Memory stress/burn-in programs

[RedDeathDrinker]

This is a short guide in response to the number of questions asked about Memory stress/burn-in programs.

Why do it?

The burn-in process can be used twofold. The primary reason to stress test a machine is to ensure its stability under extreme circumstances (e.g. that really important Quake3 Arena deathmatch). Sometimes, there's also a burn-in effect whereby a machine actually becomes more stable after being subjected to prolonged stress testing. Initially, the machines would be unstable when overclocked to certain speeds, needing additional cooling or voltage to achieve marginal stability. After strenuously stress testing the machines for several days (or sometimes weeks), the machine can become stable at its stock voltage without extreme cooling.

What to use?

There are several programs available, a list of which follows.....(if I have missed one, let me know, and I'll add it!)

Memtest86 (http://www.memtest86.com/) A memory test tool, with burn-in feature

Prime95 (http://www.mersenne.org/freesoft.htm) is a quest to find large (and I mean 10 million digit+) Prime numbers. This program is heavily memory intensive, and considered one of the more stressful burn-in programs

CPUburn (http://users.ev1.net/%7Eredelm/) will heavily stress your whole system, giving a good indicator of stability

SiSoft Sandra (http://www.sisoftware.demon.co.uk/sandra/) (the System ANalyser, Diagnostic and Reporting Assistant) is an information & diagnostic utility. It should provide most of the information (including undocumented) you need to know about your hardware, software and other devices whether hardware or software. There are 58 modules in the standard(free) version, one of which is a Memory Bandwidth benchmark, and a Burn-In Wizard



Of course, this list is by no means all the programs available, and neither I or the owners of this site accept any responsibility if your system does indeed "burn" after using one of these programs........

[Crash893]

i would like to point out that prime95 also has a built in benchmarking option

[M@€$†®Ö™]

Originally posted by reddeathdrinker
This is a short guide in response to the number of questions asked about Memory stress/burn-in programs.

Why do it?

The burn-in process can be used twofold. The primary reason to stress test a machine is to ensure its stability under extreme circumstances (e.g. that really important Quake3 Arena deathmatch). Sometimes, there's also a burn-in effect whereby a machine actually becomes more stable after being subjected to prolonged stress testing. Initially, the machines would be unstable when overclocked to certain speeds, needing additional cooling or voltage to achieve marginal stability. After strenuously stress testing the machines for several days (or sometimes weeks), the machine can become stable at its stock voltage without extreme cooling.

What to use?

There are several programs available, a list of which follows.....(if I have missed one, let me know, and I'll add it!)

Memtest86 (http://www.memtest86.com/) A memory test tool, with burn-in feature

Prime95 (http://www.mersenne.org/freesoft.htm) is a quest to find large (and I mean 10 million digit+) Prime numbers. This program is heavily memory intensive, and considered one of the more stressful burn-in programs

CPUburn (http://users.ev1.net/%7Eredelm/) will heavily stress your whole system, giving a good indicator of stability

SiSoft Sandra (http://www.sisoftware.demon.co.uk/sandra/) (the System ANalyser, Diagnostic and Reporting Assistant) is an information & diagnostic utility. It should provide most of the information (including undocumented) you need to know about your hardware, software and other devices whether hardware or software. There are 58 modules in the standard(free) version, one of which is a Memory Bandwidth benchmark, and a Burn-In Wizard



Of course, this list is by no means all the programs available, and neither I or the owners of this site accept any responsibility if your system does indeed "burn" after using one of these programs........

I hope this is made a sticky ! It would help alot of people ! Good Call Red !

Maestro

[CrystalMethod]

I'd like to see it as a sticky, and if anyone else knows of other memtesting/burn in progs, please add to the list.


*EDIT* Opps, too late, it's already been stickied. But, please do add to the list if you know of any memtest/ burn in programs. NOT WAREZ!!!

[filip04]

http://users.bigpond.net.au/cpuburn/
cpu burn in... another one

ps. can someone tell me why i bsod when attempting to run wcpuid?

[Crash893]

they have a new version of prime95 out

22.9

there will be another update soon but that will be mostly cosmetic


windows
ftp://mersenne.org/gimps/p95v229.zip

linux dynamicly linked
ftp://mersenne.org/gimps/mprime229.tgz

linux staticly linked
ftp://mersenne.org/gimps/sprime229.tgz

[pauldriver]

Hot CPU Tester Pro 3

http://www.7byte.com/

Doesn't do anything for the I/O sub systems (HD, VidCard, etc.), but there are better tests for those parts. Hot CPU Tester Pro 3
really beats the heck out of the CPU, Memory controller, and RAM.

If you can last 6 hours with this, your box is good to go.

