How to guide: Memtest86+, Prime95, and SP2004

[Rubycon]

Originally posted by: tran1981
How come Orthos blend gave me errors after 7hrs? I ran Orthos small FFT for 17hrs and memtest for 2hrs (6passes) but they didn't give me errors at same settings.

That's part of the zero'ing in to find your max frequency your system is stable - back things down a little or goose the voltage up a bit (if you're not too high now!) and keep pushing until you can run these without errors.

 

[Powermoloch]

How do I burn an image for memtest86 on a cd.?..I have no clue at all

 

[Rubycon]

Originally posted by: Powermoloch
How do I burn an image for memtest86 on a cd.?..I have no clue at all

If you have Nero you can open the downloadable ISO from memtest86.com and burn a cd directly. Easy as pie.

Memtest needs updating though. I'm concerned because it isn't properly recognizing conroe cores - it says L2 cache unknown and the main memory speed displayed is an impossibly high value. See example here.

 

[Powermoloch]

Originally posted by: MS Dawn

Originally posted by: Powermoloch
How do I burn an image for memtest86 on a cd.?..I have no clue at all

If you have Nero you can open the downloadable ISO from memtest86.com and burn a cd directly. Easy as pie.

Memtest needs updating though. I'm concerned because it isn't properly recognizing conroe cores - it says L2 cache unknown and the main memory speed displayed is an impossibly high value. See example here.

So just download and burn it straight to Nero? ok then. As soon I get to use my main rig back..i'll head up back and test it again.

The reason why I need to test the rig over and over again . I was puzzled on a couple instances (especially playing RTCW:ET, HALO online). I'll get a very deep hard freeze and makes beeping noises right after (mobo not detecting the memory as said by the manual)

....I suspect it was the ram, but it is Mushkin XP4000 2x1gb sticks @ 230 mhz with stock timings that were meant to be OCed. It never happened with my 2 x 512 mb value ram. I test it on prime95 for 12+ hours and on another memtest app for 12 hours +. Benchmarked the hell out of it, but never replicated the same thing. And no errors.

Just to be on the safe side...I need to test the rig if my memory is playing with me. Although everything, especially playing oblivion for several hours never caused a deep freeze which results to a hard boot or BSOD.

Then again it could be my PSU . At least I got another PSU on standby, a nice spankin' new Fortron.

 

[Prince13]

Thanks! I wanted to know in detail about these softwares . Thanks Very much!

 

[Jumpem]

Not quite working for me. I set up two instances of Prime95 like you said and my CPU usage still stays around 50%. Same with Super Pi.

Edit: It does show 100% usage with Orthos though.

 

[caberguy]

Just out of curiosity.... When I run two instances of Prime 95, overnight let's say, one instance will get through 8 or 9 iterations while the other instance will only get through 1 or 2. I sort of figured that they'd do roughly the same amount of work with them running for the same time on cores running at the same speed, I realize that background tasks, etc. leach a bit of overhead, but is this normal?

 

[SkylineRider]

This link has better instruction for Prime95 test on dual-core.

http://www.dfi-street.com/forum/showthread.php?t=16445

 

[anthrax]

I think the author should add Intel's Thermal Analysis Tool (TAT) to the list.

Its really good for testing whether Core 2 Duos.

1.) Generates the most heat on Intel Core 2 Duo CPU's. even more than Othros.
2.) Measure Core heat directly of the CPU's Thermal Diode.
3.) Can accurate measure whether the processor core has throttled or not.
4.) Quickly crashes a system with an unstable overclock. (less than 1/2 hour).

 

[John]

SkylineRider, how exactly are those instructions different from mine?

anthrax, I'll look into it.

 

[Gannon]

This thread needs to be updated, Core 2 duo's can stand temperatures upwards to 80C at load according to intels thermal analysis tool, the thermal throttling doesn't occur until 80C is reached in the core.

 

[John]

Hi, this thread doesn't discuss the cpu temp thresholds, and my statement regarding load temps is my opinion. Intel specifies the C2D/X with a max temperature of around 61C and a maximum absolute temp of 85C, and the cpu starts throttling at around 80C. Regardless anything over 65C means you've got cooling issues that should be resolved.

 

[amenx]

Why go through all this hassle and trouble running so many instances of all these stress programs? I just run Sp2004 Blend for 2 hours and I KNOW that is enough for me. I know that I will never encounter ANYTHING in my computing experience that will ever approach anywhere near the stress threshold SP2004 imposes on my system. And if there is that infintesimally, miniscule chance that 2 hours of Sp2004 is not enough, could anyone please tell my what possible, practical scenario or program or game in daily computer usage will show me that SP2004 was indeed insufficient for my purposes and that as a result I will BSOD or crash or whatever because I neglected more thorough or sufficient stess testing?

 

[FireChicken]

I know that there must be a real simple answer for this but I just can't figure out how to install othos. I download the file and I get a cabinet file. When I double click on it it just opens up a window. There is an orthos icon in the window and doublw clicking on that asks me where I want to extract the file. So I extract it and I get an orthos Icon on my desk top. When I double click on that it saya that it won't runn because it cant find work dll file. Please help with my stupidity. Thanks

 

[John]

Download WinRAR and it will extract the files.

 

[FireChicken]

I knew it would be simple..

Thanks, John!

 

[Drag55]

i really don't think memtest is needed i'll stick with sp2004

 

[LOUISSSSS]

another vote for combining this guide with the overclocking AMD x2 & C@D guide

 

[Zangetsu]

thanks man. this will really help me out with my overclock

 

[melchoir55]

OC noobs like me really appreciate stuff like this. Thanks.

 

[Blouge]

>Edit: actually I get "NOT CONVERGENT IN SQR05" when running SuperPi.

FYI this error also happens on a stable PC when trying to run SuperPi twice from the same directory.
You could of course still have stability problems though.

 

[imported_browsing]

I've got my e6600 sitting at 1.30v in everest at 3ghz (266), is this enough voltage in your opinion? I've heard some people leaving it on auto at this speed, what do you guys think? I know the p5w dh has a voltage droop, as in BIOS my cpu is set higher, but what's a good voltage for a moderate overclock to 3ghz? Also, is it best to keep ram at 1:1, or would it be better to push it higher above 800 if it can handle it?

 

[Soulkeeper]

are there any bootable cd's that can stress the cpu and display cpu temps ?

 

[imported_AndyT]

Originally posted by: Soulkeeper
are there any bootable cd's that can stress the cpu and display cpu temps ?

I have never seen or heard of a bootable stress program that will display temps. That would certainly be less risky than testing stabilty than in yuor OS.

 

[nealh]

you may want to add win memtest
http://hcidesign.com/memtest/download.html

also why such a short run on metest86...

if your testing ram..what are your parameters....I have found memtest86 test #5 can be run for several passes ie 5..when tweaking my ram..I could get 5, 10, 15 passes..but had it fail after 38 passes ....so I felt ram was not reall stable unless I get 50 passes on test #5 at given settings....