Can MEMTEST86+ check memory running at faster bus speed?

On Thu, 14 Oct 2004 22:50:30 +0100 There I was minding my own business
and then Franklin wrote :

I have set my motherboard/BIOS to exceed the normal the bus frequency
by just a little bit. Now I would like to test my memory to see if
it is ok under the new settings.

Memtest86+ from http://www.memtest.org/ looks like a good memory
tester. You make a special floppy and boot from the floppy. So it
tests before Windows is launched.

Does Memtest86+ test memory taking into account my newly chosen bus
frequency settings?

Or does it somehow ignore most motherboard settings (like my
frequency increase) and test the memory "raw"?

No software RAM testers are that much use IMHO.Memtest86+ won't point
out anything of relevance in overclocking,none of them will.
My 0.2




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On Thu, 14 Oct 2004 23:05:20 +0100, Shep© wrote:

On Thu, 14 Oct 2004 22:50:30 +0100 There I was minding my own business
and then Franklin wrote :

I have set my motherboard/BIOS to exceed the normal the bus frequency
by just a little bit. Now I would like to test my memory to see if
it is ok under the new settings.

Memtest86+ from http://www.memtest.org/ looks like a good memory
tester. You make a special floppy and boot from the floppy. So it
tests before Windows is launched.

Does Memtest86+ test memory taking into account my newly chosen bus
frequency settings?

Or does it somehow ignore most motherboard settings (like my
frequency increase) and test the memory "raw"?

No software RAM testers are that much use IMHO.Memtest86+ won't point
out anything of relevance in overclocking,none of them will.
My 0.2

True that software testers are limited in their capabilities but to say
that none will "point out anything of relevance" is absurd and
ill-informed. Have you even tried it?

Memtest86+ is actually a good, if not the best, software based memory
tester. It is certainly a very good confidence check that nothing is
horribly awry and I consider it standard practice to run Memtest86+ for a
couple of hours before attempting installation of an OS. IME, a system
which has passed the checks - as well as a hard disk diagnostic - has
always installed and run the OS without problems.

Rgds, George Macdonald

"Just because they're paranoid doesn't mean you're not psychotic" - Who, me??

George Macdonald wrote:
On Thu, 14 Oct 2004 23:05:20 +0100, Shep© wrote:


On Thu, 14 Oct 2004 22:50:30 +0100 There I was minding my own business
and then Franklin wrote :


I have set my motherboard/BIOS to exceed the normal the bus frequency
by just a little bit. Now I would like to test my memory to see if
it is ok under the new settings.

Memtest86+ from http://www.memtest.org/ looks like a good memory
tester. You make a special floppy and boot from the floppy. So it
tests before Windows is launched.

Does Memtest86+ test memory taking into account my newly chosen bus
frequency settings?

Or does it somehow ignore most motherboard settings (like my
frequency increase) and test the memory "raw"?

No software RAM testers are that much use IMHO.Memtest86+ won't point
out anything of relevance in overclocking,none of them will.
My 0.2


True that software testers are limited in their capabilities but to say
that none will "point out anything of relevance" is absurd and
ill-informed. Have you even tried it?

Yes. Memtest86 performs a series of read writes to the memory and
doesn't bugger about with clock speed as a 'problem detection' feature.
If all the read/writes work, then it gets a pass, if not errors are
reported. It doesn't say 'try lowering your clock speed and see if these
errors go away'. You'll have to figure that yourself :-)


Memtest86+ is actually a good, if not the best, software based memory
tester. It is certainly a very good confidence check that nothing is
horribly awry and I consider it standard practice to run Memtest86+ for a
couple of hours before attempting installation of an OS. IME, a system
which has passed the checks - as well as a hard disk diagnostic - has
always installed and run the OS without problems.

Rgds, George Macdonald

"Just because they're paranoid doesn't mean you're not psychotic" - Who, me??


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On Thu, 14 Oct 2004 19:42:07 -0400 There I was minding my own business
and then George Macdonald wrote
:

On Thu, 14 Oct 2004 23:05:20 +0100, Shep© wrote:

On Thu, 14 Oct 2004 22:50:30 +0100 There I was minding my own business
and then Franklin wrote :

I have set my motherboard/BIOS to exceed the normal the bus frequency
by just a little bit. Now I would like to test my memory to see if
it is ok under the new settings.

