MemTest86 error question

[bnhp]

Hello everyone and thanks for your help in advance!

I've recently assembled my own computer, but I've had errors installing applications.
Some of the common errors that I get are 7-Zip: Data error and CRC error.
I've checked my hard drive with S.M.A.R.T. and everything was okay.
Today I ran MemTest86 and I got about 133 Hammer test errors (Test 13.)
From my understanding this is part of the newest version of the program and I can't find any information related to it online.

I'm curious to know what it means and if that could be the reason why i'm having problems.
Is it a RAM error or is it the motherboard?

RAM: Kingston Hyperx Fury 4GB x 2
CPU: Intel Core i5-4690k
Motherboard: MSI z97
HHD: WD Blue
I'm running Windows 8.1

I'd appreciate any kind of information.
Thank you.

 

[clutchc]

Any errors in memtest mean the stick is defective. If you run memtest with all the sticks in at the same time, you won't know which is bad. That's why it is best to run each stick individually.

I've never seen this hammer test referred to in the version I have.

 

[PassMark]

The row hammer test is new in MemTest86 V6.0

It was implemented based on the concepts from this paper (Carnegie Mellon University).
http://users.ece.cmu.edu/~omutlu/pub/dram-row-hammer_kim_talk_isca14.pdf

Errors in this test are less likely (as compared to errors in other tests) to manifest themselves in real life. This is because they only occur in specific circumstances. The timing and order of reading / writing bytes needs to be fairly specific in order to get a bit flip error. You can send your RAM back for replacement but chances are that the same model of RAM is susceptible to the same defect.

Some other links covering the row hammer issue
http://hardware.slashdot.org/story/14/12/24/131204/many-ddr3-modules-vulnerable-to-bit-rot-by-a-simple-program
http://www.passmark.com/forum/showthread.php?5102-problems-with-test-13-quot-row-hammer-quot
http://www.passmark.com/forum/showthread.php?5077-How-to-relate-to-errors-in-Hammer-Test-13
http://electronicdesign.com/embedded/achieve-reliability-availability-and-serviceability-memory-interfaces

The last link is from a year ago & the problem has been known about for some time. But there hasn't been any convenient way to test for the problem until now.

Can you borrow some different RAM for a few days to see if the problems you having disappear?

 

[clutchc]

@ Passmark
Good information. Thanks. Guess I am going to have to update my copy of Memtest.
It also seems like a good reason to buy high-end memory as opposed to whatever is on sale.

 

[bnhp]

The row hammer test is new in MemTest86 V6.0

It was implemented based on the concepts from this paper (Carnegie Mellon University).
http://users.ece.cmu.edu/~omutlu/pub/dram-row-hammer_kim_talk_isca14.pdf

Errors in this test are less likely (as compared to errors in other tests) to manifest themselves in real life. This is because they only occur in specific circumstances. The timing and order of reading / writing bytes needs to be fairly specific in order to get a bit flip error. You can send your RAM back for replacement but chances are that the same model of RAM is susceptible to the same defect.

Some other links covering the row hammer issue
http://hardware.slashdot.org/story/14/12/24/131204/many-ddr3-modules-vulnerable-to-bit-rot-by-a-simple-program
http://www.passmark.com/forum/showthread.php?5102-problems-with-test-13-quot-row-hammer-quot
http://www.passmark.com/forum/showthread.php?5077-How-to-relate-to-errors-in-Hammer-Test-13
http://electronicdesign.com/embedded/achieve-reliability-availability-and-serviceability-memory-interfaces

The last link is from a year ago & the problem has been known about for some time. But there hasn't been any convenient way to test for the problem until now.

Can you borrow some different RAM for a few days to see if the problems you having disappear?

Thanks for the response!

So the problems I'm having are most likely not related to the errors I'm getting, since I'm getting zero errors from all the other test...
I'm out of ideas about what could be causing this problem...

 

[PassMark]

Disk CRC and corruption of Zip files sound more like disk hardware problems (or some software corrupting the files on the disk).

Did you try using the same Zip file on other machine to see if the file is really corrupted, can you get another (clean) copy of the same zip file to compare them?

As you have run a SMART test, the next things to try are chkdsk and checking the SSD's firmware are up to date.