[Tfug] Memtest question

[Choprboy]

On Monday 07 December 2009 07:58, earljviolet at deserthowler.com wrote:
> I have 2 computers that seem to be working OK.  I decided to run Memtest
> on boh of them.  I use Ubuntu and run Memtest86 from Grub on both.

Try running Memtest86 using the bootable CD. I have had numerous problems 
(crashes/lockups on start) running from grub.


> One is a Dell Poweredge 500 SC with I GB ECC memory.  I just began setting
> this one up as a small printer and file server.  Memtest shows problems
> immediately.  Is this a problem with EDD memory and Memtest?

Could be either. There have been lots of problems between Memtest86 and 
various Dell PE servers with ECC, seems to be memory mapping issues (either 
the PE isnt reporting correctly or Memtest86 is mis-reading the valid RAM 
ranges). See this thread as an example:
http://episteme.arstechnica.com/eve/ubb.x?a=tpc&s=50009562&f=12009443&m=490001082911


> The other is a P4 with DDR memory.  It doesn't indicate errors but only
> runs to 20% of the testing and locks.  I have uptimes of 4 or 5 days with
> this machine.  There is an occasional total lock up with DVDs using VLC;
> this is usually with a bad DVD.  Could this be the DDR memory?

Could be, could also be a CPU bus problem or an over-heating problem (CPU, 
chipset, or memory). Memtest86 will smoke both of those out as well as is 
uses the bus heavily and runs the CPU at 100% continuously.

Getting lock-ups elsewhere sounds like a hardware problem of some sort, not a 
Memtest86 problem.

Adrian