Re: [Memtest86] error found

From: Steve Wolfe (unt_at_codon.com)
Date: 09/25/04

  • Next message: ekkard gerlach: "Searching a reliable, low cost mainboard for office use/ ACPI supported" 
    Date: Sat, 25 Sep 2004 11:27:25 -0600

    > Athlon 2500 + single stick 256MB DDR(PC2700) at 166MHz
    >
    > Had the opportunity to memtest a box that usually runs continuously.
    > As one error was thrown up, I memtested the thing again for 24 hours
    > which yielded another single error.
    >
    > As both errors were at different points, do I need to worry?. The errors
    > were a genuine surprise as no problems have been encountered in over 4000
    > hours of service. The usual swap use is around 50-100MB.

       Do you need to worry? I don't know, do you mind if your computer crashes
    or has other problems?

       Memtest is designed to create situations inside of the memory that can
    bring out errors that you may never see. However, someday, they *might*
    crop up. And a single memory error/bit-flip can have a wide range of
    effects. If in an unused portion of memory, it will do nothing. If it's in
    a segment of unused data, nothing. If that bit happens to help store
    someone's name, you may have "Bhiefy" instead of "Chiefy". If that
    particular bit happens to be storing a pointer, then the effects are
    anything from negligible to a page fault. If that bit is storing code for
    one of your device drivers... well, you get the picture.

      As for the 4,000 hours of service, there have, of course, been memory
    errors during that time. It's inevitable, they happen. And it's like
    Russian Roulette, not every "pull" is going to cause anything significant.
    I've had a pool of redundant servers that have run for over 13,000 hours at
    a time without major incident without using ECC memory, but then again,
    sometimes probability catches up with me and things happen. Most of the
    machines now have ECC memory just because they've been swapped out with dual
    Xeon chipsets that require ECC.

    steve

  • Next message: ekkard gerlach: "Searching a reliable, low cost mainboard for office use/ ACPI supported"

    Relevant Pages

    • Re: System_service_exception error on vista
      ... Unless there is a limit to the memtest capability, you do have memory ... and i hit yes to display crash log and it doesn't pop anything up. ... I used the registry mechanic to look through my event logs. ...
      (microsoft.public.windows.vista.performance_maintenance)
    • Re: ASUS P5N32 SLI E and RAM errors
      ... RAM with another set of RAM. ... Also checked- my RAM is on the QVL ... Just to be sure, did you install just one stick, run Memtest on it, then ... - does this mean the memory is OK and I should be looking at the ...
      (alt.comp.periphs.mainboard.asus)
    • Re: BSOD Stop 0x00000019
      ... Do the errors occur in safe mode as well as normal mode? ... A pool header issue is a problem with Windows memory allocation. ... are available to make a boot floppy or a boot CD. ... you remove the Memtest floppy or CD from the drive. ...
      (microsoft.public.windowsxp.hardware)
    • Re: sarge dist-upgrade "Package is in a very bad inconsistent state"
      ... I did a memtest check today, and the results were the same as two years ... cannot compile kernels or glibc on the box (I first became aware of this ... I suspect the root problem affecting memtest is not the memory, ... The number of reported errors varies every time I run memtest, ...
      (Debian-User)
    • Re: ASUS P5N32 SLI E and RAM errors
      ... replacing all RAM with another set of RAM. ... Also checked- my RAM is on the QVL ... Just to be sure, did you install just one stick, run Memtest on it, ... or point to a bad memory stick. ...
      (alt.comp.periphs.mainboard.asus)