Clarification on Legacy USB and Memtest

I'm trying to figure out this whole Memtest thing, and I'm getting some conflicting info. Specifically with the USB Legacy option in the BIOS. Some say disable it, some say only disable it if you're not using it. (I actually have a USB keyboard but I also have a PS2 one I can use for the test). I've also read to disable serial, parrallel, IDE, SATA, take out all PCI cards but video, etc. But that leads me to a second question. If you're using these other things when you're computer is on and in regular use, shouldn't you keep these things enabled to get the "real world" performance of your memory? Or does enabling / disabling these things only pertain to Memtest freezing, but other than that won't affect as the wheather a stick of RAM passes the various tests without errors?

Memtest86+ is suppose to have gotten rid of the USB Legacy conflict with Asus boards. Be sure to get the latest version at www.memtest.org .

As a habit, you should disable all BIOS options for things that you are not using. Like Firewire, SATA (if using IDE HD), USB (if using PS2 KB), Motherboard Sound (if using a PCI sound card) ect. But you needn't go extreme and disable things that you use - like LAN, removing PCI cards, ect.

If Memtest86 is freezing, then that's another thing. It usually doesn't have to do with memory stability, and rather is a conflict somewhere. Then you would do such things to troubleshoot the cause of the freezing.

Thanks Speed_Mechanic2, I understand now.

As a habit, you should disable all BIOS options for things that you are not using

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That makes sense. One thing that I read about in a post here though, is that if you disable your Serial ports in your BIOS, and go to device manager, and check, "show hidden devices" you will notice that there is a caution sign beside "Serial". So just to avoid that I keep that enabled in the BIOS. Is this a good idea in your opinion?

Bumporama.

Sure, if your getting any conflicts with it disabled, and it's running fine enabled, then just keep it set to Auto or Enabled.

marc999 said:

One thing that I read about in a post here though, is that if you disable your Serial ports in your BIOS, and go to device manager, and check, "show hidden devices" you will notice that there is a caution sign beside "Serial". So just to avoid that I keep that enabled in the BIOS. Is this a good idea in your opinion?

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I had this too, but figured out how to correct it. If you have your serial ports disabled when you install Windows and/or chipset drivers, then some drivers don't get installed. So I've made it a habit to enable most peripherals in the BIOS for Windows / chipset driver installs, then disable what I don't need after a couple reboots. Also, the SM Bus may show a caution under serial before installing chipset drivers. I don't know if this is the recommended way of handling your / my issue, but it worked for me.

Thanks all.
So does anyone know how to tell apart a L2 Cache error from a RAM error in MemTest?

Anyone?