Question Windows Memory Diagnostic -> No Results After Replacing Ram

[The_Rickster]

Hi,
We have 3 HP laptops which are basically the same except 2 came with 4GB of ram and the other came with 8GB, we have owned them from new though they were purchased around 6 months / a year apart, they are running Windows 10, 6 bit.

I wanted to upgrade the 2 with 4GB to 8GB, So have purchased 2 x 8GB ram sticks which are the same brand and have the same numbers on as the stick in the laptop which has 8GB.

After installing the ram, the laptops continue to work as normal but when I go to run the Windows Memory Diagnostic - the results do not appear.

I've tried re installing windows, running SFC etc and I still can't get the results to show.

I ran the Windows Memory Diagnostic on the laptop which had 8GB in originally and the results show up, then I decided to swap that 8GB stick for one of the sticks that I purchased, I then ran the test again... but there are no results in the event viewer.

The Diagnostic scheduled start is listed though.

The only difference in the ram numbers is one has 1520 at the end and one has 1613. (HMT41GS6BFR8A-PB - N0 AA 1613)

Does anyone know if it's possible that ram sticks can somehow be tied to a motherboard?

 

[Lutfij]

Welcome to the forums, newcomer!

Can you mention the models for the HP laptops? SKU's will help us two fold. As for the rams, might want to pass on piuctures of the sticks of ram that you're working with. Following that, check and see if the laptops are pending any BIOS updates.

 

[The_Rickster]

Thanks Lutfij,

The HP models are:
15-AC106NA - Old bios version: F21
15-AC109NA - Old bios version: F.1B
15-AC120NA - Old bios version: F.11

I have updated the bios on all of them to the latest from the HP website which is: F.29

 

[The_Rickster]

Here is the original 8GB ram stick that came with the AC120NA.

Up until yesterday the Windows Memory Diagnostic results were showing up when the test was ran in that laptop.

Yesterday I decided to remove that stick and individually install the other 8GB ram sticks that I purchased for the other 2 laptops in it to try and get to the bottom of the issue.

But... after running the Memory Diagnostic program on them - the results don't show up.

Then I decided to try the 4GB sticks which were originally in the other 2 laptops - again the results don't show up.

Finally... after putting the original ram stick back in to the laptop and running the Memory Diagnostic test... the results don't show up - bizarre given it worked fine before it was removed.

The 2 4GB sticks were originally in the laptops so I know they work, the 8GB sticks were second hand from different sellers so I don't think all 3 could be faulty.

Modifications to the laptops:
Hard drives replaced with SSD drives.
Clean installation of Windows 10 from the MS site downloaded and installed.
Bios updates had to be forced with a USB stick as the other update method only works if you have the original hard drive / HP recovery software installed.

If it was a problem caused by updating the laptops bios to F.29 I wouldn't have thought the test results would have ever shown up on the AC120NA yesterday before removing the ram stick.

I've even tried doing a clean install of windows after installing each individual ram stick on the AC106NA and AC109NA to see if that would solve the issue but still no results after running the test.

 

[Hotrod2go]

"But... after running the Memory Diagnostic program on them - the results don't show up."

What do you mean by this?
When I run this test & upon logging in after the reboot from the completion of the test, the message does not come up immediately, sometimes you have to wait a minute or two depending on the speed of your system. Than a pop up will be seen from the lower right hand corner of the screen informing the user of the outcome.

Another way to access it is to look at the event viewer system sub tab (admin access), scroll through the most recent events for that day you are testing & look for an entry about memory diagnostics. There the result can be seen clearly.

 

[Deleted member 2947362]

you can download a version of memtest put it on a bootable usb stick and test it that way see if you can see results that way?

MemTest86 - Download now!

Download your free copy of MemTest86 here for USB.

www.memtest86.com

maybe windows memtest software is the issue

 

[The_Rickster]

"But... after running the Memory Diagnostic program on them - the results don't show up."

What do you mean by this?
When I run this test & upon logging in after the reboot from the completion of the test, the message does not come up immediately, sometimes you have to wait a minute or two depending on the speed of your system. Than a pop up will be seen from the lower right hand corner of the screen informing the user of the outcome.

Another way to access it is to look at the event viewer system sub tab (admin access), scroll through the most recent events for that day you are testing & look for an entry about memory diagnostics. There the result can be seen clearly.

When I say the results don't show up I mean they don't show up in the Windows Event Viewer, if I search for it all I find is the Memory Diagnostics schedule which says the time it started.

 

[Hotrod2go]

When I say the results don't show up I mean they don't show up in the Windows Event Viewer, if I search for it all I find is the Memory Diagnostics schedule which says the time it started.

Then there is something wrong with your windows OS. Unless someone has been fiddling around in the registry & modifying things the default action is to see the listing of the results in event viewer system tab.
Your devices are proprietary items so what media are you using to reinstall windows?
I don't know if the devices are still under factory warranty but if I were you, I'd download the latest windows 10 ISO from Microsoft website only ( no 3rd party sites) & use the image they supply to reinstall windows. Your OEM key for windows 10 should activate it. This way you can be assured of getting all the updates to windows 10 in one ISO image.

