Memtest experts required...

[kayronlim]

... for a simple question: I ran memtest for 8 hours and 40 minutes and completed 7 passes and a half. The thing is: the first pass only took 40 minutes to complete. So in theory, 7 passes and a half should have completed much earlier (7.5 x 40 min = 5 hours).

Is it normal for pass completion time to vary, and in my case, take far longer than the first pass as the test runs on?

 

[amnotanoobie]

... for a simple question: I ran memtest for 8 hours and 40 minutes and completed 7 passes and a half. The thing is: the first pass only took 40 minutes to complete. So in theory, 7 passes and a half should have completed much earlier (7.5 x 40 min = 5 hours).

Is it normal for pass completion time to vary, and in my case, take far longer than the first pass as the test runs on?

Some tests insert random values onto ram. Some tests are also a bit random on which portions of the memory they test.

 

[kayronlim]

Some tests insert random values onto ram. Some tests are also a bit random on which portions of the memory they test.

So it's normal for some passes to take longer to finish than others because the tests write to the computer in different ways everytime?

 

[amnotanoobie]

So it's normal for some passes to take longer to finish than others because the tests write to the computer in different ways everytime?

Safer and easier to assume that some passes take longer or vary in time. What is important at the end of the day with memtest is find errors if there are any.

Here's the description for the tests:
http://www.memtest86.com/tech.html#descri

Personally I just look if memtest completes a few passes without errors rather than the number of passes done.