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How reliable is memtest86?

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Senior Member
Joined
Oct 30, 2003
I just received 1gb of g.skill mem, the one going for $99 at neweg, and it is giving me errors at default clock and timing. I wanted to know how reliable is memtest86 and should I rma this ram.
 
I'd say rma, memtest spits out errors only if there actualy are errors; it may be the ram (most probably) but I guess it might also be the cpu or the mobo...
 
Which version are you using...the older versions tend to give errors on the new UTT/TCCD chips that are not actually their...

Also...dont RMA your skills right away...it usally takes about a week or so for skills to settle in...

Took about a week to get my old LC's running at 8-4-4-2.5/275...then another week or so later they were running 5-3-4-2.5/275/2.85v 100% stable...
 
I was going to put this ram on a build for someone else but I think I'll hold on to it until I figure this out, the memtest86 version is 3.1, I downloaded a long time ago. Is there another ram testing software that I could use.


By the way there were no errors when the kingmax ram.
 
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here is what I found while online searching for a new version of memtest86

There have been numerous reports of errors in only tests 5 and 8 on Athlon systems. Often the memory works in a different system or the vendor insists that it is good. In these cases the memory is not necessarily bad but is not able to operate reliably at Athlon speeds. Sometimes more conservative memory timings on the motherboard will correct these errors. In other cases the only option is to replace the memory with better quality, higher speed memory. Don't buy cheap memory and expect it to work with an Athlon! On occasion test 5/8 errors will occur even with name brand memory and a quality motherboard. These errors are legitimate and should be corrected.

Memtest86 has no support for multiple processors. Memtest86 will execute without problems, but it will only use one CPU.

Memtest86 supports all types of memory. If fact the test has no knowledge of the memory type nor does it need to. Memtest86 is able to test all types and brands of memory. This not a problem or bug but is listed here due to the many questions about this issue.
 
PerlAddict said:
Probably ought to be using the new Memtest86+, based off the old version of Memtest86. I think the current version is 1.55.

Did that and it errored on the same test 5 test.
 
I get errors on test 5 every time at 3.3ghz with the system in my sig. I'm using Memtest86 not 86+.

I have never attempted to run any programs in windows at 3.3 since memtest never passed. I just assumed it wasnt going to work.

I guess I'll try memtest86+ and see what happens tonite.
 
Tried the v3.2 of memtest86 and got errors on test 5, and the pc crashed while I was on excel so I guess it's back to newegg or g.skill.
 
Avg said:
Tried the v3.2 of memtest86 and got errors on test 5, and the pc crashed while I was on excel so I guess it's back to newegg or g.skill.

glock19owner said:
Also...dont RMA your skills right away...it usally takes about a week or so for skills to settle in...

Took about a week to get my old LC's running at 8-4-4-2.5/275...then another week or so later they were running 5-3-4-2.5/275/2.85v 100% stable...

Do a search and you will find most people with skills had the same issues for about a week also...

These sticks do need to settle in...and giving them a day or two is not long enough...
 
heheh just got them three hours ago, good to know this has happedned to other people, maybe I should just leave this pc alone and use the other ones, cause it hasn't crashed but it is acting up.
 
Maybe it's only people with AMD systems that are blessed with this instability. I popped these sticks in and ran them at 250 2.5-3-3 2.6v, with 100% stability.

Try running the WHOLE system at stock, not just using a divider on the RAM.
 
yeah, at my 262fsb I get about 14 errors per pass of memtest #5 but its completely stable in windoze (when I dont have shorting optical drives, but thats another matter). I can fold forever, loop 3dmark, go crazy with superpi, and play CS for 6 hours straight no problems. All that despite getting a few memtest errors. I'm not sure what to make of that, but hey, I dont look a gift horse in the mouth ;)
 
By the way I'm not talking about a couple errors, i'm getting thousands of them literaly.
 
Not that reliable in my opinion. I could go on memtesting for hours on ends. But would get a couple of errors with the windows based.:shrug: :p
 
It seems that it got worst so I'll be rmaing it just to make sure, right now I lowered the fsb to 166mhz were I get no errors, but when running at 200mhz I was getting errors in test 5,6 and 7 about 300 thousands of them.
 
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