Memory test for i7 920 core and 12 GB RAM

[gwalschl]

I have a machine I built recently using a Gigabyte X58-UDP board with an Intel i7 920 core and 12 GB of Corsair RAM running Windows 7 Ultimate RTM. Things are working great, except for having two crashes playing Call of Duty 4 game. I'd like to find a memory test utility to ensure I've got no RAM problems.

I've tried MemTest 86 and MemTest86+ and both will boot from CD and display "Loading..." but then nothing. No characters to screen, no UI displayed, no disk activity, nothing. I waited 3 hours and still nothing. It appears both won't run on my computer.

Anyone have any idea what's up? Is there another memory test that can test all 12 GB of RAM on my machine?

Any suggestions appreciated!

 

[Mongox]

There are several other Mem testing program listed at bottom of this post - might try one. I use memtest86 3.5 from floppy, no problems. Haven't tried from CD tho.

http://forums.tweaktown.com/f69/latest-overclocking-programs-system-info-benchmarking-stability-tools-30530/

 

[gwalschl]

Thanks Mongox. I'll try some of your suggestions.

Any idea why MemTest86 wouldn't work? What is supposed to appear on the console when you run MemTest? Is there feedback while the test is running?

 

[Mongox]

For the floppy version, it's a page full of pure text (80x25 lines) showing the progress of the testing. I assume the same for CD version. I'll try the CD boot and see if I have any problems.

You might try the memtest86 3.5v that's on the page I linked and see if you get the same results. I did find some problems running one version I had for floppy.

 

[gwalschl]

Hmm, for both MemTestx86 and MemTest86+ I just got one line of console text and then nothing, so those both apparently hung. I hope that's not indicative of some problem on my machine. It's a bit disconcerting!

 

[gwalschl]

Well I found that the RightMark memory analyzer did the trick for testing unused RAM from within Windows. I'd still like to find a test that would be bootable and test all 12GB, but I've yet to find one. However, it appears that the memory is fine from this test.

 

[Mongox]

I tried the memtest86 3.5v that's on that same page and imaged the CD and booted it w/o a problem. It came up and ran properly.

The reason they don't create readable CDs or diskettes is because they have a very minimal boot loader - no functions except testing memory. This is to avoid what you found in the RightMark - portions of RAM not tested because they contain key elements needed to keep the computer running the OS.

 

[gwalschl]

Thanks again Mongox. I'm still not sure why you could create a bootable CD of MemTest, yet it doesn't work for me. I think I'll just move forward at this point as I'm pretty confident the RAM is adequate.

Thanks for all of your generous help. I really appreciate it!