need a memory test application

Discussion in 'Hardware' started by A'sfan, Apr 19, 2006.

  1. A'sfan

    A'sfan Private E-2

    could someone please suggest to me a good memory test application? My computer has just recently become very S......L........O.........W....... and I think it corresponds with me foolishly using nvidia's ntuner without knowing what I was doing. I think I may have messed something up with the memory. I have read in these forums MemTest is good, but have also read it isn't. Any help would be appreciated.
     
  2. Clark_Kent

    Clark_Kent MajorGeek

  3. viper_boy403

    viper_boy403 MajorGeek

    yea, i use memtest too, its pretty good and reliable
     
  4. A'sfan

    A'sfan Private E-2

    ok, I'll admit, I'm an idiot. I can't get this thing to work, do you download, then write the image to a disc (I use nero) and then pop the disc in and the program automatically starts up?
     
  5. viper_boy403

    viper_boy403 MajorGeek

    put it in and then restart; it will boot from the disk. and you dont ened to waste a cd on a small mem test program, u can just use a simple lil' floppy :cool:
     
  6. A'sfan

    A'sfan Private E-2

    ok, now I'm frustrated, I really wish I was a little more of a genius....I don't have a floppy drive, so I have been wasting cd's trying to figure this out. I download the file, put in a disc, open up nero, click on burn image to disc, locate the iso file, burn it to a disc, leave the disc in, restart, click on my user name, and wham-o nothing happens. Alternate: I pop in a disc, open up nero, click on make a bootable cd, locate the file, burn it to the disc, restart, click on my user name, and wham-o nothing happens, actually, it just brings up the file like I just searched for it and located it in my browser, when I click on it, it takes me to nero. I think that may happen in both cases actually, either way, the program doesn't start. Sorry, maybe I should change my screen name to airhead. what am I doing wrong?
     
  7. otaku244

    otaku244 Private E-2

    If you haven't used a bootable disk on your computer before, your BIOS might be set to boot the HDD first. Go into your BIOS setup by pressing the proper key as the computer starts up (usually [ESC], [F1], [F2], or [F12]). From there, you will have to find the Boot menu and reprioritize your boot sequence to a combination that has your CD drive before your HDD.
     
  8. Bold Eagle

    Bold Eagle MajorGeek

    Firstly memtest is to assess HARDWARE and is for OC and hardcore tweaking!!!! Approach this from a different angle and look at SOFTWARE!!! You have imo the later! Did you do a clean install of latest drivers???!???!?!!!!???

    Have you scrubbed the sys lately?;

    http://forums.majorgeeks.com/showthread.php?t=35407

    Unless there are other indicators (temp/volts/RPMs') your kidding yourself that memtest will do anything!!!! Are you OC if not you should look outside the f...ing triangle and insted download Your Uninstaller! 2006 and remove whatever app caused this SLOOOOOOOWWWWWWINGGGG because it maybe loaded with Adware/Spyware crud hijaking your sys! It's upto you but unless there are other indicators you have some crap SOFTWARE on your sys causing probs and you can run memtest till the cows come home but still suffer the same crap!
     
  9. DavidGP

    DavidGP MajorGeeks Forum Administrator - Grand Pooh-Bah Staff Member

    While you maybe frustrated at what A'sfan is trying to do the language in the above post is not warranted at all!

    If he wishes to run Memtest then so be it, this thread is about helping if you cannot do that then resist posting, Memtest is NOT the tool for Overclockers or Hardcore tweakers only, it maybe used by them to test a memory stick for errors or weaknesses in the modules, no more no less!

    while on first look its sounds as if something else is potentially slowing his pc down, running Memtest couldnt hurt, eliminates one other possible area to the PCs sluggishness.

    I would however be looking into the area you suggested in uninstalling the Nvidia drivers and re-installing them as well as uninstalling Rivatuner and cleaning out any left over reminents of that program from Program Files/Temp/Registry in which the tool CCleaner will help as well as Driver Cleaner Pro


    A'sfan if you wish to run a Memtest tool and are having problems with Memtest then try this one http://www.majorgeeks.com/Microsoft_Windows_Memory_Diagnostic_d3955.html plus full instructions for installing and running http://oca.microsoft.com/en/windiag.asp#top
     
  10. Bold Eagle

    Bold Eagle MajorGeek

    Fair enough and I sincerely apologise, I was trying to empahasise my point but as you so tactfiully stated it was unbdue, I'm sorry (to HALO personally) and I take my hat of too yourself. I am and was behaing like a coarse but slightly informed individual. I still believe that memtest is purely for the hardware and unless there has been an obvious and immediate indicator (temps/volts/Rpm's) that software should be explored.

    Poor and deplorale manners on my behalf but we know were I stand! Sincere,genuine but very Australian.
     
