Is there any use for PC100 memory that is reporting errors when tested with memtest86+

[dahunan]

I purchased a PIII combo setup from someone... BOTH of the 256mb PC100 sticks give errors in two different motherboards

I tested them both individually in a
Abit BE6-II
and a Abit KT7A

Errors reproduced in each board.. I used a known good stick of Crucial PC100 to verify that the memory was indeed bad. The Crucial did not give any errors after several passes.

My question is.. Can these sticks still be used for something or are they considered garbage now? They did not crash the system they came with.

 

[OdiN]

They could be used in an experiment to test the tensile strength of typical PC100 RAM.

 

[dahunan]

Originally posted by: OdiN
They could be used in an experiment to test the tensile strength of typical PC100 RAM.

😀 Not quite the answer I am looking for 😛

Probably could be used in a gaming only machine (older games) if they were stable?

 

[myocardia]

They work great on keychains, assuming you don't mind people knowing you're a nerd.

 

[Budman]

Have you tried testing them at a slower speed? A larger cas setting? if they fail at cas2 have you tried cas3 ? maybe you can run them as pc66 ?

 

[dahunan]

I only tested them at their default stock speed of PC100 and set them to cas 3 🙁

I suppose it is possible to try them at PC66... thank you for that idea.

 

[DieHardware]

Hey how 'bout a pole? I vote for tensile strength. 😉

 

[AmdEmAll]

lifetime warranty?

 

[VirtualLarry]

There is a Linux "Badram" kernel driver module, I think.

There are also some ways to work around a "bad chip" on a DIMM in DOS as well, using a combination of SMARTDRV and a ramdisk, causing the "bad memory" to get allocated by a region where it will then sit unused by the OS. I had to do that once with a laptop with Win98se on it, the 16MB upgrade I got for it had a bad chip. :| Took me a while to find a replacement.