Windows Vista Memory Diagnostics

[Edward]

Hi

Every time I run a Windows Vista Memory Diagnostics and it completes and
gets ready to boot back into Windows it freezes on the blank screen with the
progress bar running?

While Windows Memory Diagnostics was testing it didn't report any errors and
memtest64 also didn't report any errors.

I am running Windows Vista Ultimate 64 bit.

Could anyone please help?

Thanks in advance!

Edward

 

[Mick Murphy]

I don't use Vista's inbuilt; I use Windows Memory Diagnostics

http://oca.microsoft.com/en/windiag.asp

Read instructions, download and make a bootable out of it.

 

[Kerry Brown]

Software memory testers aren't 100% reliable. It's best to use a couple of
different ones. If there are errors it's certain you have a hardware problem
which is probably bad RAM. If there are no errors it's likely but not
certain you don't have a problem with RAM. In other words software RAM tests
don't rule out the possibility of bad RAM. I like the Vista RAM test
combined with memtest86+. You need to run at least one of the tests for
several hours. Overnight is good.

http://www.memtest.org/

 

[Edward]

Thanks for the reply.

I'm going to run another test tonight with a 3rd party memory tester.

What I noticed today is that when the computer is idle and my screen saver
(Windows Energy) comes on and I move the mouse to continue working again it
makes like a weird triangle from the taskbar to the center of the screen.
The only way to make it disappear is to change the resolution and then set it
back again. What is that all about? Could that also be related to RAM? In
the meantime I've reinstalled the nVidia graphics drivers from their site.

What I've also noticed is that a few times I've received blue screens, but I
done a check with WinDbg and it pointed to my Realtek RTL8168/8111 network
card driver.

Could there be something wrong with my motherboard perhaphs - it's a brand
new MSI X38 Platinum. My graphics card is a MSI nVidia 6600GT

Thanks.
Edward

 

[Kerry Brown]

If your video shares system RAM (i.e. onboard video) then yes the artifact
on the screen could be a symptom of bad RAM.

 

[Edward]

Hi Kerry

Thanks for your help so far.

I ran the latest version memtest86+ through the night and it found no errors.

After I reinstalled the graphics drivers it made a triangle with the top in
the middle of the screen and base on the taskbar again. No, the graphics
card has its own memory.

Any suggestions?

Edward

 

[Kerry Brown]

I would contact the manufacturer's support for the graphics card. What make
and model is the card?

 

[Edward]

It's an MSI nVidia 6600GT PCI Express card.

I also tried putting the graphics card in one of the other PCI Express slots
on the MSI X38 Platinum motherboard, but it done the same.

I forgot to mention that I have duel boot with Windows Vista Ultimate 64 bit
and Windows Server 2008 Datacenter 64 bit. Today I tried running the Windows
Memory Diagnostics from Windows Server 2008 and it also froze after the
memory check when it wanted to boot back into Windows Server 2008 (instead of
Windows Vista this time). As I mentioned before, it freezes on the part
where the progress bar runs (well should run) - where it obviously detects
hardware.

I couldn't check if the triangle also appears in Windows Server 2008 because
it doesn't have any 3D screen savers such as the Windows Energy screen saver.

Thanks for your input!

Edward