Bad Ram

[Cryozombie]

Ok, here is a stupid question: I have 2 1 gig sticks of RAM. The PC is seizing up at random intervals, usually when doing something memory intensive, and I have determined the cause to be a bad stick of RAM. However... it could happen 4 times in one hour, it could happen once every couple of days.

How can I test the RAM and find out which stick is bad? Obviosly I can remove one, and run on just the other... if the good stick is in it wont seize, if the bad one is it will. But that can be hit or miss for me: I could get lucky, put the bad one in and have it seize within an hour... or I could put the bad one in and it could take a couple days. Or I could put the good one in and go for 3 days without really knowing if its the good one or not...

There has to be a better way that I am missing. Thoughts?

 

[Sukerkin]

There are a number of RAM checking software applications around, Cryo - have a search and see if there is one that suits. They will take a while to run but will track down where the bad addresses are. The other option is to get another memory stick and try running your machine with various combinations and see what happens.

 

[Carol]

Does your machine have on board diagnostics?

 

[dancingalone]

Windows 7 and Windows Vista have a built-in diagnostic program called 'Memory Diagnostics Tool'. Not sure about XP.

 

[Xue Sheng]

Ok, here is a stupid question: I have 2 1 gig sticks of RAM. The PC is seizing up at random intervals, usually when doing something memory intensive, and I have determined the cause to be a bad stick of RAM. However... it could happen 4 times in one hour, it could happen once every couple of days.

How can I test the RAM and find out which stick is bad? Obviosly I can remove one, and run on just the other... if the good stick is in it wont seize, if the bad one is it will. But that can be hit or miss for me: I could get lucky, put the bad one in and have it seize within an hour... or I could put the bad one in and it could take a couple days. Or I could put the good one in and go for 3 days without really knowing if its the good one or not...

There has to be a better way that I am missing. Thoughts?

What is the Operating system?

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/314865


http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-vista/products/system-requirements


http://windows.microsoft.com/systemrequirements/


These are minimum Requirements I tend to double it as far as RAM goes becuase you have to then take into account all the other software you are going to run.

Processor speed and the size of the HD and the avaialble space make a big difference too. Also have you scanned your PC for Malware and Viruses? When was the last time you did an update? How fragmented is your hard drive? Have you checked your Hard Drive for bad secrtors? How did you determine it was bad RAM?

 

[Cryozombie]

Thanks guys... didn't think about a software solution... I swapped the ram for new and have the old ram sitting on my desk, I may have to install it on another workstation and see what I can find. This is on my workstation at work, running XP. I'm limited as to what I am allowed to install and run, so I never gave that much thought.

XUE, I determined it was bad Ram because I swapped PC's, but because the new one had no Memory kept the same RAM and the problem occurred again 2 days later.

 

[Kurai]

Don't overlook your power supply as a possible culprit. If the power supply is older it may be inconsistent with it's output. Ram is usually pretty susceptible to power regulation issues.

 

[Xue Sheng]

Perchance this is not an old Dell Optiplex GX270 is it?

 

[Cryozombie]

Don't overlook your power supply as a possible culprit. If the power supply is older it may be inconsistent with it's output. Ram is usually pretty susceptible to power regulation issues.

Doubtful... since the issue occurred on 2 different machines and the only constant was the RAM.

Perchance this is not an old Dell Optiplex GX270 is it?

Nope. Micron Clientpro

 

[Xue Sheng]

Nope. Micron Clientpro

OK, the reason I asked was after getting copious warranty motherboards, Power Supplies and hard drives from Dell I finally got our rep to admit that the GX270 was not one of the best Dell ever made and it was costing them lots of money in warranty repairs.

 

[Grenadier]

Memtest86 is one of the best ways to test memory, since it's quite thorough, and you can boot from a CD or floppy with it (it comes as an ISO file that you can make into a bootable CD).

I would test each stick alone. If you get errors, relax your memory timings and / or give your memory a conservative voltage boost.