Memtest86+ from http://www.memtest.org/ looks like a good memory
tester. You make a special floppy and boot from the floppy. So it
tests before Windows is launched.

Does Memtest86+ test memory taking into account my newly chosen bus
frequency settings?

Or does it somehow ignore most motherboard settings (like my
frequency increase) and test the memory "raw"?

No software RAM testers are that much use IMHO.Memtest86+ won't point
out anything of relevance in overclocking,none of them will.
My 0.2

True that software testers are limited in their capabilities but to say
that none will "point out anything of relevance" is absurd and
ill-informed. Have you even tried it?

Yes.Next to useless and not worth the download let alone running.


Memtest86+ is actually a good, if not the best, software based memory
tester. It is certainly a very good confidence check that nothing is
horribly awry and I consider it standard practice to run Memtest86+ for a
couple of hours before attempting installation of an OS. IME, a system
which has passed the checks - as well as a hard disk diagnostic - has
always installed and run the OS without problems.

Window's itself is a good test of hardware memory.It will balk if
there's anything wrong usually throwing up a,"Registry" fault.
Why some people defend a piece of software that they get for free I'll
never know.Hardware RAM testing machines run into the thousands.Go
figure.
PS
Best RAM test if the user suspects a fault is to swap with a known
good stick ;-)




--
Free Windows/PC help,
http://www.geocities.com/sheppola/trouble.html
remove obvious to reply
email
Free songs to download and,"BURN" :O)
http://www.soundclick.com/bands/8/nomessiahsmusic.htm

On Fri, 15 Oct 2004 20:23:31 +0100, Shep© wrote:

Yes.Next to useless and not worth the download let alone running.

Oddly enough I seem to recall a Shep from the K7S5A boards, where
Memtest86 was the recommended tool to identify motherboards that had
"issues" with the higher speed Athlon T-birds. Maybe a different guy...

--
Rich Webb Norfolk, VA

In comp.sys.ibm.pc.hardware.chips Shep? wrote:
Window's itself is a good test of hardware memory. It
will balk if there's anything wrong usually throwing up
a,"Registry" fault.

Defective software, drivers, and other MS-Windows
cruft can also throw lockups, BSoD & Reg.errs

When these happen, you don't know if it's hardware
or software. Best to have some simple testers that
can rule out hardware. Testers can usually be more
intense than apps or OSes.

-- Robert

Yes.Next to useless and not worth the download let alone running.

I had unstable system. I ran a Linux based memory tester which booted off a
cdrw or 3.5" disk, and guess what? One of the Dual Channel modules was
malfunctioning, I went to the shop (computeria.fi, mind you) and got
replacement stick no questions asked. It worked flawlessly. Solved the
problem for me.

Window's itself is a good test of hardware memory.It will balk if

Yeah. So good. The system was unstable with defective ram, and guess what?
The machine just froze completely randomly, after 2 minutes, 7 minutes.. but
only if using a specific graphics intensive application. Initial reaction
was that maybe the driver is faulty, since that is not unfamiliar thing to
me after using ATI and nVidia products for years. So I switch driver. I
switch card. I switch vendor. Still keeps crashing. For some reason after
hours of tinkering, I somehow just know it is the ram, I download the
tester, burn it to cdrw.. boot with hands trembling.. and what the hell,
defective ram! After getting the sticks (dual channel kit!) replaced,
everything works like charm and has ever since (posting from that very same
system, A64 3000+ K8V DLX).

Latest problem was SP2 upgrade, Windows XP kept bluescreening but MS KB had
article about that, apparently the DEP / NX was broken in Windows XP SP2..
now SP2 works well too thanks for asking. I wonder what breaks next. ;-)

Best RAM test if the user suspects a fault is to swap with a known
good stick ;-)

Good idea. Next time I buy a new computer I will buy two dual channel 1GB
memory kits, just in case. No damn, what am I saying.. I didn't listen to
you at all, what I should do is to buy a spare "known good stick", how the
hell I know a stick is a known good stick anyway until I test it? I would
ASSUME that when I pay hundreds of bucks for a known Brand Name stick the
manufacturer would have somekind of quality assurance and testing procedure,
right? I don't know if they do, but sure as hell a defective sticks slipped
through.

So.. how you propose we know what stick is a good one and what isn't? Oh, by
testing? A marvelous idea.. howcome we didn't think of that.. *slaps
forehead* ..

