A bunch of free RAM testing tools — most called “MemTest”

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ISSUE 20.09 • 2023-02-27 FREEWARE SPOTLIGHT By Deanna McElveen While navigating our way down to Austin to visit our daughter over the years, we have l
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fisher75, Norio, Fred, lmacri, SueW, abbodi86, Ben Myers

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Give me the latest non-beta version 6.10 of Memtest-86+ any time.  Comprehensive testing of memory that needs it plus identification of make, model and manufacturing dates of memory being tested, all without opening up the computer to examine labels stickered on the memory.

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wavy

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Give me the latest non-beta version 6.10 of Memtest-86+ any time.

Memtest looks good and I like open source software, but the FAQs say “The Memtest86+ binary is not signed by Microsoft, so you need to temporarily disable Secure Boot in your BIOS options. We’re working on a better solution.”

https://memtest.org/#

You have any issues with this?

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Having been at this since the early 80s starting on TRS80s and alike, your article triggered a thought. I can count on 1 hand the number of times I’ve actually seen a RAM failure. Most likely the reason is, semiconductors generally follow the famous bathtub curb. They fail right away ( a DOA) and only then again after a very long time (usually long after the life of the computers than generation ram is used in). And so, in practice, ram failures just aren’t common (unlike HDDs). Thoughts?

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How would you know without using ECC memory or running a memory write/read test?

 

 

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Norio

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I agree that they are rare, but because they can manifest in seemingly random ways, it helps to rule RAM problems out before getting too deep in researching a cause.

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The Geeks download for memtest86+ only creates a USB version; is there no longer a version that can be installed on and run from a pc’s disk drive?

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