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HOWTO: Diagnosing Bad Memory

tech-hints.org — Does your Windows-based PC crash for no apparent reason? Well OK, mine does too, but does yours crash often? At random times? With Nasty blue Screens of Death? If the answer is "yes", you may very well have a memory problem. Read what tools to use and how to use them to diagnose your RAM.

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  • atdigg, on 10/12/2007, -50/+11"Does your Windows-based PC crash for no apparent reason?"

    Hmm, you already mentioned the reason.
    • marklj, on 10/12/2007, -6/+34Wow, a windows hater. How quaint.
    • mandarin, on 10/12/2007, -5/+23Ok ok we know you have a Mac. Can we get back to the subject regarding bad memory tools?
    • Monolith2, on 10/12/2007, -22/+3wtf? Why do you need a 20 step process to diagnose bad RAM? You could, ya know, just take out one stick at a time and see if that fixes the problem.
    • Jegzzy, on 10/12/2007, -18/+2bury this
    • Jegzzy, on 10/12/2007, -16/+2bury this too
    • WorldGroove, on 10/12/2007, -1/+18Monolith2: "wtf? Why do you need a 20 step process to diagnose bad RAM? You could, ya know, just take out one stick at a time and see if that fixes the problem."

      Yeah, my old laptop with 512MB ram has been acting wierd. I removed the *one and only* 512MB ram stick to see if it was the memory causing the problem. The laptop failed to boot. I guess I'll buy new RAM and test it again. If the test fails again, I'll keep going back to FRY's until I find good RAM that works.....
    • gyberedeemer, on 10/12/2007, -0/+13Actually, apple has screwed me in the past few days. Kernel panics due to bad on-board ram, and of course, the entire logic board has to be lifted. I should have gone with lenovo.
    • ScottMaximus, on 10/12/2007, -12/+6What are you talking about, You have iMovie! and iPhoto!

      Why would you want some silly PC when you have great applications like that?
    • bstock, on 10/12/2007, -1/+4This is a lot of work to test memory... Easier by far to pop in a Ubuntu live cd and go to the 'Memory Test' loader. If you screen fills with red memory errors, test 1 stick at a time until you find the bad module. Much faster and easier.
    • challahc, on 10/12/2007, -5/+3this is one reason i'm starting to hate digg, you can't even make a joke without getting dugg down
    • trevorsm, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1I had this happen on my Mac a few years back; it just started randomly crashing every few days. I eventually got out my hardware diagnostic CD and it told me that my memory was bad. I popped out the bad stick, and the crashing went away. Before that, I had no idea that memory could go bad.
    • gotamd, on 10/12/2007, -3/+4Bad memory doesn't only happen to Windows machines. Mac uses the same RAM that is used in every other desktop PC, so please STFU.
    • OrangeTide, on 10/12/2007, -1/+2People usually don't put substandard RAM bought from Super Happy Discount Store and put it in their Mac.

      There is memtestosx for that if you wish, it costs $1. http://www.memtestosx.org/

      btw- I thought atdigg's comment was funny, I don't know why people have to digg him down.
    • regeya, on 10/12/2007, -1/+3That comment was a lot funnier ten years ago.
  • imafish2002, on 10/12/2007, -1/+21I'll summarise the whole 2000 word article.

    http://www.memtest86.com/
  • sockpuppets, on 10/12/2007, -1/+14I was going to post something witty here but I forgot.
  • elnerdo, on 10/12/2007, -0/+20Why did they even mention Windows so specifically? Bad memory will crash ANY OS.
    • mandarin, on 10/12/2007, -4/+11Maybe if it was the other OS, the article writer would get sued.
  • Mrkamikaze, on 10/12/2007, -4/+2I used to know how diagnose bad memory the first time every time..but i forgot how..oh well.
  • greymaxcat, on 10/12/2007, -3/+7I have Bad Memory... I think... I keep forgiting....
  • MadMardigan, on 10/12/2007, -3/+1. ill start from the begining.. Memory is not all tested.. there are 4 different batches of DRAM made. 1st --JEDEC Passing DRAM which is expensive because all the DRAM is tested to see if it meets the JEDEC standard .. then there is the cheaper stuff ETT (efffectivly tested) where a percentage of the chips on a wafer are tested to see if it passes JEDEC standards.. cheaper than 100% testing and you get a good idea that your product is still good with out testing the whole wafer (expensive process) 3rd is UTT DRAM (untested) (even cheaper than the previous 2) this DRAM is made and never tested but is churned out to a module.. (considered value product) stuff like this may end up as a DDR400 module but might drop down to 333 at any time.. this stuff is sketchy.. and the 4th (Cheapest) is downgraded RAM.(considered value product). this stuff was tested and FAILED.. and should have been thrown out.. but is seen by DRAM makers as still sellable so they sell it under a differnet company name (so it doesnt tarnish thier BRAND name) this stuff is total crap.. it may run at its speed for a while then when it heats up it goes wacky.. MICRONs downgraded ram company is Rendition.. all the major chip makers have these downgraded ram offshoots.. so be carefull when you buy memory .. you get what you pay for.. and it will save the hassle of trying to trouble shoot your memory later on like this article tries to teach you to do..
    • clinko, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3Apparently grammar slipped your memory.
    • polywaffle, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0Yeah grammar isn't too great, but its still interesting to read..Where did you find this info?
    • MadMardigan, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0sorry for the grammar. kinda nit picky of ya there.. just trying to help you understand whats out there.. i know this stuff because im a rep for one of the top 10 memory manufactures out there and i have to try to explain the differences between memory to people day in and day out..
  • akinder, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3haha how cute, taking a poke at Windows crashing HEH I know, since mine crashes all the damn time.