[ntpphong]

how do you use the benchmark option in prime95?

[Crash893]

yet another version prime version 22.10

[Lithan]

Right about Torture test should be option to benchmark

[Crash893]

i dont understand

are you saying it should be there

becuase it is

[Cowboy X]

Though not marketed as a burn-in program I find that folding at 100% is fairly good as well . But it is better for cpu burn-in more than anything else , it will also allow you to see load cpu temps while helping humanity and of course team 32 :)

[MichaelMu]

like memtest best, saves hd's:)

[gingo]

I dunno how memory intensive Prime 95 is. I could run Prime 95 for over 24 hours with my RAM overclocked. But games like MOH:AA and benchmarks like 3DMark 2001 SE would crash quickly. When I put my RAM back to defualt speeds the crashes disapeared.

[Conan]

i found this (http://www.benchmarkhq.ru/english.html) site which might be helpfull

[Dave65]

So to burn in your memory,what is the best way,do I run it @ defaults or what?

[ChazFx]

Originally posted by reddeathdrinker
This is a short guide in response to the number of questions asked about Memory stress/burn-in programs.



What to use?

There are several programs available, a list of which follows.....(if I have missed one, let me know, and I'll add it!)

[list] Memtest86 (http://www.memtest86.com/) A memory test tool, with burn-in feature

Prime95 (http://www.mersenne.org/freesoft.htm) is a quest to find large (and I mean 10 million digit+) Prime numbers. This program is heavily memory intensive, and considered one of the more stressful burn-in programs

CPUburn (http://users.ev1.net/%7Eredelm/) will heavily stress your whole system, giving a good indicator of stability

SiSoft Sandra (http://www.sisoftware.demon.co.uk/sandra/) (the System ANalyser, Diagnostic and Reporting Assistant) is an information & diagnostic utility. It should provide most of the information (including undocumented) you need to know about your hardware, software and other devices whether hardware or software. There are 58 modules in the standard(free) version, one of which is a Memory Bandwidth benchmark, and a Burn-In Wizard



I quite like Burn In Test (http://www.passmark.com) made by pass mark software. I use v2.1, and it suits me just fine. Its strait forward, and doesnt look "cute" and "Bubble Gummy"

[knif_00]

How long should I let this run to really put the memory to the test??
I know it takes a about 26 minutes to make a full pass so how many passes should I let it go through??
Just curious,

::knif_00::

[Crash893]

usually 24 hours is good i think

reason for that
the house will go threw its full thermal cycle

like i could never figre out why my comptuer would throw up while i was away

turns out in the after noon the sun heats up my room

not directly related to overcloking but it will tell you when things blew up and you cna usually fidn out wy

[Audioaficionado]

Anything for older PCs?

Like an SMP PPro200

[soul4real]

If I successfully run Prime95 for say 12hrs ... is that enough to say that my system is stable with its new ram settings ?

[Burnt_Ram]

i just built a totally new sys. what's the best proggie to burnin everything at once, memory and cpu ?

[pauldriver]

Originally posted by Burnt_Ram
i just built a totally new sys. what's the best proggie to burnin everything at once, memory and cpu ?

I like Hot CPU Tester Pro 3 LE from www.7byte.com

For me, it has never failed to detect an unstable system. If it passes 12 hours of burnin on this program, the boxes CPU/Memory is stable.

IMHO

Paul.

[knif_00]

So your saying when you build a new system or "overclock" for the first time and you want it to run like that is stock from here on out you can run this program for 12 hours+ and if its stable throught that you've pretty much made your CPU and RAM stock at that setting??
In other words, if itll last through that, its' gonna be stable when just lookin at porn and playing bf1942?

[pauldriver]

Yep, that's it.

Although in my case it's usually DeusEx or UT2003, I haven't been turned out onto BF1942, yet. Sadly, I recently pulled the Civ3 cd from the safe, and have been reduced to a CIV-Crackhead (yet again). I thought I had enough willpower, HAH!! Yet another weeked decimated by Civ. The CD will need to be returned to safety!

DeusEx is almost as good of a stability test as anything else, it's real touchy about memory. QuakeIII will run fine on boxes that die under DeusEx.

Paul.

[-N-]

Originally posted by pauldriver
DeusEx is almost as good of a stability test as anything else, it's real touchy about memory.

how would you determine the difference between a game that is strongly CPU dependent, memory dependent, and video card dependent?

I hear from review sites and such that a game is cpu dependent that's why the video card doesn't even affect the performance very much.

So how would you tell?

thanks.

[pauldriver]

I'm not talking about what parts of the system DeusEx stresses, I'm talking about a system that appears to be stable, yet wont run a single application. A system that will run QuakeIII based games and just about everything else (3dmark, sandra, memtest, etc) just fine, all day long, yet DeusEx crashes on that machine.

