Is it possible? Only errors in memtest.

[ArisVer]

Hi,
I decided to Memtest86+ v4.10 on my netbook and it shows only errors. I am on 60% testing atm, nothing is passed and i have more than 700 errors.

The computer seems to run fine on Xubuntu.

Could it be a virus? I was reading at a post here that some viruses stay on hard disk when hibernate/shutdown and go to ram when the OS is started. And i have a bad sector on the disk.

Could it be the BIOS settings? It has some settings i did not understood and left them in their default settings.

 

[Elixer]

Either your machine don't like that version of memtest, or you have RAM errors.

Highly doubt this has anything to do with a virus.

 

[ArisVer]

Halfway through a different test everything is passing with no errors.

You were right,
and thank you.

 

[repoman0]

^You mean a different test number on the same version of memtest? If so you still have bad memory. Tests 5 and 8 are the most commonly failed tests, while all the others can pass fine. I've had bad memory fail test 6 before I believe too.

 

[ArisVer]

The first one was from Ubuntu 10.10 Live. It was the standard test. I did not bother with the extended test since it completely failed. Maybe it was some kind of incompatibility.

The second test was from an old floppy (computer check only floppy) i found in a computer shop some years ago.
I run the standard and the extended memory test it has. And it passed.

 

[killster1]

why not download memtest86 run it for a few hours.. not just 1 pass. Ive seen computers run fine for months that fail ramtest..not like you use all your ram

 

[Drsignguy]

If the info is correct in your sig about your notebook, then you have 2 sticks of Ram. (1) 256MB and (1) 128MB, most likely different timings and voltages too. Remove the lower of the 2 and do the test individually. There isn't much Ram there to test.

I have has 16 gigs run in my system for days then it would BSOD. Did a test and found that 1 stick, running memtest, Failed. You on the other hand, have a PIII system running what OS? And with 384MB of SD Ram, Memtest will pick it pretty quick.

 

[bryanl]

If all the RAM was bad, MemTest86+ wouldn't run.

You can eliminate the hard drive as a problem source by disconnecting it during testing, and perhaps doing so through the BIOS setup may be sufficient. However I seriously doubt you have a virus problem, and I would try other BIOS settings but doubt they'll help.

What does MemTest86+ do with only one DIMM installed at a time?

What brands of memory chips (not DIMMs) are you using?

 

[ArisVer]

I had run Memtest86+ v4.00 from OpenDiagnostics LiveCD and had no problems with 2 passes. Maybe the v4.01 is not suitable for SDRAM testing. The test was done with all the memory.

I saw a 256MB SDRAM stick, and from a service manual i found about the netbook, it seems the other 128RAM is printed on board. I did not check that as it requires taking apart most of the netbook.

The netbook was given to me from my brother, and has suffered a heat problem since the first month he bought it (the bottom air inlet ducts were closed and it overheated). I did no upgrades of any kind apart from getting a small flexible keyboard for it. It has a bad sector and a dead battery but otherwise works well. I will leave it running an OS for a week to be sure.

In the BIOS i set the GPU shared memory to 32MB. Memtest shows 352MB of memory, and the adding makes 384MB. I guess this is normal.