Help with MemTest86+

[aceman817]

I am working on an Athlon XP 2.1Ghz that had a defective hard drive and I am testing all the other hardware components for good measure. I loaded MemTest86+ v1.55 from the UBCD to test the single 512MB DDR chip that is in the unit. It has been running for just over 2 hours and has found one error. The system is running a nVidia nForce2 chipset and the RAM specs are displayed as 166mhz, DDR332, CAS 2.5-3-3-7, single channel (64 bits). My question is how long should I let this program run for and is this one error permissible? I have run this program in the past and once it immediately came up with many errors so I simply replaced the DIMM and everything worked fine afterwards. Any other tips are greatly appreciated.

 

[BlueWeasel]

I've had sticks of RAM have only one error in MemTest after hours of testing that were fine. Granted, I know that stable systems should have zero errors in MemTest, but the Nforce2 boards are extremely picky and can be fickle with MemTest.

Since you've got UBCD, try running some of the other memory testing programs like the MS Memory Diagnostic and see if you have any errors after an hour or so of testing.

If you're not overclocking and running at the default timings of the stick, then I wouldn't worry about it.

 

[aceman817]

Thanks for the tips. It has now been running for almost 4 hours and is reporting 2 errors. I'm not sure what the memory settings should be (clock setting, latency, etc.). How much longer should I let MemTest+ run for before I switch over to the MS Memory Diagnostic program?

 

[aceman817]

As it approached 4 hours it found one more error for a total of 3. Also, are there any other tests that you think I should run on the machine? The capacitors on the mainboard look fine and I tested the PSU with my multimeter and it seems to be within +-5% of voltage tolerances. I was thinking that after this test I would restart into the BIOS and check the settings there as well as the CPU temp.

 

[BlueWeasel]

The stick may have a sticker on it that lists the timings. But, since you're running an Nforce2 board, you should have an option in the BIOS to automatically set the timings based on the default timings.

I'd go ahead and stop MemTest now and switch to something else.

 

[aceman817]

Thanks again for the tips. I'll restart and go into the BIOS now to check the settings there. Then I'll run another memory test.

 

[aceman817]

Well I think I may have just found the culprit. The BIOS has a setting named "Memory Timings" and it was set to "Agressive" which is an over clocked mode that can cause instability. I'm checking over the other settings as I write this.

 

[aceman817]

I ran the Windows Memory Tester from the UBCD and it didn't find any problems. I think that "Aggressive" setting proved to be the solution.

 

[BlueWeasel]

Originally posted by: aceman817
I ran the Windows Memory Tester from the UBCD and it didn't find any problems. I think that "Aggressive" setting proved to be the solution.

That's my guess as well. By using the Aggressive setting, it was likely using slightly tighter timings than the default. I'd probably let MemTest run overnight with the new settings and see if that makes a difference.