That's where I was going with my statement that DeusEx (and Ureal based games) can be used as a stability test.

BTW, Hot CPU Tester Pro 3 also failed that overclocked configuration (quicksort failure). I finially traced to problem to memory, as the system was stable if the memory speed was lowered, and the CPU was left overclocked, whereas the opposite was not true.

I swapped to a better grade of DDR RAM, and all was good.

Paul.

[Xevuhtess7]

when you guys say you run prime95 for 12 hours or so... is that just regular mode? or do you turn on torture test ors omething else? because my box sometimes at a certain speed does normal prime stuff like nothin but then i turn on torture test and it fails right away.

[Crash893]

i always suggest running threw a work unit on prime ( takes a long time but its the best way to be sure an it helps the guy who wrote it)

the trture test is basicly the same as primes selftest but just looped to go till it fails

its a more condensed test

[Xevuhtess7]

huh..... for some reason my system can run normally on prime95 all day long if i wanted without error but once i turn on self test or tortuer test it fails rigth away.....

[Crash893]

what type of wu are you doing?

[Xevuhtess7]

ummmm what do you mean what type?

[Crash893]

there are three diff types of work

factoring ( weak)
double checking ( mild)
primality tests ( three sub sets of this ( p1 p2 and brutefoce) it goes threw all three subsets automaticly

[Xevuhtess7]

ok, ill try the primality tests.

EDIT: huh..... i cant do any three of them. my comp is stable for anything i do nomrally though.

[Crash893]

what do you mean it wont let you do any of them

pm me if you want a wu ill send you one

i would also like to note it might be far less complicated if you just did the tourture test for like 24 hours

[Actraiser]

Imo memtest86 for memory and chipset error detection is the best pre os loaded. In windows, nothing has really topped prime 95 for finding "cpu" instability.

If for example, you can run prime 95 all day but as soon as you run 3dmark2001 or play games and your system still crashes, your problem does not lie with the cpu speed. Chances are your FSB is set too high causing problems with AGP or PCI dividers being too far out of spec. If your still having problems with games / 3dmark crashing and your on an Nvidia Nforce 2 or Intel based system that locks the pci / agp your problem lies with AGP having side band addressing enabled or 8X agp enabled. These types of things wont show up with Prime95.


The Trick with benchmarking for stability is to utilize several tests in conjunction with your hardware. There really is no be all end all benchmark, because computers consist of multiple parts that cannot be stress %100 at the same time is basically what im getting at.

my 2 cents..

[Rezin777]

Has anyone ever tried Toast? Its a cpu stress/burn-in. I couldn't find the website, if there is one. A google search should locate it easily enough.

[Crash893]

new beta of prime95 out

23.4 i belive

some new asm code for the p4

it will result in slower times in the benchmark for lower fft lengths

but faster times for larger fft ( good thing)

as far as stress testing im sure it would work out more effeshently as a stresstester on a p4 but if you dont have a p4 the older versions are just the same

[glock19owner]

Originally posted by Rezin777
Has anyone ever tried Toast? Its a cpu stress/burn-in. I couldn't find the website, if there is one. A google search should locate it easily enough.

Toast Download (http://majorgeeks.com/article.php?sid=867)

[twenty6]

Should have join this forum long time ago.

[Italiandude]

i was wondering in the beginning of this thread like wheres toast? I use it a lot and it really works. It comes with two options High or normal stress

[SuperG]

Originally posted by pauldriver
Hot CPU Tester Pro 3

http://www.7byte.com/

Doesn't do anything for the I/O sub systems (HD, VidCard, etc.), but there are better tests for those parts. Hot CPU Tester Pro 3
really beats the heck out of the CPU, Memory controller, and RAM.

If you can last 6 hours with this, your box is good to go.

I went to the website, and I liked the screenshot and info., looks like a good all around burn-in test program. However, you can only download the Lite version correct? You would have to pay for the Pro version. And in the FAQ on their website, it says the Lite version is missing some of the testing modules, such as the L1, L2 cache, chipset, etc. Without these modules it seems this program does not test all components right? Is there a pro version available for download, like as a trial or something, etc. Thanks.


TO ALL:

I have a question regarding all burn-in programs. Now that the new P4's have come out with Hyper Thread Technology (what I have), then wouldn't a burn-in program essentially be testing half the cpu's load? Since windows XP shows it as essentially a multi-processor system. When you load any of the burn in programs, don't they just max out only one (i.e. half) of the CPU(s)? What can you do to really test all 100% CPU load? Thanks.

