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Test your systems memory with Memtest86
Author: | Monday November 25, 2002
Memtest86 is not only the perfect way to verify that your system's memory is error free, but Memtest86 is even better when tweaking your bios / overclocking and determining your memory is up to the task.
Memory purchases today are an iffy proposition. Prices have fallen dramatically and many manufacturers or retail outlets lead the purchaser to believe that all memory is the same.
An original system I built came with DDR2100 memory; which, before purchasing I asked the salesmen to please order good ram. Athlon systems are not forgiving when it comes to Memory or *Power Supplies, so, I always insure I order the best available. 400 W is good, 500 W is better when it comes to Athlons and power supplies.
I have been indulging in VMWARE lately and running an additional operating system over the host required some additional memory then 256M, so off to the local computer store for 512 meg.
Within 60 seconds of booting the machine I knew their was a problem, X windows was crashing. I returned the memory (after some more tests), and the same problem occured. This time I went to another computer store (one that everyone knows) and purchased 256 meg (since that was all that was in stock) from an additional manufacturer.
After, about an hour of moving and changing out Ram, I started to question whether or not 3 different pieces of ram could be bad. I downloaded Memtest86 and went to work.
*By the way, my bios (memory settings) is tweaked for perfomance (no overclocking)
You can download Memtest86 (see acknowledgements) and compile it in Linux. Their are also precompiled versions available on there website.
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Testing
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Test 1 : The bios settings were not modified.
Original 256 meg memory : No Errors
New 512 meg memory : Numerous Errors
new 256 meg memory : Numerouse Errors
Test 2 : Changed CAS Latency in the bios to 2.5
Original 256 meg memory : No Errors
New 512 meg memory : Numerous Errors
New 256 meg memory : Some Errors
Test 2 : Bios Modified : Memory Settings Self Configuring
Original 256 meg memory : No Errors
New 512 meg memory : Numerous Errors
New 256 meg memory : No Errors
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End Result
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The end result is that my 512 meg chip was bad, the newer 256 meg could not handle the high performance of the system and needed to be scaled back. Memtest86 saved me alot of time in determinig the source of my problems and was well appreciated.
When purchasing ram spend the extra money and or check with AMD's website for recommended memory if your are running an Athlon based system. You will not also improve the perfomance of your system but enjoy a much more stable system as well. Don't forget to run memtest86 when you install the new ram.
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NOTE
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CAS Latency is only as fast as your slowest memory stick. So if your original memory has a CAS Latency of 2.5 then your new memory with a Cas Latency of 2 will unfortunately have a CAS of 2.5.
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Acknowledgements
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Memtest 86 is can be found at http://www.memtest86.com
Tom's Hardware
http://www.tomshardware.com
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Author
HumanX
LinuxDig.Com
humanx@linuxdig.com
Please feel free to distribute this article, as long as the author information stays intact. If you modify the article, please send me a copy.
Copyright 2002
1 comment
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Very good information! Thanks for sharing this.
Robert M. Hall
mailto:rhall-blog@impossibilities.com
http://www.impossibilities.com/blog/
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