Memtest86+ test results... advice?

[jstluise]

I was given an old desktop from a place I work because it no longer worked and it was time for them to upgrade anyways. It was easy to determine that the only problem was the HDD was corrupted. I have a new HDD I am going to install but I wanted to check the RAM, since that may have caused the corruption.

With all 4 modules installed (2 x 1gb, 2 x 256mb), I ran Memtest 4.10. There was an error on the first pass, zero errors on the second pass. I ran Memtest on each module individually to determine the faulty stick, but all passed on at least two passes....I was hoping the faulty stick would show up.

I reinstalled ALL sticks and have been running Memtest for the last 24 hours...no errors on 14 passes.

Stupid me for not writing down the first error I received. I'd like to figure out if something is wrong before I go forward and start using the computer. What would you guys do in this case? If I knew what module initially caused the error, I'd automatically replace it....but I only know it was one of the four.

 

[hellokitty[hk]]

I reinstalled ALL sticks and have been running Memtest for the last 24 hours...no errors on 14 passes.

In that case, I find it likely that there is nothing wrong despite the previous error.

 

[Rage_3K_Moiz]

There can be false positives with Memtest86+; IMHO, try running a high-stress benchmark for some time and see if you get any BSODs etc.

 

[Napigator]

If you can tweak the ram settings, try to increase the speed or lower the latency's a little at a time and run memtest again after each tweak. In this way you can find the weakest chip.
However, I somewhat agree with the others that the ram is probably ok to use as is with that few of errors.

 

[jstluise]

Thanks everyone for the replies. I let the test continue to run and I did come up with another error on pass 23:

-------------
Tst: 6
Pass: 23
Failing Address: 0008c7d5234 - 2247.8MB
Good: 00000010
Bad: 04000010
Err-Bits: 04000000
Count: 1
Chan:
-------------

I did notice the "good" and "bad" were different from the original error...but that is all I remember. Is there any way I can tell what module caused the error (from this error info)? I shut the test down after 29 passes...should I just ignore these two errors I found in 32 passes?


Other info on the system from Memtest screen...

Pentium 4 (0.09) 2993 MHz
L1 Cache: 16K 18940 MB/s
L2 Cache: 1024K 16718 MB/s
L3 Cache: None
Memory: 2543M 1159 MB/s
Chipset: Intel i848/i865 (ECC: Disabled) - FSB: 199MHz - Pat: Disabled
Settings: RAM: 159 MHz (DDR319) / CAS: 2.5-3-3-7 / Single Channel (64 bits)

 

[Rage_3K_Moiz]

To know which module is responsible, the only way is to run the test on each module individually.