  11. DavidGP

    DavidGP MajorGeeks Forum Administrator - Grand Pooh-Bah Staff Member

    Very true its a hardware test, but some OS and software issues can arise from faulty hardware and as you know some software crashes etc can strangly eminate from a faulty mem module, so while I still like you think that hardware in the case of RAM/Memory may not be the issue or root cause of A'sfan's slowdowns... still dont hurt to run it.

    and thankyou for the post above, takes a true gent to openly reply like that, now lets see if we can find out the cause of A'sfan's slowness?

    A'sfan, quick question, you mentioned you think that the problem started because you used ntuner, what gives you this idea? was it an error a crash?

    Have you tried any of the steps I posted on removing the drivers and cleaning your temps/registry up to the steps Bold Eagle posted in relation to Malware as it could be a co-incidence that your pc is slow and you have Malware causing the slowdown?

    Have you defragged, run Checkdisk ( chkdsk ) for harddrive errors?


    the more info you can give on the symptoms the better :)
     
  12. A'sfan

    A'sfan Private E-2

    Ummm... ok....I'm not exactly sure what bold eagle's problem is, but whatever.....My question was if someone could offer a suggestion on a memory test program, so that I could test my memory sticks to see if any of them had gone bad on me. I personally did not think this was such a silly question, but you guys know more than me about computers which is why I come to this site to try and get things straightened out that I mess up on my computer. No I don't OC, but do you need to in order to use memtest? I wasn't aware that this was a prerequisite. Maybe Bold Eagle, from his different angle, could suggest a more useful program to test the functionality of the memory on my computer, after all, that was all I was asking for. To answer some ?'s, scrubbed the system--yes, once a week--even went through the malware removal forum and got the thumbs up, uninstall old drivers and clean the registry, clean install new drivers---yes, last time I spoke with Eagle, which without looking had to have been 2 months ago (when he was more friendly), uninstall crap software and clean registry---yep, right after Eagle explained in a more mature fashion that Driver Detective is "crap" software, driver cleaner pro----yep, used it, disc defrag, chkdsk---yep, when using ntuner did the computer crash--yes, more than once, and I know it is supposed to shut down and restart, but this was different and a couple of times it said something like "not enough memory" or something like that (I have a gig with supposedly 3/4 free), and finally last but not least, thank you otaku244, you were right, my bios was set up to boot the HDD first. I have no idea what my computer's problem is, I just wanted to eliminate one more thing on my way to figuring it out.
     
  13. A'sfan

    A'sfan Private E-2

    I forgot to add, the reason I had ntuner was not because I was trying to OC, I was trying to eliminate another probable cause by updating drivers, and in the process I came across ntuner on nvidia's website, and it talked about making the computer run more smoothly, better memory function, blah blah, and since I am ingnorant to alot of things about computers, I downloaded it thinking it would help, and found out differently, and I think I may have hurt my computer's memory in the process.
     
  14. DavidGP

    DavidGP MajorGeeks Forum Administrator - Grand Pooh-Bah Staff Member

    Bottom end of this post is an alternative to memtest if your having some problems with that software http://forums.majorgeeks.com/showpost.php?p=772683&postcount=9

    If PC crashed, in what way, blue screen crash or a crashed application or system file, if so which and what was the message? ...... you can trace past errors in the Event Viewer ( Control Panel > Administrative Tools > Event Viewer ), check for ones around the date/time of a crash, for a common faulting file etc?

    "not enough memory" was this alert in the system tray with yellow ! mark triangle? check and tell us that your Virtual Memory/Pagefile settings are?
     
  15. Bold Eagle

    Bold Eagle MajorGeek

    I do apologise bad day and it was appalling on my behalf it certainly wasn't meant personally.

    memtest86 or memtest86+ are good for testing your mem and you can burn an iso onto a CD and run it from there.

    Guide/instructions

    http://www.short-media.com/review.php?r=276

    Home site:

    http://www.memtest.org/

    Hope this will do the trick and please accept this as a gesture for my poor behaviour.

    Set CD to boot first in BIOS and away you go.
     
  16. A'sfan

    A'sfan Private E-2

    bold eagle--accepted
    halo--I'll look it up tomorrow and get back to you, sorry for slow response, I'm in the middle of moving and this has to come second for now. By the way, I ran memtest86+ and after 4 passes, it has shown 94 errors. I'm not sure how to translate what it is telling me, but I know errors aren't good. Anyone want to help?
     
  17. Bold Eagle

    Bold Eagle MajorGeek

    Okay what CPU do you have memtest86 can have issues with AMD and cause substantial "false positives" in test 2 & 5 I believe. Have a look at the site if you have AMD.