    Oh wait, it doesn't.
    • polywaffle, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0Yeah last time my windows crashed was due to bad drivers, hardly Microsofts fault.
  • moonwell, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2Once I needed to "repair" a box for an egghead programmer guy. He can't figure it out why the brand new box don't boot, and after he bring back the mobo and the ram twice he still thought the radeon card whats aint working. But every time when it was in service they told him every component is fine. So he gone for a drive couple of times before gave that machine to me for repair. You can imagine his face after I told him the problem was he bought ECC memory for a mobo which doesn't support it :)
  • iohannus, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Anyone know some good tools to test other pieces of hardware? My computer randomly reboots and bluescreens with a "hardware failure" notice and I'm not sure how to find out what the problem is. I don't have the parts to switch everything out, so I'd prefer to use software diagnostics over randomly buying new parts.
    • bstock, on 10/12/2007, -1/+1Have you tried to re-install windows? That would be a good place to start. Alternatively, you could try to run a live cd for a while to see how long it lasts. If everything seems to go good on the live cd, you're likely looking at a Windows problem. If you're getting crashes in a live cd environment, then you've definitely got bad hardware.

      A good start would be a memory test though, since that's fairly easy to narrow down. If memory comes up good, I would guess that a hard drive would be your next likely hardware to go out.
  • moonwell, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1every component require another program, use badblocks for hdd, memtest for all kinda ram, but if you have problem with your motherboard thats suxx, hotcpu for stress test
  • moonwell, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1If you lucky this project support your chipset. Really good debug stuff.

    http://bluesmoke.sourceforge.net/
  • dupswapdrop, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Remember memory is the second thing to go and, I forgot the first!
  • maddeviator, on 10/12/2007, -0/+5BURIED! This whole article is a direct RIP from PCSTATS:

    http://www.pcstats.com/articleview.cfm?articleID=1565
    • OrangeTide, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3Wow. good catch there. Seems kind of scummy to rip off simple articles like this.
    • Crest444, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3Man, that is pretty low to rip off someone else's work and post it as your own. :(
    • maddeviator, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2This site seems to be a Made-For-Adsense site and rips off articles. Unfortunatly with this going front page they will be making plenty of money. As a computer hardware writer myself I hate seeing this kind of thing. Ive mentioned this to PCStats. Everyone should bury this article or mark it as inaccurate or something.
  • apotropaic, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Actually I don't really thing memory is to blame all the much. If your computer is running it really is a small chance the memory is bad. It actually power suplies most of the time. You get such crappy power suplies with brand name computers and with most computer cases! It also causes blue screens in windows and is really random.
    • OrangeTide, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Memory errors are common enough that a tool like this is important. It's also a good idea to blast any new memory you buy and install with memtest86. They usually only have a 30 day warranty, best to deal with it now than find out when it's too late to get a replacement.
    • ShrimpCrackers, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Its actually both, your computer can run on bad memory. I've been able to run one with both sticks failing stress tests (thank you memtest86) but actually ran fairly decent for weeks at a time.

      The power supply is a valid statement too, cheap power supplies are also a bane.

      Basically if you build your PC, please use reputable parts. My computer never crashes. My main desktop has been on for 7 months (since it was built), runs Windows Server2003, and never needed a reboot except for updates.
  • emer, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Not sure about anyone else, but we've found docmem test to yield many false positives.
  • sTaGe, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0Memtest+86 works great for me. I user it also to test my overclocks
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