memtest86-can it be trusted?

I just bought a 256 stick of Mushkin PC2100 special (Nanya chips, 7ns) DDR. The system seems to be stable, I mean it can run prime95 for about 9 hours, Quake3 and Tribes2 with 16 bots for about 4 hours without a single crash. I even installed Win2K and ran the SiSoft Sandra burn-in test 50 times and no crash. 3DMark2001Se 1600x1200@32 works fine too.

The question comes from an error reported by memtest86. In about 4 from 17 tests it reports a single bit error at 0c294a48. This is the single adress that has problems. How can memtest86 report this error and still the system apear to be rock solid? Is it really a RAM fault or just a bug in memtest?

Second, is this RAM any good? Anyone else have it? What FSB can you reach at 2-5-2-2, and with what voltage?

Third, the DIMM is single on the mobo (the Gigabyte 8IRX, see sig bellow). Would moving it in another slot do any good?

Hope you can help me with this one....

I could always RMA it, but this would take kind of a long time and meanwhile I'd be stuck with an 128 Samsung PC2100 CL2 dimm (which is great BTW, it can do 184 FSB at 2-5-2-2 with 2.7 voltage).

The memory testing program you are using stresses the memory far beyond any level of stress using your computer can provide at full load
in addition , with certain chipsets mem test wont work correctly...........

I had this same problem a while ago, it was with some SDRAM tho, my (non overclocked) comp with 2x 64MB was totally stable, the only times it would crash was when installing a big app (file corruptions) , or if i had lots of things open, or playing halflife. (q3a ran fine) It turned out that it would only crash when it got to a high level of memory usage. memtest showed one stick to be fux0red, i replaced it, probs gone... i would reccommend RMA it, its crappy having bad RAM, it will only destabilise your system.

The question comes from an error reported by memtest86. In about 4 from 17 tests it reports a single bit error at 0c294a48. This is the single adress that has problems. How can memtest86 report this error and still the system apear to be rock solid? Is it really a RAM fault or just a bug in memtest?

Click to expand...

One bad address is not going to send an otherwise stable system crashingto the ground...but if memtest says its bad, then it is indeed bad. Even the most reputable memory manufacturers in the world will occasional put out a bad stick...I would RMA it, because you never know when the next address will go out on you...you already have proof that one is bad, why wait for the next?

things are actually even worse. The recommended settings are 2.5-3-3 at an 266 DDR clock. I just relialised that at these settings the DIMM works just fine (12 hours of memtest and not a single crash). I mean any single mhz over this, or another memory timing like CL 2, would lead to the above mentioned error. I mean this stick doesn't overclock AT ALL (I tried voltages up to 2.8 and still nothing)! If this is the case, why would Muskin call it SPECIAL? And why would they mention the 7 ns chips? The standard for PC2100 is AFAIK 7.5 ns. And there is lots of PC2100/7.5ns ram out there that overclocks very well (I have a Samsung PC2100 dimm that can do 184 FSB at 2-5-2-2 with 2.7 voltage). If theese Nanya chips are 7 ns, they should do at least that.

Ok, I'm going to RMA it... if they complain, I'll just tell them to give the NON-special DIMM since it probably doesn't make any difference in this case .

Mushkins "Special" RAM , I beleive is there low end product , a basic product , not meant for high performance , that would explain the low cost compared to other mushkin modules................


Now dont get me wrong , the product is good , Just not high end

no, actually they say something like this about the performance of their DDR

Pc2100 7.5 ns < PC2100 special 7ns < PC2100 High Performance < PC2400 special etc...

anyway, memtest was right.... I'm getting constant errors now in Linux (lots of segfaults...) I'll RMA it today and keep you updated on how it works...

tnx for trying to help guys...