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Post by Ardbeg... innit on Feb 24, 2009 8:10:47 GMT -6
Does anyone know of a good software package from (a key point here) a reliable source, for doing a comprehensive test of system RAM regardless of the "flavor" (DIMM SIMM DDR etc).
I seem to have memory failing and I would like software that could confirm this and perhaps even tell me which module to swap out (to avoid the trial and error method).
There is a lot out there on a Google search, but this is such a sensitive issue, I want to be sure to get software that wont do more harm than good.
Anyone?
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Post by Chicago Jake on Feb 24, 2009 8:44:18 GMT -6
You might try Crucial.com. I use their memory analyzer to determine my upgrade options. I don't know if they test functionality, but they might have a tool for it.......Jake
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Post by Robin Hood on Feb 26, 2009 0:49:07 GMT -6
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Post by Ardbeg... innit on Feb 26, 2009 5:54:13 GMT -6
I saw them (among others) RH and appreciate the recommendation.
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Post by Robin Hood on Feb 26, 2009 18:27:58 GMT -6
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Post by Ardbeg... innit on Feb 26, 2009 18:53:30 GMT -6
I did do a visual inspection this morning, nothing obvious, and I did swap out the memory modules though there were no problems indicated by memtest. I had no problems on the initial test run this afternoon. Time will tel however.
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Post by Robin Hood on Feb 26, 2009 18:59:39 GMT -6
How old is the box? Brand? etc etc.... I have seen bad memory, but it is pretty rare..... I have seen Hard Drives getting ready to go on the brink cause some really funky errors also. You can figure out the brand of the HDD and go to the respective company website and download some good tools to check that also...
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Post by ♥ COVID-19♥ on Feb 26, 2009 19:01:43 GMT -6
The memory itself could be fine. On my desktop PC at work, the RAM failed on a POST during restart; turned out some dust collected on and around the memory and motherboard when the cleaning guy "kicked" the CPU the night before! IT opened the box, re-seated the RAM and used a can of compressed air to blow out all of the dust. After that, no more RAM problems.
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Post by Ardbeg... innit on Feb 26, 2009 19:26:00 GMT -6
The box is a Dell XPS, 2Gb RAM, twin duo cores, about 18 months old.
Given the progressive nature of the problem, I dont suspect it was a seating problem with the RAM, they seemed tight when I swapped them out, and I cleaned out the insides while I had the box open.
I will keep an eye on the HDD, but diagnostics came up with nothing unusual, and the virtual machine partition which worked fine through the same procedures that gave me troubles on the normal partition residents on the same HDD.
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Post by Robin Hood on Feb 26, 2009 19:41:50 GMT -6
hmm, that is a pretty new machine to have any popped caps. HDD could be an issue...but once again it is pretty new. Without seeing the machine, I am not real sure which direction to send you in.
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Post by Ardbeg... innit on Feb 26, 2009 20:18:39 GMT -6
Im not sure either, given the nature of the problem I described back in the first post. If it had been absolutely repeatable, I would have called it a software issue (which was my first reaction). But when it became an issue that increased in frequency, but with the exact same character string imbedded in the output file at very predictable places, memory was the only logical place to go.
If it starts back up again, I will post the output file, and see what you think.
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Post by ♥ COVID-19♥ on Feb 27, 2009 9:26:53 GMT -6
What you're saying is that you don't trust Dell's Tech Support.
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Post by Ardbeg... innit on Feb 27, 2009 9:41:42 GMT -6
a) I trust them to divert the issue to being related to a software package that they dont understand.
2) I trust them to waste hours of my time on hold while they determine the best alibi that implicates point a)
d) I trust them to be totally incapable of interacting with me in English
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Post by ♥ COVID-19♥ on Feb 27, 2009 9:56:38 GMT -6
Does this memory problem occur before or after Windows starts -- or both? If it only happens after Windows successfully launches (and has been running for a while), then the codes in the output might be Microsoft's. If that's the case, you might try looking it up on The Microsoft Developer Network (or just Google the code string itself, assuming you haven't already done so).
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Post by Ardbeg... innit on Feb 27, 2009 10:02:15 GMT -6
If it starts back up again, I will post the output file, and see what you think. OK, here we go again. I have two output files below that are the result of my computer chewing on the input files for about 10 minutes. The first is a perfect example of what has been going wrong. It was run under Windows XP, the native OS for the machine. The file is completely unusable without editing in a text editor, plus it causes the software I am using to crash before it can refine the data and improve the results. (I have highlighted the errors in the file). Below that is the same data set that has been run in a virtual machine environment (NT-2000)... |
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Post by Robin Hood on Feb 27, 2009 17:26:36 GMT -6
that to me looks like a software incompatibility problem....I don't think that is hardware related at all. As far as figuring out what isn't playing nice with each other.....trial and error.
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Post by Ardbeg... innit on Mar 2, 2009 6:45:42 GMT -6
Yeah, Im was beginning to come to that conclusion myself. I did find out I had a significant fragmentation issue on that drive, did the defrag with several different packages. Ill see if that makes a difference, and start shutting down peripheral operations to see if something makes a difference.
THANKS everyone! I'll let you know.
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