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memtest quickly freezes with two RAM sticks

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kau-92
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memtest quickly freezes with two RAM sticks

#1 Post by kau-92 »

hello,

There was an extra RAM card slot in my laptop, and I recently got a (used) RAM card for that.
The model number of this new RAM card is exactly the same as the other first RAM card.

Because my laptop has started to freeze unexpectedly at various times, I researched online and doing a 'memtest' test is one thing to do.

I installed both memtest86 and memtest86+.
Running them from system start up, in both cases the program freezes up quickly at certain specific progress percentages of the tests that run.
(this is when both RAM cards are slotted in).

I took out both cards and put each one and ran the test one by one.
But in this case the test progresses onward seemingly without problems (I did not wait for them to complete completely).

But what does it mean if memtest fails with two RAM cards but works with each one individually?

Is there another way to check if each (or both/combined) RAM can be used without problems?

thanks,

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kau-92
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Re: memtest quickly freezes with two RAM sticks

#2 Post by kau-92 »

actually I decided to test both RAM.
each RAM stick is 4GB, so total memory must be less that 8GB.

I overloaded the system by opening multiple applications.

I checked the amount of memory being used by using the meter in 'Stacer' application.

in the end the memory being used rose up to 5GB, and I kept it there for some while.
The system did not freeze or crash.

I hope this has proven that the neither of RAM chips is faulty.
or the system freezing happens because of some other reason, or if its RAM it depends on some situation.

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Re: memtest quickly freezes with two RAM sticks

#3 Post by LE_746F6D617A7A69 »

kau-92 wrote:I installed both memtest86 and memtest86+.
Running them from system start up, in both cases the program freezes up quickly at certain specific progress percentages of the tests that run.
(this is when both RAM cards are slotted in).
(...)
I took out both cards and put each one and ran the test one by one.
But in this case the test progresses onward seemingly without problems (I did not wait for them to complete completely).
Incomplete tests are useless.
It would be nice to know at what stage the memtest freezes - sometimes it can be important.

But anyway, it means that Your set of RAM DIMMs is unstable.
Most likely the DIMMs are not compatible: How did You checked their parameters? any details about timings? chip types?

"Normal" applications are useless in testing the stability of RAM - most of them are event-driven, so for most of the time they are doing nothing but "sitting" in the RAM - significant amount of the RAM that is used by such applications is very rarely accessed - You have to be "lucky" to catch a RAM error in such case.

You may try to use memtester - a user space RAM tester.
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Re: memtest quickly freezes with two RAM sticks

#4 Post by CwF »

If each stick passes individually, are matched, but fail when paired - it's timings.

The bios should step down the speed if needed, some don't...

It is typical for ram timings to slow down as you install more chips. Check your bios for adjustments and slow it down one step. This is not true for 'channels' but it is for A-B-C dimm expansion slots.

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kau-92
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Re: memtest quickly freezes with two RAM sticks

#5 Post by kau-92 »

when I try to run memtester user space utility I get this error :

bash: memtester: command not found

but memtester package is indicated as installed in package manager.
am I doing something wrong?
:?:

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Re: memtest quickly freezes with two RAM sticks

#6 Post by mm3100 »

Try to run it as root.

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kau-92
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Re: memtest quickly freezes with two RAM sticks

#7 Post by kau-92 »

yes running memtester as sudo worked.

I ran the test x4 passes, for 7000MB,
there were no problems it passed through them.

Then I tried running 10 passes, but it did not finish for a long time,
so for only time reasons I stopped near 4 passes again.

I don't know, I wonder if that means problem is not with RAM. Since the previous time the laptop has crashed multiple times.

I tried going to bios and looked to change the 'timings'. but there was no such option. actually the bios
has very little options in much of anything. If timings can't be changed without going into bios, I'm stuck because
HP does not provide a straightforward bios update for linux. Apparently I could get a bios bootable CD and update using
that, I've checked the final bios version available on their website, and there is one of the same version, with release date a few months apart.
Don't know if its worth it, I've heard bios update is risky. Don't know if it would give a timings setting option.

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Re: memtest quickly freezes with two RAM sticks

#8 Post by CwF »

kau-92 wrote:I tried going to bios and looked to change the 'timings'. but there was no such option.
I wouldn't be surprised. It would be an advanced setting, but worth checking as you did. If not there, nothing you can do on that. The idea is simply to slow down the ram with additional modules, like 2133>1866, or 1866>1600 1600>1333, whatever...

As I said, should be automatic. If you stumble on the info of timings, I can't remember off hand,, check with 1 dimm, then with 2 to see if they clock down. With your info on the specific computer, look if that second dimm is on another channel, or is it slot B on the same channel. If it is a supported second channel, ignore what I said!

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