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speedycon

macrumors newbie
Original poster
May 4, 2012
4
0
I recently bought new memory for my Imac from 2008. When I inserted the memory I decided to first check it with Memtest OSX. I did let it run for 3 cycles without any fail.

After I did run Memtest86 and it did produce a few errors during the first 2 runs. During the 3rd run it produced an enourmous amount of error pointing to a heat issue.

An internet search on the reliability of memtest86 on Imac's did not produce much results. Which tool should I actually believe?
 
I recently bought new memory for my Imac from 2008. When I inserted the memory I decided to first check it with Memtest OSX. I did let it run for 3 cycles without any fail.

After I did run Memtest86 and it did produce a few errors during the first 2 runs. During the 3rd run it produced an enourmous amount of error pointing to a heat issue.

An internet search on the reliability of memtest86 on Imac's did not produce much results. Which tool should I actually believe?

The one that fails ;) honestly, memtest86 is a very good tool.
 
Are you using Memtest86 or Memtest86+? On one machine that I've seen, Memtest86 will always fail regardless of the quality of the RAM, whereas Memtest86+ would test correctly. I gather that this was due to a specific hardware conflict.
 
I did get the impression memtest OSX was performing similar tasks as memtest86 with the only difference that it would miss a very small amount of memory.

I used memtest86. i'll try memtest86+ this weekend. I'll keep you posted on the results. Have more people observed issues with Memtest86?
 
Last night I did try memtest86+ and this one actually passes (4 passes)

So the results are now:
- Memtest86: fail
- Memtest86+: pass
- Memtest OSX: pass

Can I assume my memory is actually OK based on these results or do I have to do some more testing?
 
Is you machine running OK? If it is, why all this paranoia regarding testing? Diagnostic tests such as these are meant to be run in the event of something malfunctioning.
 
My machine is running fine but currently I'm not using it very frequent.

I don't agree with your feedback. You can also run a diagnostic test to evaluate new HW. Right now it's easy to return the memory in case of failure. If I find out after half a year or worse after one year it will be more difficult (despite the waranty).
 
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