Very strange HCI memtest behavior, any suggestion is highly appreciated

[talloverclocker]

Dear readers,

You're probably better than me with a lot more experience, therefore I'm hoping that you can help me with the HCI memtest. I wanted extra RAM to go from 8 to 16 gb, both RAM got the same specifications but 1 is a Hynix and 1 is from PNY.

The problem: I ran memtest86+ for 26 hours with the 16 gb RAM without any errors, then I ran HCI memtest with the 16 gb but it gave me errors after a few hours. So, then I did the HCI memtest with only the original 8 GB RAM which came with the laptop. Errors showed up again around 150-200% coverage. After that, I tried different settings and I was able to reach 1600-1700% coverage without errors and then I stopped testing to ask your help.

First I used settings like smart people on Anandtech.com & Overclock.net suggested (http://forums.anandtech.com/showthread.php?t=2195063)

....with 8 instances of HCI memtest and the available RAM divided, also tried with the total RAM divided.............this resulted in errors around 150-200% coverage.

Second I used a different method. 7 instances of HCI memtest with 975 RAM and the last/ the 8th instance with 'all unused RAM'. This resulted in a high coverage (1600%+ without any errors and stopped the test myself).

Conclusion: I don't know what the conclusion is and that's my problem. I was planning to return the PNY RAM to Mediamarkt and the laptop back to ASUS so that they could switch the Hynix RAM for another Hynix RAM. However, maybe HCI memtest changed after very smart people like Idontcare (20,862 posts) posted their HCI memtest tutorials. Maybe I got the errors because when I allocated 2048 RAM to each of the 8 HCI memtest instances my pagefile generated the errors. (I didn't turn off my pagefile).


Everything is at stock settings, so no overclock etc., I didn't try to change any setting and I'm not planning to increase the RAM voltage or to loosen the RAM timings
Specs: Asus N751JK, i7 4710 HQ, 250 GB Samsung Evo SSD + 1 TB HDD, 8/16 GB RAM

Last week I bought a new laptop at Mediamarkt (smaller version of something like Best Buy for Netherlands+Germany+Belgium). I wanted extra RAM to go from 8 to 16 gb, however, multiple shop employees said that it was impossible to get a second RAM of the same manufacturer with the same specs. If I'd buy an extra 8 gb RAM myself in another shop or on another website, then the warranty of 2 years would drop/become invalid. (Later when I called Asus, a notebook/laptop expert told me that's simply not true.)...At first, Mediamarkt also said that the voltage and timings would be different...after complaining they were suddenly able to give me a PNY 8 gb RAM with the same voltage (1.35), CAS latency timings (11-11-11-27/28), speed (1600) as the (Asus) Hynix 8 gb ram.


Kind regards







EDIT: screenshots

http://i.imgur.com/qVetV4V.jpg ...8 with 2048 RAM with an error description

http://i.imgur.com/k1KGolE.jpg ...8 with 1950 RAM with an error description

http://i.imgur.com/2X1IcO3.jpg ...without description with the total of 3 errors

http://i.imgur.com/JihGpGm.jpg ...8 with 1950 RAM with an error description

http://i.imgur.com/NQEoYuk.jpg ...without description with the total of 6 errors


screenshots uploaded on: https://onpaste.com/

with only the (Asus) Hynix RAM of 8 gb

http://i.imgur.com/5bfPZRZ.jpg ...8 with 975 RAM with an error description

http://i.imgur.com/lD6LeVY.jpg ...8 with 975 ram clear screenshot


1600%-1700% coverage (even 1 with 6500%+) NO ERRORS

http://i.imgur.com/A0d0HFO.jpg

 

[Elixer]

About the RAM, yes, as long as it has the same voltage & timings, it should be OK, but if timings are different, then it will use the slowest setting for BOTH set of RAM. If the voltage is different, then you will run into more issues, since IIRC it uses the same voltage for both as well.

I don't like HCI, since it can't test all the RAM.
I typically use memtest86+, all tests, and let that run overnight.
If that passes, then I use OCCT & prime95 to make sure there are no other issues.

You can also use something like CPUID to look at the RAM's settings.

 

[talloverclocker]

Thank you for the reply, with speccy/aida64 I also checked and confirmed that both 8 gb ram have the same voltage, timings and speed.

I already ran memtest86+ without errors for 26 hours and then I manually stopped...I also used all tests and know that some prefer test 5.

According to many sites I cannot use prime95 anymore because I know have a haswell cpu and prime95 would raise the temperatures unrealistically high. If I remember correctly the same counts for IBT and OCCT....something to do with AVX....and I don't want to damage this new laptop. Prime95 used to be very useful for Sandy and Ivy...and older models.

To be sure I also manually searched both RAM online because the shop who sold the extra ram might have adjusted my ram settings without notifying me. They also installed the SSD, therefore they had access to my laptop for days....it wasn't very to find the exact specs of both RAM but it seems like they have the same specifications in their original state.

I also don't like it that HCI doesn't test all the ram, but memtest86+ doesn't find all the existing problems according to people like Idontcare with more than 20k posts. Therefore I use both programs....I even used the windows memory diagnostic test...just as an extra check even though it's indescribably bad.

 

[talloverclocker]

Are there still people on this website who have experience with HCI memtest?