SuperG

[GreenWolf]

I see a lot of you only run burn-in for 6-24 hours, but one reason to run burn-in for 72 hours is because the new thermal greases (artic silver 3) don't set before 72 hours of use. So your best chance for OC is after 72 hours of use.

[X0d1@k]

Hey i was reading your posts and they were pretty funny. I too have recently blown the dust off CIV 3 and understand your pain! Hey i think im goin with the 12 hour burn in that you suggested. Ill let you know !!! Laters!

[stan03]

How do i use the burn in for memtest86? i cannot find it

[Crash893]

new version of prime out

Improvements for Athlon, Duron, Pentium 3, and Celeron 2 owners! You can expect up to 3-8% faster iteration times compared to version 23.4!

Windows: ftp://mersenne.org/gimps/p95v235.zip
or: ftp://mersenne.org/gimps/p95v235.exe
Linux: ftp://mersenne.org/gimps/mprime235.tar.gz
or: ftp://mersenne.org/gimps/sprime235.tar.gz
NT service: ftp://mersenne.org/gimps/winnt235.zip
FreeBSD: ftp://mersenne.org/gimps/mprime235-freebsd.tar.gz
or: ftp://mersenne.org/gimps/sprime235-freebsd.tar.gz


there is a new test menu that lets you pick between short long or mix

its explained better in the provided documentation

[phaedrus]

the difference is that a work unit is run to get results, while the torture test runs and checks calculations whose answers are already known.

a work unit may appear to complete, but since the results are (by definition) unknown, errors won't be uncoved until the result is verified. all work unit results are verified. an unstable machine will not run useful work units, but you won't know it.

so, in short, if torture test fails, a work unit will probably fail as well, producing nothing of value for the GIMPS.

[Crash893]

you are correct

however prime also has some built in error checking
it runs the number twice and if it gets two diffrent results then it goes back to the last save point

[affende]

Originally posted by Cowboy X
Though not marketed as a burn-in program I find that folding at 100% is fairly good as well . But it is better for cpu burn-in more than anything else , it will also allow you to see load cpu temps while helping humanity and of course team 32 :)


^^^^^^^^im with this guy^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

excpet teh team number...your 32...im sorry...lol, j/k...734 representin'...amdmb.com folding frogs, werd!!

[redduc900]

Another good memory burn-in/diagnostic program is one that's actually made by MS. It's called 'Windows Memory Diagnostic', and is available from the following MS 'Online Crash Analysis' site...

http://oca.microsoft.com/en/windiag.asp :)

[Akira283-IGN]

Quoted from AnandTech:

There is burn-in and then there is burn-in. In semiconductor manufacturing terminology "burn-in" is a stage of the production flow after packaging in which the CPU is placed in an elevated temperature environment and is stressed at atypical operating conditions. The end goal of this is to dramatically reduce the statistical probability of "infant mortality" failures of product on the street. "Infant mortality" is a characteristic of any form of complex manufacturing in that if you were to plot device failures in the y-axis and time in the x-axis, the graph should look like a "U". As the device is used, initially quite a few fail but as time goes on this number drops off (you are in the bottom of the "U" in the graph). As the designed life of the product is reached and exceeded, the failure count rises back up again. Burn-in is designed to catch the initial failures before the product is shipped to customers and to put the product solidly in the bottom section of the "U" graph in which few failures occur. During this process there is a noticeable and measurable circuitry slow-down on the chip that is an unfortunate by-product of the process of running at the burn-in operating point. You put a fast chip into the burn-in ovens and it will always come out of the ovens slower than when it went in - but the ones that were likely to fail early on are dead and not shipped to customers.

There are two mechanisms that cause the circuitry in CMOS - particularly modern sub-micron CMOS - to slow down when undergoing the burn-in process: PMOS bias-temperature instability (PMOS BTI) and NMOS hot-electron gate-impact ionization (known as "NMOS hot-e"). Both of these effects are complex quantum-electrical effects that result in circuitry slowing down over time. You should be able to type either of these two terms into Google to read more about what is actually happening. The end-result is, as mentioned, that the chips will start to fail at a lower frequency than they did before going into burn-in due to the transistor current drive strength being reduced.

There is another use for the term "burn-in" with regard to chips that is used by system builders and that is as a test for reliability and to reduce customer returns due to component failure. This usually consists of putting the system together, plugging it in and running computational software on the system for a period of 24-48 hours. At the larger OEM companies, this is often done at a higher than typical operating temperature.