    Take note of which test no. I generated a similar amount of errors and went into OS and found Windows Defender (WD) was playing havoc. Long story short repaired WD and some other impacted software, removed and reseated RAM, reran test and errors gone!!!!!!

    Your doing OC so what are your RAM timings??
    From what I have read it is best to have them at very loose timings, e.g. 4-4-4-11, and to crank up the FSB MHz will lead to greater performance boost than having "tight" timings, e.g. 2-3-3-8, which can lead to greater instability issues while OC. If your RAM is at SPD (Serial Prescence Detector chip=manufacters "safe settings") you may want to change them to manual and "loosen" the timings to achieve greater stability.

    As far as dechipering the errors not sure on this (look at link provided) but it is good practice to remove a RAM stick, starting with E1, and run memtest86 again this will now test individual sticks, if that passes/fails remove E0 and replace with previously removed into the E0 slot and test again. From there you may be able to conclude 1, both or neither stick is impaired, false positive and RAM just needed to be reseated.
     
  18. DavidGP

    DavidGP MajorGeeks Forum Administrator - Grand Pooh-Bah Staff Member

    for the very reasons Bold Eagle mentioned on false positives do also run the Microsoft memory tester, second opinons are always good, also as memtioned do pull your RAM and test one at a time, to narrow down a potental faulting module ( also serves as well in reseating the ram ).

    @Bold... mentioned earlier I dont think A'sfan is OCing.. he just installed Ntuner as it mentioned it can help smoothness and stability.

    but, it maybe worth resetting the Bios/Cmos to default?
     
  19. Rikky

    Rikky Wile E. Coyote - One of a kind

    Another program I like to use is prime 95,unzip the program,double click the icon,click options at the top,torture test,choose blend test which will test alot of ram and run it for an hour

    http://www.majorgeeks.com/download.php?det=4363

    IMHO if you can run it for an hour your computer is stable,if you can run it over night your computer is totally stable,dont omit the other tests though,each test has its own advantages and drawbacks :)
     
  20. green11890

    green11890 Private E-2

    try downloading a linux distro cd(live) named ubuntu. It has a memory tester that you can select during the bootup. i dont remember but some other linux distros such as knoppix will have one.
     
  21. bigbazza

    bigbazza R.I.P. 14/12/2011 - Good Onya Geek

    Halo, I have never bothered with Event Viewer before, mainly because I don't remember ever reading about it anywhere. I have just checked all the various sections listed and find a lot of stuff backdated a couple of weeks.

    I completely restored my system around then, and I am happy with my system as it is now,

    Can I delete past logs so Event Viewer starts afresh? Bazza

    ===

     
  22. DavidGP

    DavidGP MajorGeeks Forum Administrator - Grand Pooh-Bah Staff Member

    YES, I purge mine every so often.
     
  23. bigbazza

    bigbazza R.I.P. 14/12/2011 - Good Onya Geek

    Thanks Halo, but what is the safest way to purge these files? Bazza

    ===

     
  24. bigbazza

    bigbazza R.I.P. 14/12/2011 - Good Onya Geek

    Bump, Halo. When you get a chance. Bazza

    ===

     
  25. DavidGP

    DavidGP MajorGeeks Forum Administrator - Grand Pooh-Bah Staff Member

    Sorry Bazza ( PM me if I ever dont get to a post of yours to jog my memory ) just never noticed your question... but to answer, I just right click and "Clear all Events"
     
  26. bigbazza

    bigbazza R.I.P. 14/12/2011 - Good Onya Geek

    Thanks, Halo. I will do it when I log off. Don't worry about missing a post as I know you are very busy. I will PM you if it happens again. Bazza

    ===

     
  27. bigbazza

    bigbazza R.I.P. 14/12/2011 - Good Onya Geek

    Halo, cleared my Events Viewer files the other day.

    Cleared 18 Anti Virus events, 412 ACEEvents, 2572 System events, 1 Security event and 677 Application events, for a total of 3680 events.

    To anyone reading this, not all the events were bad. 99.5% were just happenings / events, being logged as part of a normal PC operation. Thanks again, Halo. Bazza
     

MajorGeeks.Com Menu

Downloads All In One Tweaks \ Android \ Anti-Malware \ Anti-Virus \ Appearance \ Backup \ Browsers \ CD\DVD\Blu-Ray \ Covert Ops \ Drive Utilities \ Drivers \ Graphics \ Internet Tools \ Multimedia \ Networking \ Office Tools \ PC Games \ System Tools \ Mac/Apple/Ipad Downloads

Other News: Top Downloads \ News (Tech) \ Off Base (Other Websites News) \ Way Off Base (Offbeat Stories and Pics)

Social: Facebook \ YouTube \ Twitter \ Tumblr \ Pintrest \ RSS Feeds