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Memtest question! Planning to OC Ram!

K

Killmenow

Senior member
Hi,

My rig components are listed below. I was wondering which Memtest I should use and what test settings I should run to ensure a 100% stable RAM OC. I am not looking for settings that one would quickly use to check for stability; but instead, I want the test to be as through as possible (one that when passed, would garuntee rock solid stability). I have plenty of time for testing, but I only want to do this once. So, any advice would be greatly appreciated.
 
Hi,

First you need to download memtest86 and put it on a floppy or burn an iso image on a cd in order to launch the program. Memtest can only be launched from dos, so you can put it on a floppy and restart you pc (make sure to boot from floppy or cd). Once memtest starts it will automatically start testing. Let it take care of the rest. If you have time then let it run for a night.
 
Originally posted by: SamzAthlon
Once memtest starts it will automatically start testing. Let it take care of the rest. If you have time then let it run for a night.
Click to expand...

Umm......a night = 9 hours? 12 hours? 15 hours? And if I let the full test run say 15 hours w no errors......can i trust it as much as I can trust a Prime 95(Priority 10) 24 hour test for CPU? (I need a test that I can have absolute confidence in) Also, are there some tests within Memtest that stress the RAM more severly? (say....for example, looping Nature in 3dMARk 30 times would be actually more stressing on the GPU than looping the whole thing 30 times)
 
Memtest doesn't require you to set anything. It will take care of itself, you just have to watch the results. You can't manipulate what tests it does in any way.
 
Nothing can guarentee absolute stability. You can pass memtest for eleventy billion hours, and still have your memory crap out. Its rare, but it does happen.
 
You don't have to settle for the time taken to run the full range of Memtest86 tests. When you're working up your overclock with incremental FSB steps, running the full range of tests at each increment will seem to take forever.

I've found that the most critical tests seem to be Test #5 and Test #8 - particularly Test #8. In my experience, any memory settings that produce even a single error in Test#8 may still pass in Prime95, but will ultimately be unstable (system crash with page-fault error).

Use the 'C' key (Configuration menu) to halt tests and select options, as follows:
- To run a discrete Test#: Enter '1 3 (Test number) Return 0' key sequence.
- For example, to stop all test and run Test#8: Enter 'C 1 3 8 Return 0'

To save testing time, I usually let tests 1 & 2 complete (takes only seconds), then run Test#5 for at least one successful pass and then run Test#8 for at least one successful pass - and then boot into Windows for CPU-stability test (Prime95, SuperPi or whatever).

Hope this helps!
 
Originally posted by: dunkster
I've found that the most critical tests seem to be Test #5 and Test #8 - particularly Test #8. In my experience, any memory settings that produce even a single error in Test#8 may still pass in Prime95, but will ultimately be unstable (system crash with page-fault error).

Hope this helps!
Click to expand...

Heh, exactly what I was looking for. Are there any other Test #'s that I might want to include besides #1, #2, #5, and #8??? Like for some very odd reason, I seem to remember someone saying that Test #7 is important too..... If not, then I guess Ill just run those ones for a couple passes each time I up the HTT. Oh, and there has still been no suggestions as to which MemTest I should use (the program itself).......
 
Originally posted by: Vegitto
You can't manipulate what tests it does in any way.
Click to expand...

Sure you can. I set it up to run tests 5 and 6 repeatedly back when I was testing my RAM's limits. I also set it up to loop all of the tests in order.

surely they haven't changed that in recent revisions of the program?
 
i agree... tests #5 and #8 are the best.

if you have a DFI board and bios 623 or 704bta, it has memtest built in so you just enable it and then use the settings that dunkster recommended
 
Hmmm.........from what I have gathered, indication of stability can be best determined by maybe a couple loops of everthing, then a couple hours of #5 and #8........does that sound about right?
 
If I had to pick just one RAM stability test, it would be Memtest86 Test#8.

In my experience, RAM settings that produce errors in Test#8 will simply not be stable - sooner or later the system will crash with a page-fault error, even though it may pass Prime95 or SuperPi. Typically, these failures will occur during game scene-loads, printer driver loads, utility-loads such as Macromedia, etc. - significant memory-write events that are NOT TESTED by cpu-stability programs such as Prime95, SupePi, etc.

Hope this helps!
 
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