Some time ago someone on the internet wrote a very factual sounding article on the benefits of running a CPU at a higher than typical voltage for a day or two to improve it's "overclockability". This author wrote some scientific sounding verbiage about how NMOS hot-e actually improves the drive strength of PMOS devices as a supposed explanation for why this method works. Reading this particular article and, even worse, seeing people commenting that this was a wonderful article that everyone should follow was the reason why I started posting on AnandTech way back when. The author was wrong on several key points - primarily that NMOS hot-e can occur in electron-minority (hole majority) carrier devices that are biased such as to repel electrons - and I contacted the author with a wide assortment of technical journals showing that he was wrong. He was not particularly open to the fact that he might be mistaken and never remove the article from the website that I'm aware of. Suffice to say, however, that he did not understand basic semiconductor electronics and was wrong.

There is no practical physical method that could cause a CPU to speed up after being run at an elevated voltage for an extended period of time. There may be some effect that people are seeing at the system level, but I'm not aware of what it could be. Several years ago when this issue was at it's height on the Internet, I walked around and talked to quite a few senior engineers at Intel asking if they had heard of this and what they thought be occurring. All I got were strange looks followed by reiterations of the same facts as to why this couldn't work that I had already figured out by myself. Finally, I was motivated enough to ask for and receive the burn-in reports for frequency degradation for products that I was working on at the time. I looked at approximately 25,000 200MHz Pentium CPU's, and approximately 18,000 Pentium II (Deschutes) CPU's and found that, with practically no exceptions at all, they all got slower after coming out of burn-in by a substantial percentage.

To me there is no doubt in my mind that suggesting that users overvolt their CPU's to "burn them in" is a bad thing. I'd liken it to an electrical form of homeopathy - except that ingesting water when you are sick is not going to harm you and overvolting a CPU for prolonged periods of time definitely does harm the chip. People can do what they want with their machines that they have bought - as long as the aware that what they are doing is not helping and is probably harming their systems. I have seen people - even people who know computers well - saying that they have seen their systems run faster after "burning it in" but whatever effect they may or may not be seeing, it's not caused by the CPU running faster.


Patrick Mahoney is a Senior Design Engineer in the Enterprise Processor Division at Intel.
He is not speaking for Intel Corp.

[lostshoe420]

well, you have like 10,000,000 overclocking nuts saying burning in is a good thing and one Patrick Mahoney sayings its not...hrmmm

[nopcbs]

What is the theoretical basis for thinking that "burning in" a semiconductor device (beyond the time required to bring it normal operational temperature) would serve any useful purpose in terms of allowing the device to operate more reliably under over-clocked conditions or require less added voltage to operate reliably overclocked?

I exclude such unlikly, but possable, factors as heat-sink compound spreading between semiconductor case and heat sink in response to pressure and heat and giving better heat transfer as a result.

This sounds a lot like the technologically baseless mysticism that runs rampant in high-end audio and allows golden-ears to hear things that others can not (as long as it is not under double-blind test conditions in which case they can't hear it either), but I would be happy to hear the reasoning, nevertheless.

- nopcbs

[pauldriver]

'STRESS' Burn-in is more of an anecedotal then scientific concept.

The 'Theory' is that is umm I'm not gonna geek anyone with PNP NPN junction theory and other [expletive deleted] stuff today, the simple version is that a 'stress burn-in' sort of "clears" the pathways within the semiconductor materials.

It's vaugely possible, according to the physics, for "stress burn-in" to work, but it's not highly repeatable, as it depends on vauge variations within the contruction of the device, and the sucess of the procedure would vary with differing manufacturing processes.

It's also possible for a "stress burn-in" to break down a junction, and damage the device, just as easily as it is possible for the procedure to "enhance" the device.

It's sorta of like starting my 54 Studebaker pickup, I know that checking the battery and ignition cables makes NO DIFFERANCE, but If I don't get out, open the hood, check the cables, and then try cranking it over again, it will not start!! (O.K. what's REALLY happening is that the prodecure is giving the gas, dumped into the header time to vaporise, and the process of getting out, opening the hood, checking to connections, getting back in and THEN cranking it over is just enough time to keep me from flooding it)

[Edit] the point of that rambling analogy was that checking the cables makes me feel better while I wait for the fuel to vaporise, and "Stress Burning" a CPU makes others feel better about their overclock. The likelyhood of stress burning for a few days killing a CPU is low (on non-modified motherboards), as manufacturers tend to limit the maximum overvoltage to about 20%

Paul.

[lostshoe420]

Wow, that analogy got pretty indepth :)

[pauldriver]

I was getting pretty [expletive deleted] off at the Stude for not starting, and I spent ALOT of time trying to figure out what was wrong (A blast from a can of cold start fires it up everytime.).

The world of carburated engines is a deep and dark mystery to me, fuel injected OBD I/II based engines are so simple, they tell you what is wrong!!!

