RAM test software

  • Thread starter Thread starter Tony Sanders
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Tony Sanders

I have been experiencing frequent spontaneous system shutdowns of
late.

WinXP Pro
AMD Duron 957Mhz.
512 (256) MB SDRAM
Mainboard Pronix/Epox 8363A-686B
C drive Seagate ST320011 A
F drive Seagate ST320413A
NIC Compaq NC3120 Ethernet
Modem SwannSmart II

I have overcome this (in the meantime) by removing the 256Meg SDRAM
card from memory bank 1 (I will refer to this card as card B).

The system runs reliably with only 1 memory card (card A) in memory
bank 0. Out of interest, I tested the system with card B only in
memory bank 0 (which used to reside in memory bank 1), and the system
still runs reliably - albeit somewhat more slowly than with card A
only in bank 0.

I did, however, experience one isolated spontaneous system shutdown
with card B only in bank 0, which I have been unable to repeat.

Now, Event Viewer reports;

"AMLI: ACPI BIOS is attempting to read from an illegal IO port address
(0xcfc), which lies in the 0xcf8 - 0xcff protected address range. This
could lead to system instability. Please contact your system vendor
for technical assistance."

.... in relation to these shutdowns.

I need to test my RAM before I do anything else.

I have downloaded a couple of open source RAM testers from the 'net,
but cannot get either to produce the required boot-disk.

I would appreciate a pointer to a reliable, reasonably foolproof (and
free :-) ) RAM module testing software item.

-----------------------------------------------
Tony Sanders
New Zealand/Aotearoa

kiwib9k9@[nospam]yahoo.com
-------------------------------------------
 
Tony said:
I have been experiencing frequent spontaneous system shutdowns of
late.

WinXP Pro
AMD Duron 957Mhz.
512 (256) MB SDRAM
Mainboard Pronix/Epox 8363A-686B
C drive Seagate ST320011 A
F drive Seagate ST320413A
NIC Compaq NC3120 Ethernet
Modem SwannSmart II

I have overcome this (in the meantime) by removing the 256Meg SDRAM
card from memory bank 1 (I will refer to this card as card B).

The system runs reliably with only 1 memory card (card A) in memory
bank 0. Out of interest, I tested the system with card B only in
memory bank 0 (which used to reside in memory bank 1), and the system
still runs reliably - albeit somewhat more slowly than with card A
only in bank 0.

I did, however, experience one isolated spontaneous system shutdown
with card B only in bank 0, which I have been unable to repeat.

Now, Event Viewer reports;

"AMLI: ACPI BIOS is attempting to read from an illegal IO port address
(0xcfc), which lies in the 0xcf8 - 0xcff protected address range. This
could lead to system instability. Please contact your system vendor
for technical assistance."

... in relation to these shutdowns.

I need to test my RAM before I do anything else.

I have downloaded a couple of open source RAM testers from the 'net,
but cannot get either to produce the required boot-disk.

I would appreciate a pointer to a reliable, reasonably foolproof (and
free :-) ) RAM module testing software item.

-----------------------------------------------
Tony Sanders
New Zealand/Aotearoa

kiwib9k9@[nospam]yahoo.com
-------------------------------------------
Click to expand...

There is only one that anyone with any technical nouse will recommend -
Memtest86. Get it from www.memtest86.com, surprisingly.
 
There is only one that anyone with any technical nouse will recommend
- Memtest86. Get it from www.memtest86.com, surprisingly.
Click to expand...

The original Memtest86 is no longer being actively developed. You may wish
to take a look at Memtest86+ which can be downloaded from
http://www.memtest.org

Of course, unless you are affected by any of the bugs and/or shortcomings
removed in the plus-version you should probably get along just fine with the
original version.
 
Tony Sanders said:
I have been experiencing frequent spontaneous system shutdowns of
late.

WinXP Pro
AMD Duron 957Mhz.
512 (256) MB SDRAM
Mainboard Pronix/Epox 8363A-686B
C drive Seagate ST320011 A
F drive Seagate ST320413A
NIC Compaq NC3120 Ethernet
Modem SwannSmart II

I have overcome this (in the meantime) by removing the 256Meg SDRAM
card from memory bank 1 (I will refer to this card as card B).

The system runs reliably with only 1 memory card (card A) in memory
bank 0. Out of interest, I tested the system with card B only in
memory bank 0 (which used to reside in memory bank 1), and the system
still runs reliably - albeit somewhat more slowly than with card A
only in bank 0.

I did, however, experience one isolated spontaneous system shutdown
with card B only in bank 0, which I have been unable to repeat.

Now, Event Viewer reports;

"AMLI: ACPI BIOS is attempting to read from an illegal IO port address
(0xcfc), which lies in the 0xcf8 - 0xcff protected address range. This
could lead to system instability. Please contact your system vendor
for technical assistance."

... in relation to these shutdowns.

I need to test my RAM before I do anything else.

I have downloaded a couple of open source RAM testers from the 'net,
but cannot get either to produce the required boot-disk.

I would appreciate a pointer to a reliable, reasonably foolproof (and
free :-) ) RAM module testing software item.
Click to expand...

This behavior indicates that your two RAM modules are not absolutely
identical to each other.

RAM from different manufacturers, or even from the same manufacturer
but different production lots, can have differences in the material
composition and/or the internal layout of the RAM chips. These
differences can affect the strength and the timing of the signals
returned from the RAM and Windows is sensitive to these differences.

The only cure for this problem is to replace one or both RAM modules
so that you have two that are identical.

Good luck


Ron Martell Duncan B.C. Canada
--
Microsoft MVP
On-Line Help Computer Service
http://onlinehelp.bc.ca

"The reason computer chips are so small is computers don't eat much."
 
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