What does this memtest mean

C

cal

New Member
I put in a second 1 gb Crucial stick. I was not really impressed with any kind of big gain's. In fact, my computer is running slower and slower. Did the memtest86. U5 is the slot on the bottom. U6 is under the key board. It say's U6 is not being used. I pulled U5 to see what would happen, and got 2 red error lines. Pulled that stick, no more error's. I've put that stick back in a differant spot, and can't get anymore error's, even if I put it back like it was when I got the error.

If I just have 1 stick in the under key board slot,,,it doesn't show any as being used. But it does reconise that it's there. Do I have a dead slot that's not being used, but still readable. Or did I maybe do the test wrong. God I hope I made this understandable. :o

Just to clarify. This pic is with both slot's full.
 

Attachments

  • good screen shot.jpg
    good screen shot.jpg
    36 KB · Views: 87
Last edited:
That looks more like memtest is simply recognising an empty slot being present by identifying the capacity for the slot while no memory is in it to be given any addresses. The one thing that can said about memtest is that it's not a 100% fail proof diagnostic tool but still a software. It can report errors at times when nothing is found wrong with the memory tested or slot.

One example was seen on an older build here where one pair of DDR dimms replaced another and saw even more errors reported. When the case was upgraded later with a new board, cpu, video and sound cards, supply, and then case as well both pairs of dimms were then found 100% error free.
 
I'm trying to understand what you put. Just so I understand the situation:

You put both 1GB sticks in and you get that message above, you have just 1 stick in slot U6 and you get an error and slot U5 is OK. Is this right? Have you tried taking the stick that gave an error in U6 and putting it in U5?
 
That picture above is what I get no matter where I put any of the stick's. The only time it change's is when I empty the bottom slot, then it show's no mapping (speed) number's when the U6 slot is used alone. Any stick I put in U6 slot,,,under the key board will show the size of the stick. But it doesn't read any speed, and say's unused device.

The picture is not what I'm calling the error. The error was 2 red line's across the screen that only happened 1 time. I can not get it to do it again.

And, my computer is just crawling. :mad:

I know it's kinda hard to explain.
 
One slot that looks bad? If the RAM is giving you problems when you have both slots populated but is fine when you only have the one then you most likely have a bad RAM slot.
 
I can pull U5 out and make it run on U6 only,,,the one that looks suspicious, and it run's the same. I can do vice versa too, run just U5,,,,and it runs the same.
 
So running either stick in either slot is fine, but when you use both at the same time it causes problems?

Can you test the RAM 1 at a time with memtest?
 
It doesn't matter if I run both, or 1 at a time, in either slot, or where I put them. It's all the same.

I just had an idea. I wonder if "unused device" could mean the first stick hasn't reached it's limit, so the second stick is "unused" so to speak. Or does it not work that way.

My head hurt's. I'm going to bed. I'll check back in the am. Thank's.
 
One reference for Solaris touches a note since memtest and Solaris are still UNIX as far as hardware detection.

"Physically moving the card doesn't change a thing as far as available hardware, but you've modified the geographic description of the machine. As drvconfig scans the in-memory device tree, it will believe that the "old" quad Ethernet card is dead, and that a new one has appeared in a previously unused slot." http://www.itworld.com/Comp/2378/swol-1296-sysadmin/

I would follow Cromewell's advice on testing both dimms separately but in U5 only since there's some doubt on U6. That will show whether the dimm, slot, and maybe both are problems. Or it could be pseudo devices readings. Memtest itself runs a series of stress tests to identify any faults found. All tests simply run repeatedly until memtest is stopped at some point to display any/all errors found.
 
Last edited:
It doesn't matter if I run both, or 1 at a time, in either slot, or where I put them. It's all the same.

I just had an idea. I wonder if "unused device" could mean the first stick hasn't reached it's limit, so the second stick is "unused" so to speak. Or does it not work that way.
Click to expand...
Ah. I was under the impression you were getting errors which is would be why you were running memtest. The unused device label isn't saying that the 1st stick isn't fully used yet. From the picture you have, it looks like it's saying it found some RAM in the slot but it has not been mapped to an address range which is odd. This is why I was trying to get you to move the sticks to different slots and what not, it looks like one RAM stick is bad or the slot is bad and I was trying to narrow it down.
 
Thank's for all the help guy's.

I'm out of town now, and I'll have to deal with it some more when I get back home. I'm actually think it's my hard drive causing my problem's. I tried to attach some shot's of the HD Tune shot's, but if I get them small enough to be attached,,,they're to small to see. :eek: I'll have to work on thaty one.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top