 

[The_Rickster]

Then there is something wrong with your windows OS. Unless someone has been fiddling around in the registry & modifying things the default action is to see the listing of the results in event viewer system tab.
Your devices are proprietary items so what media are you using to reinstall windows?
I don't know if the devices are still under factory warranty but if I were you, I'd download the latest windows 10 ISO from Microsoft website only ( no 3rd party sites) & use the image they supply to reinstall windows. Your OEM key for windows 10 should activate it. This way you can be assured of getting all the updates to windows 10 in one ISO image.

Thanks for the suggestions, I originally did a google search and it seems to be a common thing, I don't know why changing the ram sticks the other day in the one laptop which did originally show the results seemed to stop the results showing even after putting the original stick back in.

I downloaded Windows 10 from the MS site and tried that, I also tried an older version that I downloaded from the MS site, I have tried it on a fresh install without installing any updates and then after installing the updates and still no results.

Going a little further into trying to find the problem I installed the same Windows 10 on a PC and ran the memory diagnostics programme - the results did show up so I don't think it's a problem with the OS image,

I think it must be something to do with the original hard drives being replaced with SSD drives and Windows being installed without the manufacturers software - the windows based HP bios update didn't work for this reason and I had to force it using USB. (Something to do with this: https://www.ifixit.com/Answers/View/534331/(HP+15-f039wm)+Laptop+won't+update+BIOS.+SOLVED!)

I'm going to try installing the HP Hardware Diagnostics programme just to see if it makes any difference,

@Plumet, thanks for the suggestion, I will also try this

 

[The_Rickster]

Solved... ish

After posting last night, I decided to run the Windows Memory Diagnostic again... this time the results appeared.

The only difference was that I had been browsing the internet on the laptop for over an hour.

I then changed the ram stick, ran the test again... no results.

Tried it again today and still no results.

Tonight I used the laptop for over an hour browsing the internet, decided to run the Memory Diagnostics Test... the results appeared.

So, it would seem that if I replace the memory, reboot the PC and run the Memory Diagnostics immediately - the results do not appear.

But if the laptop has been used for an hour and then I run the test - the results do appear.

Weird,

I'm about to switch the laptop off and switch it back on again to run the test again to see if the results appear - to confirm this odd behaviour 🤢

 

[Deleted member 2947362]

Solved... ish

After posting last night, I decided to run the Windows Memory Diagnostic again... this time the results appeared.

The only difference was that I had been browsing the internet on the laptop for over an hour.

I then changed the ram stick, ran the test again... no results.

Tried it again today and still no results.

Tonight I used the laptop for over an hour browsing the internet, decided to run the Memory Diagnostics Test... the results appeared.

So, it would seem that if I replace the memory, reboot the PC and run the Memory Diagnostics immediately - the results do not appear.

But if the laptop has been used for an hour and then I run the test - the results do appear.

Weird,

I'm about to switch the laptop off and switch it back on again to run the test again to see if the results appear - to confirm this odd behaviour 🤢

May I ask what are the issues cased by this other than you don't always see the results?

Because if the systems performance is as expected, then it could be just a quirk with windows and your setup or a bug somewhere ?

I wouldn't be to concerned about it unless it was causing the system to crash or not work correctly.

 

[Deleted member 2947362]

if you put memtest on USB then boot from that see if that gives you results every time if does then surly that could mean it's just a bug in windows memtest and that laptop for some unknown reason?

 

[The_Rickster]

May I ask what are the issues cased by this other than you don't always see the results?

There doesn't seem to be any issues with the performance but there are several errors in the event log - I don't know if they were there with the original hard drives, I only looked at the event log because someone told me that if i buy second hand ram I should run the Memory Diagnostic check to be safe.

The HP does have a UEFI diagnostics which runs from the bios and that has 3 x ram tests that you can run, I have checked every one of the sticks I purchased with all of tests and found no errors - so I think the ram is likely to be good.

The post I made yesterday seems to have been just a coincidence because today I haven't been able to get the Memory Diagnostic results to show up again,

If you do a clean install of windows, should you install the drivers from the HP website? I haven't installed any drivers from the HP website because there are no errors in the device manager, i'm wondering if installing or some of them may make a difference?

There's 41 downloads available: https://support.hp.com/gb-en/drivers/selfservice/hp-15-ac100-notebook-pc-series/8499326 but I'm assuming Windows10 has newer ones.

One other question to ask, I tried 2 x 8gb sticks in the laptop and it seemed to take Windows 10 longer to start, the CPU is a Pentium 3825U 1.9 GHz and that apparently can handle 16gb, can installing 16gb on a 7 year old laptop cause any issues in Windows ?

Thanks for the pointers and tips so far

 

[Deleted member 14196]

Just do a repair of the OS like an in place upgrade.

download the latest operating system. And run setup

 

[Deleted member 2947362]

if it's passing the memory tests and running as expected I wouldn't be worried about what microsofts memtest doesn't display most microsoft products are buggy AF I'd just use a different software program memtest and move on, but that's just me.