. of Memtest86, ver. 3.4A. I've used the latter to test
systems equipped with 6GB and 8GB.

 

[Robert Redelmeier]

You can test it by removing one strip at a time and trying
it if you are having problems.

This only works if:

1) The problem occurs often / quickly enough; and

2) You are sure that memory is the cause.

Also, absence of proof isn't proof of absence.

Many reliability problems don't occur often, or at least don't
produce visible consequences frequently. Testing is almost alwyas
more intense than regular usage and monitors continually for errors.

The cause is similarly uncertain. When you have a crash, how
can you possibly know what caused it? If it reproduces well,
then it's probably software. But if not, there still are software
interactions, and all the different peices of equipment (HD, PSU,
....) that could cause it. Testing eliminates them one-by-one.


-- Robert

 

[larry moe 'n curly]

You can test it by removing one strip at a time and trying it if you are
having problems.

I've had modules work fine when run alone but always failed when run
with another module, both in single-channel and dual-channel modes.
This includes two OCZ Gold matched pairs in a row.