Good memory tester for Vista

[TheGreatSatan]

I tried installing SP2 for Vista and I kept getting blue screens. I want to test the memory first. Anyone know of a decent free tester?

[xmastree]

http://www.ultimatebootcd.com/

It's not 'for Vista' it's for computers. If you're testing the memory, you don't want a huge OS loaded in it.

It does have this (http://oca.microsoft.com/en/windiag.asp) on it, if you really want a 'Windows' one... :rolleyes:

[OvRiDe]

Xmas beat me to it. :D

A memory tester that is running on an OS that is blue screening is not where you want to run it from. If the OS is bluescreening because it of the memory it is acessing, it would blue screen while it was testing it. You should run it from an alternate lightweight OS such as the boot cd Xmas suggested!

[TheGreatSatan]

Well if it bluescreens during the test then is it safe to assume that it's the memory that's the problem?

[nevermind1534]

I think it's best to use a standalone test that doesn't use windows, such as memtest86. If it bluescreens, it's most likely a memory problem. Best thing to do would be to test the memory in another computer that uses the same type, if one is available, or use known good working memory.

[OvRiDe]

Well if it bluescreens during the test then is it safe to assume that it's the memory that's the problem?

Logically I would say yes, but when it comes to windows its not really that simple. There are so many factors running in the background of the OS that its really hard to assume that. It could be something like the chipset driver corrupted, or something in the Hardware Access Layer got fubarred. Or any other thing in between.

This is why taking all of that out of the picture can yield a better result. A stand alone software such as memtest86 uses a smaller initial memory footprint then a full blown windows OS.

You can download an ISO of memtest86+ from http://www.memtest.org/
It also they appear to have an installable version for windows as well.

Good luck and I hope this helps.

[TheGreatSatan]

I have two 1GB sticks and two 512MB sticks. In the end I just pulled out tthe older 512's and it works fine. I installed both service packs and never had a problem

I wonder if the RAM is bad or if it's just a mismatch timing thing

[xmastree]

I wonder if the RAM is bad or if it's just a mismatch timing thing
Easiest way to check is to run one of those memtest programs with only one in at a time.

[BuzzKillington]

Ubuntu?

[TheGreatSatan]

Garbage?

[Drum Thumper]

Well if it bluescreens during the test then is it safe to assume that it's the memory that's the problem?

If you run the memtest on the UBCD, it will start throwing errors if there's a RAM issue. Bear in mind, there is a possibility that it very well may not be the RAM, it could be the board itself. I've seen it in the past--someone tried to shove DDR2 RAM in a DDR slot and said slots throw errors left and right. Thankfully for this person, the other two slots on the board work.

[Crazy Buddhist]

You can download an ISO of memtest86+ from http://www.memtest.org/
It also they appear to have an installable version for windows as well.


Good software.

CB

[x88x]

++ for Memtest86. If none of the sticks throw errors when tested individually, make sure you have the timing set to the slowest of the group when they are all in at the same time.