"Safe" memory testing

  • Thread starter Thread starter Timothy Lee
  • Start date Start date
T

Timothy Lee

I would like to test my RAM with the memtest86 program. Some of the
Readme.txt discusses "safe" memory testing. Does this mean that the
memory test routines could possibly physically harm the RAM in some
way, or does this mean that the program can run without crashing the
computer, or does this mean something else?

(partial quote from Readme.txt, note second paragraph...)
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..
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The BIOS in modern PC's will often reserve several sections of memory
for
it's use and also to communicate information to the operating system
(ie.
ACPI tables). It is just as important to test these reserved memory
blocks
as it is for the remainder of memory. For proper operation all of
memory
needs to function properly regardless of what the eventual use is.
For
this reason Memtest86 has been designed to test as much memory as is
possible.

However, safely and reliably detecting all of the available memory has
been
problematic. Versions of Memtest86 prior to v2.9 would probe to find
where
memory is. This works for the vast majority of motherboards but is not
100%
reliable. Sometimes the memory size is incorrect and worse probing the
wrong
places can in some cases cause the test to hang or crash.

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..
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I would like to test my RAM with the memtest86 program. Some of the
Readme.txt discusses "safe" memory testing. Does this mean that the
memory test routines could possibly physically harm the RAM in some
way, or does this mean that the program can run without crashing the
computer, or does this mean something else?
Click to expand...

Not damage to the RAM, just crashing or otherwise putting the system into
a different, likely instable operation by changing the reserved addresses.
 
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