mem test.

[wavemaker]

Gooday all. Just out of curiosity I kicked off the memtest at start up the other day. After 3 or so hours I needed to use the puter so I shut it off and got on with my stuff. When I went to log off that night, I decided to run it again. I get up in the morning and it's been running over 8 hours and still going for it. What's the go here? what's it for? Every thing is running all good ATM so I spose it doesn't really matter. Just curious. Regards, James.

[dibl]

Re: mem test.

G'day, and welcome!

memtest86 does not "end" -- it runs until you stop it. Multiple runs are considered necessary to confirm that there are no memory faults, so running it overnight is the recommended method. On my rig a 7-hour overnight run gets about 5+ passes of the test suite.

http://www.memtest.org/

8)

[wavemaker]

Re: mem test.

Thanks for that, first I knew of it. How often do you run it?

[Snowhog]

Re: mem test.

You should only *need* to consider running it if/when you start to receive memory fault errors. Use of extensive graphics applications, heavy duty number crunching processing, intensive gaming. These tend to really use RAM heavily. So, unless you experience problems, you don't need to run the mem test.

[dibl]

Re: mem test.

I ran it when I first built my computer (OCT 06) to verify the installed memory, then I've never run it again until about a week ago, because I got a "base 64 error" on a cold start and I wanted to make sure the memory was OK. Apparently my 5 hard drives are pulling down the PSU when it's cold ...

[Snowhog]

Re: mem test.

And, which I should have included below, when you replace/add additional memory to your PC.

[wavemaker]

Re: mem test.

Thanks again. All adding to my knowledge base.!!!

[Qqmike]

Re: mem test.

You hope you never have to run it, with good memory installed (eg, Crucial, Kingston, et al). After initial burn-in (on a new system) and after a fair (1 month?) initial “failure period,” your memory should run OK (unless it’s very old, or got knocked loose). Memory problems can be weird and exhibit subtle, confusing symptoms, similar to those of a failing power supply, or a loose cable (power or data), and so on.. Thus, to rule out the memory as a possible cause of such baffling symptoms, you may run memtest to be (fairly) sure it’s not your memory.