On Fri, 15 Oct 2004 20:23:31 +0100, Shep© wrote:

On Thu, 14 Oct 2004 19:42:07 -0400 There I was minding my own business
and then George Macdonald wrote
:

True that software testers are limited in their capabilities but to say
that none will "point out anything of relevance" is absurd and
ill-informed. Have you even tried it?

Yes.Next to useless and not worth the download let alone running.

You do it your way - I'll do it mine and advise others accordingly.shrug

Memtest86+ is actually a good, if not the best, software based memory
tester. It is certainly a very good confidence check that nothing is
horribly awry and I consider it standard practice to run Memtest86+ for a
couple of hours before attempting installation of an OS. IME, a system
which has passed the checks - as well as a hard disk diagnostic - has
always installed and run the OS without problems.

Window's itself is a good test of hardware memory.

Rubbish.

It will balk if
there's anything wrong usually throwing up a,"Registry" fault.

A registry fault is a memory problem?guffaw There's a helluva lot of
other things in both software and hardware which can cause instability in
Windows... or any other OS for that matter.

Why some people defend a piece of software that they get for free I'll
never know.Hardware RAM testing machines run into the thousands.Go
figure.

Memory testing software is nothing new - it was used on mainframes and
minicomputers for years. It can generated crafted memory access patterns
which may occur once a day or less in a running OS.

PS
Best RAM test if the user suspects a fault is to swap with a known
good stick ;-)

With a memory tester, even a software one, you'll be closer to *knowing*
that it's the memory. A couple of hours of intensive memory testing,
*before* loading the OS, can save you a lot of grief and time.

Rgds, George Macdonald

"Just because they're paranoid doesn't mean you're not psychotic" - Who, me??

On Sat, 16 Oct 2004 06:23:06 -0400, George Macdonald
put finger to keyboard and
composed:

Memory testing software is nothing new - it was used on mainframes and
minicomputers for years. It can generated crafted memory access patterns
which may occur once a day or less in a running OS.

I agree, but I recall one particularly troublesome memory board in a
minicomputer during the 80's which was not faulted by regular
diagnostic software. This software was very intensive, probably more
so than Memtest-86. It generated many different patterns, and tested
for interference between adjacent memory cells. I ran this software
for several days but was not able to fault the board. However, the OS
and/or application software would crash about once a day with a parity
error. The OS was able to trap the address of this error, but could
not identify the faulty bit. As each bit was stored in a different
DRAM chip, I was facing the prospect of desoldering and replacing up
to 17 chips (16 + parity). Fortunately I eventually narrowed down the
faulty bit after writing a very simple diagnostic routine to exercise
this one location in a tight loop.

The one reservation I have with RAM testing software is that some
appear to have no adequate test for refresh problems. Faulty refresh
logic is more likely to show up in normal use, but not during a memory
test when cells are accessed (and therefore refreshed) continuously.


- Franc Zabkar
--
Please remove one 's' from my address when replying by email.

Franc Zabkar wrote:

On Sat, 16 Oct 2004 06:23:06 -0400, George Macdonald
put finger to keyboard and
composed:


Memory testing software is nothing new - it was used on mainframes and
minicomputers for years. It can generated crafted memory access patterns
which may occur once a day or less in a running OS.


I agree, but I recall one particularly troublesome memory board in a
minicomputer during the 80's which was not faulted by regular
diagnostic software. This software was very intensive, probably more
so than Memtest-86. It generated many different patterns, and tested
for interference between adjacent memory cells. I ran this software
for several days but was not able to fault the board. However, the OS
and/or application software would crash about once a day with a parity
error. The OS was able to trap the address of this error, but could
not identify the faulty bit. As each bit was stored in a different
DRAM chip, I was facing the prospect of desoldering and replacing up
to 17 chips (16 + parity). Fortunately I eventually narrowed down the
faulty bit after writing a very simple diagnostic routine to exercise
this one location in a tight loop.

The one reservation I have with RAM testing software is that some
appear to have no adequate test for refresh problems. Faulty refresh
logic is more likely to show up in normal use, but not during a memory
test when cells are accessed (and therefore refreshed) continuously.


- Franc Zabkar

I can recount a few stories about diagnostic software that missed a
particular type of fault too but that doesn't mean they were useless.