[pauldriver]

BTW I discounted the stress burn-in theory along time ago, EVEN though I have experienced it, but only with P4 Processors.

My example is a 1.6Northwood CPU that wouldn't overclock much at all, even tried extreme voltages. Disapointed, I set the FSB back to normal, but forgot to change the Voltage. A few days later that the CPU was running running HOT, and I shut down to check my fans and heatsink interfaces. Everything was good, so I reboot, check the BIOS and find my voltage is still high. Now, I'm not trying to get any work done, so I decive to muck about again, and bang, I get a nice stable 800M CPS overclock to 2.4G CPS.

Perhaps it's something to do with the thermal compond Intel uses between the P4 cover and the core. Hell if I know, but that CPU and board are quite happy in my "server" still overclocked.

I consider it an EXTREME hobbist activity, like nitrous injectors in a car.

Paul.

[gustav]

i found this (http://hcidesign.com/memtest/) program when i googled memtest. its windows based so you dont have to run memtest in dos.

im running the prime95 tochure test "blend" right now. i guess its working good, but not only does it take up my 1gb of memory, but its also taking up 46% of my Swap Space and 61% of my virtual memory, so all my programs take forever to load, and once they are loaded, they run sluggish.

[larrymoencurly]

How good is that Microsoft memory diagnostic? What interests me is that the documentation says that some of its tests are optimized for certain brands of memory chips, and the binary file lists several brands, but none are displayed when the program is run.

Is this program a lot closer in quality to MemTest86 or Gold Memory, or is it a dud, like DocMem from www.simmtester.com?

[Alex_Knight]

To burn or not to burn. That is the question. :D :D :D

[M4D]

Originally posted by RedDeathDrinker
This is a short guide in response to the number of questions asked about Memory stress/burn-in programs.

Why do it?

The burn-in process can be used twofold. The primary reason to stress test a machine is to ensure its stability under extreme circumstances (e.g. that really important Quake3 Arena deathmatch). Sometimes, there's also a burn-in effect whereby a machine actually becomes more stable after being subjected to prolonged stress testing. Initially, the machines would be unstable when overclocked to certain speeds, needing additional cooling or voltage to achieve marginal stability. After strenuously stress testing the machines for several days (or sometimes weeks), the machine can become stable at its stock voltage without extreme cooling.

What to use?

There are several programs available, a list of which follows.....(if I have missed one, let me know, and I'll add it!)

Memtest86 (http://www.memtest86.com/) A memory test tool, with burn-in feature

Prime95 (http://www.mersenne.org/freesoft.htm) is a quest to find large (and I mean 10 million digit+) Prime numbers. This program is heavily memory intensive, and considered one of the more stressful burn-in programs

CPUburn (http://users.ev1.net/%7Eredelm/) will heavily stress your whole system, giving a good indicator of stability

SiSoft Sandra (http://www.sisoftware.demon.co.uk/sandra/) (the System ANalyser, Diagnostic and Reporting Assistant) is an information & diagnostic utility. It should provide most of the information (including undocumented) you need to know about your hardware, software and other devices whether hardware or software. There are 58 modules in the standard(free) version, one of which is a Memory Bandwidth benchmark, and a Burn-In Wizard



Of course, this list is by no means all the programs available, and neither I or the owners of this site accept any responsibility if your system does indeed "burn" after using one of these programs........

Nice thread i can't believe i missed this one :D

[disk11]

What priority do you guys use for P95? I set my system to realtime via taskmgr and I get an instant hard lock. I use torture test and the blend setting before I touch the priority. Nothing else I have done so far has caused a problem.

[Sophisticated]

alot of things you put to Realtime will lock your system up..just use the one be4 real time and that should give u a good stress

[disk11]

Cool thanks a bunch.

[www.darkblau.de]

Originally posted by redduc900
Another good memory burn-in/diagnostic program is one that's actually made by MS. It's called 'Windows Memory Diagnostic', and is available from the following MS 'Online Crash Analysis' site...

http://oca.microsoft.com/en/windiag.asp :)

all u need is the ULTIMATE BOOT CD
http://www.ultimatebootcd.com/
(~45MB, ISO image)

contains everything you need for burning and benchmarking!

[aNTiChRisT]

Seems like the dude has some sound backup to support the fact that burning in, but i have to say that it seemed to help me... 3.0ghz stable, after some burning in it was good for 3.2

Wierd... If not for anything else it helps settle the AS5 ;-)

~t0m

[unreal]

thx for the help in this thread,, really helped me get my whole system tuned and stable,, found out i had some errors in the ram.

