Memtest86 instruction

[Sunburn74]

Brief question,

I have 4 sticks of DDR 3 ram in my PC (total 16gb). When I run memtest86, will it test all my ram or do I have to do it with each stick individually?

I ram memtest86 overnight and it gave no errors but I want to make sure it really is testing all my ram.

 

[Elixer]

You should be using memtest86+, but, anyway, yes, it checks all the RAM that is installed. (Well, all but a few hundred K needed for the program.)
You always want to check with all the DIMM slots populated, just like how you normally will be using the computer, with all of them in there.

You also want to make sure you have at least 4 full passes, since some machines are really slow at testing, overnight might not give you more than 1 pass.

 

[BonzaiDuck]

I won't diss Elixer or question his choice. I started using HCI Memtest 64 about five years ago. I even bought the Pro version for $14.

While it allows you to test most all of the memory in Windows other than what the OS consumes, I choose to make the bootable CD and run the tests that way. I'd wonder that you'd get much work done with the "in-Windows" approach, and I may have tried it once. But I'd just as soon make the machine unavailable while it runs HCI Memtest long enough to provide:

>= 300% coverage for new RAM configured for use at its stock or XMP settings.
>= 500% if I'm filling all four slots, if I've changed the command-rate to 1, and or need to up the VCCIO IMC voltage to make it all work
1000% if I'm seriously overclocking the RAM. In this latter case, I'd make 100% runs to find a stability threshold, and the final overclock would be tested at 1000%

The more RAM in the slots, the longer it takes. With DDR3-1600 stock settings for 16GB in an overclocked 2700K system, it would have to run as long as four days to get through 1000%.

 

[Elixer]

For what it is worth, the only reason I say use memtest86+, besides that it is a full free version and is a bootable program is that, in my experience, it has detected more errors than memtest86.
As for HCI Memtest 64, I haven't used this program in a long, long time, years in fact. I didn't like the fact that it runs in Windows. If they now made a bootable version of this program, I will have to give it another look.