you have to get your machine to pass metest86
generally you update the BIOS to the current version to get the best default memory timings for your motherboard
then run the test and see if you get errors.
if you get errors, you look at the technical timing specs and voltage required for the memory and compare them to the values that are selected in the BIOS and make sure they are correct. Then run memtest86 again
if you get errors again, you move the memory into different slots and run the test again
if it fails, you might underclock the memory and retest or you try to isolate the Bad RAM or memory slot.
that is, you remove 1/2 the memory and run the test and see if you can identify a particular ram stick that is bad or particular ram slot that is bad.
You also want to look to see if the memroy you have is on the qualified vendor list
- if you have memory that is from different vendors you have to make sure the bios is using the RAM timing specs of the slowest memory module. Most people just make sure they are using the same type of ram sticks in all of the slots.
in the end, you may just find that you have a bad RAM stick. I think there is about 8% failure rate in ram. Most people don't
test or detect the problem and just blame it on windows. Newer versions of windows does a lot more checking for viruses and malware so when it finds this corruption it now shuts down the system. Older versions of windows just did not check and would run until the actual piece of modified code was executed. The older system did not sleep like the ones today, so if it takes 7 days before you would run the modified code and you reboot every day you were not likely to hit the problem.
Now, if your system sleeps and you wake it up every day you will hit the problem since you are not doing a restart.
Edwin_13 :
johnbl, I ran memtest86 as you told me and I found 19 errors, am I gonna have to buy new ram?