Memtest+, how do I get it to work on gigabyte EP35-DS3R

[taltamir]

I have a new gigabyte EP35-DS3R and I can't get memtest+ (v1.7 or v2.0) to run on it.
I remember that with previous motherboards I had to disable USB keyboard and mouse legacy mode because they will often write some code into the begining of the ram without registering it, casing the memtest app to overwrite it and crash the bios (causing the system to hang). But I have tried disabling said options (and also USB legacy storage) and it still doesn't work. Any advice is welcome.

 

[taltamir]

well... its been two days. anybody?

 

[n7]

How do you mean it doesn't work?

What happens? Error message, black screen?

I'd suggest running HCI Memtest in Windows as an alternative.

I actually find it's more sensitive & find errors faster than Memtest86+

Memtest86+ tests RAM in portions, so while it will usually find errors, it can take a long time to find them.

With HCI Memtest, you can run as many instances as needed to fully stress the RAM simultaneously, which i find tends to often shows errors faster, & also issues with MCH stability relatively quickly.
http://hcidesign.com/memtest/

 

[taltamir]

it just hangs. It says loading and instead of saying that second line about 1.44 floppy (i think it uses floppy emulation) and then starting the program it just stays in that loading status and the keyboard stops working (alt-ctrl-del not responding, I have to use the reset/power button)...

Memtest indeed takes a while, which is why i run it overnight.

 

[n7]

What about using the bootable CD?

Or this is with the CD?

As mentioned, try out HCI...will accomplish the same thing largely, though it will tax the motherboard & to some point the CPU as well.

I'll check with my buddy.
He just bought the DS3R...i'll see if Memtest86+ works for him.

 

[taltamir]

this is the CD. Memtest loads itself to the first unassigned ramblock. The problem is that many motherboards use the first few blocks for USB keyboard and mouse support without registering them (I think thats the issue). Which causes the system to hang when memtest overwrites that data.

I guess windows just skips a certain amount of ram to begin with for safety, but memtest trys to get everything.

The thing is, while in many other motherboards disabling USB emulation for mouse and keyboard solved the issue, in this motherboard it doesnt.

 

[n7]

🙁

See if you can contact the guy who makes it.

 

[Doclife]

I ran MEMETEST86 version 3.4 off the floppy drive on my Gigabyte P35-DS3R rev 2.0 without any problems. I just set first boot device to floppy and off it it goes when I reboot (I set USB KB and USB mouse to ENABLE in the bios menu).

http://www.memtest86.com/

 

[n7]

Due to there being issues with Memtest, mainly due to lack of updates for a couple years, most of us use Memtest86+, rather than Memtest.

Now the guys doing Memtest apparently have recently updated it, but i'm sticking with +, since i know it's by far the more commonly used.

 

[taltamir]

I found it. neither the version doclife linked nor the memtest.org version works unless I disable RAID. Then it works even with the USB keyboard in place.

Unfortunately it now decided my raid1 array has become degraded, and it refuses to restore it.

also n7, the version he linked to seems to be based on memtest+ 1.7

apparantly the original memtest was abandoned, picked up as memtest+ by another group, and now the original ones came back and took memtest+ 1.7 and updated it (or just borrowed code from + 1.7 to include into his own version).
Since memtest+ is at v2.00 now that means you have two seperate versions based on + 1.7. 86+ 2.0 and 86 3.4a. each with their own enhancements over 1.7

Anyways, they BOTH have the exact same issue here. They hang in the same manner, unless I disable RAID and then they both work...

 

[n7]

Hmm, interesting.