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How long to run memtest for?

fleshconsumed

fleshconsumed

Diamond Member
I have 4 1GB DDR2-1066 ballistix sticks that are famous for going bad. I have never overclocked them, always used at 800MHz speed and stock voltage, that is well below what they are rated for. However, lately I've started getting errors, programs crashing, and occasionally once or twice a blue screen. I replaced them with different ram and all my problems went away.

Obviously I'd like to get them RMA'ed, so I on two separate occasions I ran memtest on them for 24 hours straight and both times they passed it with zero errors. Huh? I know the sticks are bad because I tried using them in two different computers and while I may go for days without any errors sooner or later I will have programs crashing. If I use different RAM, no errors. However, these ballistix sticks still pass memtest.

So what to do? Run memtest for 48 hours? Or overclock them to 1066 and run memtest then? Or just submit RMA to crucial like that? Will Crucial accept RMA when I do not have definitive proof they are bad?
 
You run the DIMMs at their rated speed.
If after 24hours and no errors, then how do you know the program crashing is RAM related, and not drivers, or heat or ... Most of the time, 24hours is enough. You have 4 sticks, so that also puts more stress on the memory controller.
You said it may go for days without error, so it is extremely hard to narrow it down to a RAM issue, unless you use the other RAM you tried for the same amount of days, and have 4 sticks as well.

Last time I did a RMA to Crucial, they didn't ask anything special, just shipped out the new RAM. This was a few years back though.
 
Which memtest utility do you use? There are at least 3 out there.

The latest one should be memtest86+ ver 4.2

24 hours are more than enough for 4GBs but things are different when you are dealing with 8 or 12. IMHO you should be counting passes.
 
Maybe try bumping up the voltage if the sticks are rated for it. Could be not specifically a memory issue, but just that your memory is the first component to highlight a system issue. Extra voltage might help it keep stable.
 
No single memory diagnostic, no matter how good, will find all errors, and you need to run multiple diagnostics that use different test algorithms (Memtest86 and Memtest86+ use the same ones).

I dislike Crucial Balliistix memory, and if I had some that was causing errors I would request it be replaced with regular Crucial memory with a normal recommended operating voltage (1.8V for DDR2).
 
I've had ECC RAM be a problem (lock-up and kernel panic level 'problems'), with no recorded errors, and memtest never came up with anything (IIRC, memtest can't test 1/9th of the chips, but even so, there should have been reported errors by the OS on top of crashes). But that RAM would cause similar crashes in two completely different machines, and the model was on both mobo compatibility lists.

An error in memtest proves that there is a problem in your system (usually the RAM). A lack of such an error does not prove there isn't (even if it's RAM).
 
I'm positive it's a RAM issue. It may pass the memtest, but whenever I put it in two of my computers random programs (mostly firefox and visual studio) would start crashing on a semi-frequent basis. If I replace ballistix with gskill then everything runs fine. I was just curious why it was passing memtest. I guess I'll be trying to RMA all 4 sticks to crucial.
 
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