Weeeeeell, crap. My computer’s been acting odd lately. After running the usual battery of malware/virus scans, defrag, and so on, I fired up Memtest86 and confirmed what I was afraid of: RAM problems.
Both sticks test bad in both slots at roughly the same point in the test cycle, so this may very well be a motherboard problem. Nevertheless, from what little sense I can make of the output from this utility, the computer does seem to be having a problem addressing a particular memory space. There’s a number that escalates rapidly and then crashes Memtest86. It happens so fast I can’t make out what the number is supposed to represent, but it’s close (though possibly not adjacent) to the word “errors”. I’ll run it a few bazillion more times tonight and try to see what the rest of that label is as it flashes by.
Anyhow, is there any way that I can find out (preferably in WinXP) what memory might be resulting in errors when it’s addressed, and more importantly, is there a way to tell the computer to mark them “bad” like one would a bad hard drive sector?
I have seen such an ability in the FreeBSD kernel, but that’s hardly helpful to you. I have my doubts about whether Windows has the same feature, but I suppose it’s possible.
Unfortunately, it’s generic RAM and I don’t even remember where I bought it from. It’s a few years old. I suppose that means it won’t be too expensive to replace either, but I’d like to staunch the bleeding this Christmas if I can.
If it’s happenning with both sticks in both slots, then it’s less likely to be a RAM problem and more likely to be a motherboard or CPU problem. Maybe the CPU has a bent pin? Check the motherboard for scratches.
I tried reseating the CPU, but it had no effect. The inside of this machine has been pretty much untouched for about three years, and it certainly hasn’t been worked on recently. Temps and voltage levels are all looking good.
Windows seems to be handling things pretty well… I haven’t had a single application crash, just a few sudden slowdowns. Does anyone know of a free memory tester for WinXP that isn’t just malware in disguise?
Well if memtest is reporting a problem you definitely have one. I also agree that if the problem occurs on both stick in either position you have memory controller problem. On many amd cpus this is on the cpu and a replacement cpu might do the trick. On intel chip boards its generally on the mobo, meaning huge pita. If your pc is more than a couple years old it might be prudent to just replace the machine if a new stick of ram will not help.
If you are fairly hardware saavy you can replace a motherboard cpu and ram for $150 or so in parts. If you use a mobo with the same chipset type you might be able to avoid a reload of windows.