Diagnose with Memtest86+

2 Dec, 2004 at 10:10pm ET Article published in Tech

One of the recommended steps to diagnose a problem with a PC that is crashing or unstable is to test and diagnose memory because memory is one of the more likely hardware components that can fail. Faulty memory can cause many problems even if the PC continues to operate.

Read it here

Comments

7 Dec 2004 ~ 6:40am Unregistered "The most important item here is the "errors" line. If you see ANY errors, even one, then you have bad ram. If you see any other number than "0" in the "pass" line then your memory is good. It's that easy!"
..but...
what does it mean if the "errors" line says 8 (bad ram) and the "pass" line says 8, too? (good ram)
Thats what I see on the screenshot..
Can some1 explain?
7 Dec 2004 ~ 8:53am Trogan Good guide prime. Nice and clear about what to download, how to make the floppy and how to run memtest.

I'l give memtest a go when I have time
7 Dec 2004 ~ 10:30am primesuspect

Unregistered wrote:

"The most important item here is the "errors" line. If you see ANY errors, even one, then you have bad ram. If you see any other number than "0" in the "pass" line then your memory is good. It's that easy!"
..but...
what does it mean if the "errors" line says 8 (bad ram) and the "pass" line says 8, too? (good ram)
Thats what I see on the screenshot..
Can some1 explain?

Those are not "8"s, those are "0"s........
8 Dec 2004 ~ 7:34am Unregistered

what does it mean if the "errors" line says 8 (bad ram) and the "pass" line says 8, too? (good ram)

ANY errors at all means your memory is bad.

What I find interesting about this article is that motherboard and CPU issues aren't mentioned. I have been using Memtest86 for a long time, and have come across a LOT of bad memory, but I've also found bad motherboards and one bad P4 2.8C CPU.
17 Dec 2004 ~ 4:04am Unregistered Thank You for the clear and concise instructions, this has been most helpful!
30 Apr 2009 ~ 4:10pm MM Well, I have 4 passes and 10,000,000 errors. I have no doubts I have a bad RAM, but what's that with the >0 passes is good?
Thanks
12 May 2009 ~ 11:25pm KairosDrasis *sigh* If we forget to put a email, please for god's sake don't clear the entire post when I hit the back button... Onward to what I said early, before it all got deleted.

Passes are not good. They just mean that the test is complete. You will see when test hits 100% pass will go up 1 and the test will restart.

Simple rule:
if error>0 then bad ram,
if pass>1 and error=0 then good ram,
if pass=0 then your test is not finished.

Kairos
2 Oct 2009 ~ 7:13pm Gillighan Great Job !
Stay Well
26 Dec 2009 ~ 7:45pm e|raze Thanks great guide and very helpful
18 Jan 2010 ~ 3:27pm John Hi.
Well, I'm trying to test my RAM, but I have a problem...
I'm using an Acer Aspire One, which doesn't has neither CD Drive neither Floppy Drive, so I have to use USB, so... can you help me with this? =D
Since I'm not an advanced user...
18 Jan 2010 ~ 3:32pm Ryder You need to create a bootable USB key, then download the "Pre-compiled EXE file for USB key" from here: http://www.memtest.org/#downiso
10 Feb 2010 ~ 1:34pm Angel great info. I used it to detect a faulty brand new memory stick bought from bestbuy
10 May 2010 ~ 5:23am JimmyJump Very nice and clear tutorial... thanks a lot.

JJ

PS, better use a code to fill-out instead of that stupid Human/Spambot question...
11 Jun 2010 ~ 10:37am Martymac I burnt a CD on a laptop using Alex Feinman's ISO recorder for Windows7 (the operating system of the laptop) but the CD won't boot my computer. It just tries to start Windows XP and the goes back to the BSOD. I used a formatted CD-RW. Should I have burnt the disk image onto an unformatted CD?
11 Jun 2010 ~ 12:29pm primesuspect Yes, ISOs should be burned onto unformatted CDs
23 Jun 2010 ~ 9:45am Carl An error does not mean that a RAM module is bad. Something is wrong but it can also be caused by the motherboard, RAM slot, chipset, CPU...
25 Oct 2010 ~ 6:12pm kosta So, if my memtest (after 3 of the 7 included tests) gives me more than 3 milion errors (in 512 RAM), it is seriously fried.

Would that indicate that the harddrive also has been destroyed?
25 Oct 2010 ~ 6:15pm Thrax Yes, your RAM is toast. It doesn't say anything about your hard drive.
26 Apr 2011 ~ 9:37pm Vivek I ran the memtest86+ using usb and it ran for overnight with 12 passes and on and 0 errors. How many tests are there totally. Or is that testing same thing again and again. Does 12 passes and 0 errors mean my RAM is good..
26 Apr 2011 ~ 9:40pm Thrax Your RAM is good.
26 Apr 2011 ~ 10:47pm Vivek I have been getting lot of different bsod whenever i boot. I was suspecting on RAM. thanks to memtest86+.
27 Apr 2011 ~ 1:04am primesuspect If you're getting BSOD at boot it could be a power issue.
27 Apr 2011 ~ 3:57am Vivek i tested one of my ram. may be other one is fault. i havent tested it yet. if that too ok then it might be as you said..
27 Apr 2011 ~ 9:12pm Vivek my another RAM has got more than 1000 errors in few seconds testing. Now no BSOD anymore if I use the good one. But still i cannot open any application. please re install application cannot load rundll.dll, shell32.dll...etc. I tested my harddrive using SeaTools and result is passed.
Is this case clearly means that no fault in any of the hardware including PSU?.
28 Apr 2011 ~ 11:02pm Vivek i got everything working now after removing the toast RAM.
thanks to author(primesuspect) and big thanks to MemTest86+.
1 Jul 2011 ~ 11:36am Dhwani I am doing memtest86 and the test is just 15% completed and it has 0 pass and 7 errors. I can understand that that error comes at test #4. So i think something is wrong with RAM but i dont understand whats the situation. and what i need to do now? I need to replace RAM? need to check each slot?
1 Jul 2011 ~ 11:58am Dhwani Memtest86 is not going further from Pass 23%, Test 16%, Test #5........This screen is as it is since last 25 mins. Nothing is getting change and its still. What that mean?
5 Jul 2011 ~ 12:58pm Tushon You can read the RAM memory location and see if it is first stick, second stick etc (assuming you have multiple sticks). I would reverse them and test again. If the same stick errors, you can replace it. If the same slot errors, then you have a bad mobo/memory controller and you would have to replace whole board.
7 Aug 2011 ~ 6:14pm Chris I have 4GB (2 2GB sticks) and I get errors during the the test. When I run the test on the each 2gb stick individually, the tests run fine with no errors. Any suggestions?
7 Aug 2011 ~ 9:22pm csimon Try clearing cmos/battery and run memtest86 with both sticks.