[Dukemurmur]

i have had good results also with burn in. My ram woudn't go over 165 i burned in 4 a few days and i got 172 at the same voltage stable. I have heard that burn in makes osme transistors worse by about 25% but other better by about 35% in the end this will make the average transistor count better thus allow 4 a higher oc.

[Dukemurmur]

update if any one carse i just finished a new burn in and now i can run 182 at 2-2-3-11 at .1 volt less and tighter timmings then at 172

[PCGUY112887]

What is this CIV thing that a few people are talking about... and why on earth did you lock the CD in a safe?

[jaybee2003]

What is this CIV thing that a few people are talking about... and why on earth did you lock the CD in a safe?

hehe when he said CIV in that old post he was talking about an old (addictive) video game called Civilization 3. :p

[envy]

and i dont think he actually locked it in a safe...or maybe he did :eh?:

[pauldriver]

and i dont think he actually locked it in a safe...or maybe he did :eh?:

Oh no, it's actually in the safe, in a lockbox.

Anything to make it harder to start Civilization (2 or 3) up.

Civ takes about 12 to 16 hours to finish, and is eternally varible, and I get so [expletive deleted] at the AI, I want to start screaming!! (and I do, much to the consternation of my housemates and dog).

You really should try Civilization some time, really, it's good, it wont hurt you, so you lose some time, maybe some sleep, big deal, think of the pleasure you get from dominating the world, it's fun, really :)

[AA666]

The best program for CPU burning and memory testing is S&M
http://testmem.nm.ru/snm.zip

[RotKT]

been looking for this.
thanks

[Artyboy]

I'm having problems with memtest86. I made a floppy and all that does is makes numbers pop up on the side of the screen. I let it run for 2 days and it never actually made it to the test. Then I tried making a bootable cd. It just got me to dos and I can't figure out how to get it to run from there. What am I doing wrong here? The memtest website doesn't give any troubleshooting help at all. Any advice would be appreciated.

[HousERaT]

I'm having problems with memtest86. I made a floppy and all that does is makes numbers pop up on the side of the screen. I let it run for 2 days and it never actually made it to the test. Then I tried making a bootable cd. It just got me to dos and I can't figure out how to get it to run from there. What am I doing wrong here? The memtest website doesn't give any troubleshooting help at all. Any advice would be appreciated.


If you made the boot cd as an image file (which is how it's supposed to be done) then it should boot up right into memtest. I used nero and just burned the image... no problem...... btw, memtest is a dos file. ;)

[Artyboy]

Here are the steps that I took

Open Nero
Make Data Disc
Add the Boot.cat and memtest.img to the project
Proceed to burn the cd
Restart computer when the disc is done

Then it goes through all of the "starting caldera dos" crap
After that loads I get this command prompt
[DR-DOS] A:\>

When I try to do a disc image or saved project then the memtest.img file doesn't show up when I browse for it.
What am I doing wrong?

[HousERaT]

Here are the steps that I took

Open Nero
Make Data Disc
Add the Boot.cat and memtest.img to the project
Proceed to burn the cd
Restart computer when the disc is done

Then it goes through all of the "starting caldera dos" crap
After that loads I get this command prompt
[DR-DOS] A:\>

What am I doing wrong?

The problem is you're not making a data disk..... go up to the tab that says recorder.... pull it down then goto "burn image".... select the speed then burn it. I'd suggest you use a RW since you're kinda new at this.... then you'll have the image burned and will boot up when you leave it in the cd drive.... make sure your system is set up to boot from a cd before the harddrive.

Edit: download the iso and follow the steps above.....

[Artyboy]

I did what you said. The problem is that when I download the .ISO it's a winrar file. Nero can't find it when I click the burn disc image option no matter what file types I tell it to look for. I unpack it and it unpacks into another winrar file. I unpack that and it unpacks into the boot.cat and memtest.img file. Nero doesn't detect any of these under the burn disc image option. When I try to change the file to something that it will detect I get a corrupt file error. Do I click on the burn data disc option after I switch the bar on top to image recorder (cdr/rw)? If I do then do I add both files to be burned?

[{pdX}Canadatron]

Anyone know how to get Memtest86 working? The readme was a serious P.O.S...

[Streifenkarl]

I never leave my computer on, when i dont need it. Its only on when i do something with it like gaming, surfing the net, working or benching/overclocking. So i never performed a stress test but memtest for 20 minutes or so. And guess what: When i overclock too far then my system wont boot. When i am right at the limit a quick 3DMark2001 run will make it crash. And when i am below the limit the system never crashes. I just havent felt the need of a 12 hour stress test with my computer working all night.

I know this is an overclockers forum, so things like stress tests are highly important i guess. But my system has never failed me without them, so far.

