what does it mean when you get errors in memtest86+?

[Kaido]

I've been working on a computer for a friend of mine. He's been having problems with it, so I was taking a look at it. Today I ran a memory test on his ram. He has a 512 meg stick in there, which passed and failed test equally (like 4 tests passed, 4 errors). He dropped off another 512 meg stick today, which I just finished testing. Test passed = 1; errors = 2034. That's not good. So what exactly does it mean when you get errors in memtest86+? There's a huge difference between 2034 and 4 errors. I've run it on a couple of my (stable) systems, and haven't gotten any errors. If you get even one error during a test, does that mean you should trash the ram? He is willing to get new ram if he needs to.

 

[gotensan01]

I wouldn't keep any ram with errors but that's just me. It could cause your OS to crash, programs to crash, or anything to crash.

 

[Kaido]

yah. I tested out two of my Dells, which passed 6 tests with no problems. both of my friend's sticks have problems.

is Crucial currently the most stable ram on the market? I want to recommend him something good and not too expensive. just a 512 meg stick of ddr.

 

[gotensan01]

Crucial, Micron, Corsair, Kingston, OCZ, Geil...that's all I can think of. All of those are good brands and have lifetime warranties.

 

[Fern]

Originally posted by: Kaido
yah. I tested out two of my Dells, which passed 6 tests with no problems. both of my friend's sticks have problems.

is Crucial currently the most stable ram on the market? I want to recommend him something good and not too expensive. just a 512 meg stick of ddr.

Check Corsair Value Select. IIRC a stick of 512MB is about $80.

 

[Mean MrMustard]

I ran it and I got an error on pass 84 and again on pass 97.

I using 1GB of Crucial Ballistix RAM, could this be the cause of 3DMark crapping out and restarting my computer?

 

[imported_whatever]

make sure that the latencies are set right.
when i was testing out my new water setup, i was messing around with the latencies on my ch-5, and accidentally set it to 2-2-3-11 instead of 2-3-2-11. it started not even booting into windows all the way, and i was convinced that my processor was dying or something (running a barton at 2.15v, it probably wont last all that long). turned out it was just the latencies, so try relaxing them a bit.

 

[Mean MrMustard]

I have them set to auto. I didn't think I would have to mess with them for a FSB as low as 204.

So I should set them to 2-3-2-8, 9, 10. 11? What should my voltage be?

 

[Fern]

If it's set to auto, I would suggest first upping the vdimm (voltage to ram) a notch.

What is it currently set to?

 

[Navid]

You can run memtest for two different reasons.

1- You have got a stick of RAM and you want to know if it is good.
Run memtest without overclocking anything. Set timings to Auto.

2- You are overclocking your system and want to know if your memory is stable at the surrent settings.
Run memtest at the settings that you want to check.



In both cases, even one error, means failure.

If you are not overclocking anything and your timings are on Auto and you get errors, you have a stick that is not good.

If you are overclocking and you get errors, it means that your RAM is not stable and you need to reduce the clock rate or increase the voltage or relax the timing.

This is all assuming that you have an adequate power supply and your CPU is stable.
A weak power supply or an unstable CPU can result in memtest errors too.