memtest.exe

[No One]

Good day everyone.

When I launch the Administrative Tools/Memory Diagnostic Tool in Vista Home
Premium the computer reboots, you get the BIOS screen, then what appears to
be a DOS error screen that says file \boot\memtest.exe is missing or
corrupt. It's NOT at all missing as you can easily see it on the C:\boot
directory, and the version appears to be from SP1.

How can I run the memtest program that came with Vista?

THANKS!
Bill in Cape Coral, FL

 

[Rick Rogers]

Hi Bill,

"is missing or corrupt."

Since it's not missing, then it must be corrupt. Two possible solutions:

1) Run sfc /scannow from an elevated command prompt to detect and repair
corrupt system files.

2) Use a third party tool for the test like memtest86, docmemory, or
Microsoft's oca memory test. All are easily found and are free to use.

--
Best of Luck,

Rick Rogers, aka "Nutcase" - Microsoft MVP

Windows help - www.rickrogers.org
My thoughts http://rick-mvp.blogspot.com

 

[No One]

Thank you. I have already run SFC /SCANNOW and it finds no errors at all,
anywhere, on anything. I was never prompted to insert the Windows CD,
nothing at all.

Chatting with Gateway offers me a "Start The Computer Over" nuclear option.
Gee, what a help. Chatting with Microsoft offered me a Boot the Windows CD
and select Repair System, but the CD that came with the Gateway appears to
be a rebuild only as it gives me no options and goes straight to installing
Vista. Using F8 during boot to get to the Repair option works, but starts
by asking about my keyboard and I am loathe to redo the entire system for
one file.

So I cannot run it from Repair by booting the CD as NightHawk suggested.
Trying to copy memtest.exe from the CD into the C:\boot\ directory says it
will copy it and name it memtest(2).exe, but after it "copies" it's not
there and the original file is undisturbed. Sometimes all you can do is
scratch your head.

I have memtest86 that I have been using for XP machines but haven't gotten a
newer version in awhile. I will correct that. Not familiar with the
others. However, it's bugging me now that the diagnostic included with
Vista doesn't work.

And what prompted this whole ordeal is that the machine came with 3 GB. I
went to Crucial's site and it says my Gateway FX7020 can take 4GB of ram, so
I bought two 1GB sticks to bring it up to 4GB after swapping out the two
512MB sticks. I now get 3.25 GB of memory. I understand that Vista won't
give me the full 4GB, (and a friend told me about that after I'd already
ordered the memory, and am not happy that Crucial says I can do 4GB when
they know darn well it's not useable), but naturally when I make a hardware
change I want to make sure it works, and a memory diagnostic that comes with
Vista would seems to be the ideal solution.

So the next logical question is if I run the repair option, and am spooked
by it asking about my keyboard configuration, can I go past that point and
ONLY fix the memtest or do I have to basically overwrite the entire system,
then download all the updates again?

Thank you for wading through all this.

 

[Rick Rogers]

Hi,

I don't like Gateway's solution either. To me, that's not an answer. Running
sfc would never prompt for the CD, as backups of system files are kept on
the hard drive. I'm not familiar with Gateway's on-board repair facility,
but I suspect it does the same as the recovery disks. A repair install is
not something that allows you to be selective about what's being repaired.

As to the ram-use limit, Crucial would report what the max amount the board
will support, they do not concern themselves with what operating system will
be used. An x64 installation would be able to use all 4GB.

What antivirus solution are you using? Some have been reported to interfere
with disk operations like chkdsk, and this could well be the same type of
issue. See if disabling boot sector protection has any affect.

--
Best of Luck,

Rick Rogers, aka "Nutcase" - Microsoft MVP

Windows help - www.rickrogers.org
My thoughts http://rick-mvp.blogspot.com

 

[No One]

I use Grisoft's AVG Anti-Virus and have found it be an excellent product,
better than excellent being free, of course. I've had it on my computers
for years now, never had a virus problem on any of them, and they update it
darn near daily. I'll play with that.

I did get memtest86 and the Windows Memory Diagnostic and the machine passed
memtest, which also identified the machines speeds, actual memory size and
so on the WMD doesn't do. (I did not do docmemory since it requires me to
give a valid email address to download it and I get enough spam as it is,
thank you. (Incidental inquiry? Do the Russians spammers really think I
can read Cyrillic or are they really that stupid?))

If I do run the repair install, is it going to revert everything back to
before SP1, i.e. factory setup?
Thanks! Good thread.
Bill

 

[Rick Rogers]

Hi Bill,

From what I know of Gateway's solutions they, like other OEM's, tend to use
wipe and reload as a repair. I would hesitate to use it.

--
Best of Luck,

Rick Rogers, aka "Nutcase" - Microsoft MVP

Windows help - www.rickrogers.org
My thoughts http://rick-mvp.blogspot.com