Edit: Canadatron, just unzip the file, execute the memtest install file and it will tell you what to do. After that you reboot your computer (your floppy drive must be set as boot drive in BIOS) and load memtest from the floppy disk.

[Super Nade]

^^ Brother, you need to be Folding! Leave that computer ON!

This looks pretty neat: <Rightmark Memory Analyzer>
http://cpu.rightmark.org/download.shtml

Has a burn-in module.

[Cjwinnit]

usually 24 hours is good i think

reason for that
the house will go threw its full thermal cycle

Wouldn't it be ok to simply test at the hottest part of the day?

[Super Nade]

The hottest part of the day in Indianapolis is when you turn on the lights ;)

Although, I'm not sure about the validity of the "Thermal Cycle" argument, simply because most people's homes are temprature regulated. What good will a periodic change of temp by about 1C do?

[DuckDodgers]

What is the best way to install and run MEMTEST86? I have tried to create a bootable CD as per the install readme, but can't seem to run it. What am I doing wrong?

bump for the Sticky

[Impulses]

I just used Memtest86+ 1.50 recently... Basically a version of the old Memtest86 that some guys have kept working on (x86-secret, they're french I think), they have ready-made ISOs that make creating a bootable CD a snap (just point your burning program towards the ISO and you're done). They also have the source files and whatnot in case anyone wants to do it manually... This version (Memtest86+) has improved support for some of the newer chipsets as well as some particular A64 tweaks. It also seems to be updated more frequently, dunno.

In any case, it worked great for me and singled out some RAM timing issues that Prime didn't, here's the link:

http://www.memtest.org/

[Super Nade]

Could you elaborate on the issues?

If you mean Memtest shows errors while Prime doesn't, it would be helpful to know how you concluded the errors were not due to a memtest compatibility issue?

[Elric]

How come noone even mentioned Overclockix?

I mean.. it's supported by our Folding community, so why not mention it?

[EvilCloudStrife]

Hey there was a question on the 1st page that no one answered.. what is the best way to burn in? at stock Voltage and speeds or overclocked and higher voltage or what.. i have no idea.. i got new ram that is only stable at 2.7v at stock settings! that is crap man. i need to burn it in, maybe it will help!

[Elric]

Burning in should be done at stock everything, as far as I'm concerned. And burn in your ram one DIMM at a time. Twenty four hours on each. If there's ever a problem where you can't even get the standard timings, burn in one dimm overnight, or 24 hours... then take it out and burn in the other dimm.

Also, if you're using arctic silver ... you may want to let it burn for 72 hours, so it has a chance to set properly.

[C0oLl2iCef0o]

I still remember my first stress test, i was like whoa! its so laggy!

[ket]

your forgetting Super PI... =\

[pauldriver]

A good test that you can run from a working MS Windows install is RightMark Memory Analyser (http://cpu.rightmark.org/download.shtml).

Hit the "Express Info" tab and run both the Quick Test and the Stability Test.

Memtest (http://www.memtest.org/) though, is a great diagnostic for those times when you get bluescreens while booting Windows, you can run it from a Boot CD or a flash drive.

[Blazing fire]

Imo memtest86 for memory and chipset error detection is the best pre os loaded. In windows, nothing has really topped prime 95 for finding "cpu" instability.

If for example, you can run prime 95 all day but as soon as you run 3dmark2001 or play games and your system still crashes, your problem does not lie with the cpu speed. Chances are your FSB is set too high causing problems with AGP or PCI dividers being too far out of spec. If your still having problems with games / 3dmark crashing and your on an Nvidia Nforce 2 or Intel based system that locks the pci / agp your problem lies with AGP having side band addressing enabled or 8X agp enabled. These types of things wont show up with Prime95.


The Trick with benchmarking for stability is to utilize several tests in conjunction with your hardware. There really is no be all end all benchmark, because computers consist of multiple parts that cannot be stress %100 at the same time is basically what im getting at.

my 2 cents..


I agree. Memetest for mem. Prime for CPU.

Edit- OCCT, linpack are also great utilities for detecting errors in CPUs.

[vu_niitvn]

Sometimes, there's also a burn-in effect whereby a machine actually becomes more stable after being subjected to prolonged stress testing. Initially, the machines would be unstable when overclocked to certain speeds, needing additional cooling or voltage to achieve marginal stability.

[freaky]

hi,

here some nice memory-tools:

MaxxMEM² -Preview:
http://www.maxxpi.net/pages/downloads/maxxmemsup2---preview.php

MaxxMEM² -Preview - Multi:
http://www.maxxpi.net/pages/downloads/maxxmemsup2---preview---multi.php

and this here!, i found it very intressing:
http://www.maxxpi.net/pages/result-browser/memory---all-inclusive.php

best