I have been told to accept one error with Memtest86+
- by DustByte
Bought a new computer back in August with 4x4 GB RAM. Had problems with the RAM. They sent me four new sticks, which also generated errors. Singled out four sticks (from the eight I now had) that didn't generate any errors. Discovered by coincident a new RAM error last week (this time no BSOD). Contacted the company. According to them there have been issues with a bad stock from last summer so I got two tested 8 GB sticks sent to me. Been running Memtest86+ over the weekend. After 20 hours I got an error (see attached photo). The test has now been running for 37 hours but so far only this one error. I contacted the company where I bought the computer. They wrote back:
I wouldn't worry about hat one fail.
We have had similar situations here whereby it passes numerous times
but then fails once. We think it's an issue with memtest, after all
memory is faulty or it isn't so you can't really have it pass a few
times, fail the next time around and then pass again!
Please trust me on this and continue with the memory we sent you and
if your problems continue we'll look at getting it replaced again.
I gather from other forum posts that many people do not accept a single error. What could this single error signify, faulty RAM or a glitch in the MEMTEST program (or other)?
Update: From the helpful comments below I conclude that an occasional (and rare) "random" error could occur and be acceptable, but repeated errors at the same address would indicate malfunction. Memtest has now run for 45 hours and I still have only one error. For everyone's information, I will keep running the test. In less than two days I am going away for a month. I will most likely leave Memtest running. As I do not have a UPS there is a risk that a power outage will ruin the experiment. The computer is a desktop so I cannot bring it with me (which would curiously have exposed it to more cosmic rays as I will be flying ;)).
