Error detected at address 258433024 ???

[quadcells]

Hello all,
I hope this thread belongs here....
A co-worker ran Norton Diagnostcs on his computer and got this error message when running the Memory test. "Error detected at address 258433024"
When the computer boots, it runs a memory test with no errors.
Should he return the memory?
He seems to have no problems with the computer.
WIN98SE PIII 700 o/c 868MHz 256 meg PC133 memory.
I'll ask him to return the speed to 700Mhz to see if that helps, but the memory is 133MHz and the bus speed is only 124MHz.
Thanks in advance.

 

[Gunbuster]

It might be bad, I had a bunch of on and off errors and norton failed on the ram test but none of my other diags said it was bad.

Replaced the ram and the minor gliches on the system went away.

 

[ruckb]

Hi,

The memory test that the computer is doing while booting is mainly, that the complete amout of memory is accessable. It is nearly not able to find any single cell fails (if this test is finding single cells, then the memory is REALLY crap ;-) )
This means you can switch it of, then the PC is booting much faster !


Good softwarebased memory tests are much longer, because they write all different kinds of pattern in the array. I have never tried the norton test, but good tests are Goldmemory and Memtest86 !
Can you try this tests, because I would be very interested, about the efficiency of the Norton Diagnostics.

The tests can be found under

Goldmem link
Memtest86

The question about the fail is not just about the speed. To find out whether the DIMM is out of spec, you have to check other parameters too. tRP or tRCD and the Latency can cause fails if you are running a 133MHz333 DIMM at 124MHz 222 Timing.

If it is a PC133-333 DIMM, and you are running it as "PC124-333" then you should return it defintly, because it can cause different strange effects. This starts from crashing the system to wrong calcualtions in your programs, ....

If you are overclocking the DIMM it is still a bad situation. Your dealer may not take it back as long you can not prove a problem under spec conditions, but you know the DIMM is somehow marginal!
I assume the fail is found at roomtemperature. It can be worse in the summer, when it is hot in the room, or in the winter, when the window is open to get some fresh air.


And just for your interest:
The address, that Norton Diagnostics is giving you is the linear Processoraddress. Based on this address and the Chipset scrambling you can recalculate the exact fail address of the chip on the DIMM. From the address you gave us so far I can only tell, that the fail is in one of the DQ's 32 to 63. For the exact recalculation you would need the chipset, and the DQ information, that Norton Diagnostic should give you.

ruckb

 

[ruckb]

I forgot one thing:

is the failing address stable for several runs oft the diagnostic?
if not it would be possible that the cache is causing the problem !

ruckb

 

[quadcells]

Hi ruckb,
He ran the test 5 times at different days and always the same address reported.
I'll see if he can run those other diagnostic programs.
thanks guys