Jim Thompson wrote:
Awhile back I reported random crashes.

Testing memory for hours on-end using the latest version of Memtest86
found nothing.

With some time on my hands this week, I pulled the machine out,
swapped out the second bank of memory... problem solved.

Aaaaargh!

Is there a REAL memory test out there?

...Jim Thompson

The flip answer is linux. The real answer is no. Memory
gets accessed in so many different ways that a memory test
that is entirely CPU driven is not going to be able to smoke
out all of the flaws. For instance, your computer's memory
is driven by the CPU, the CPU's cache controller, the video
card's DMA, the network card's DMA, the disk controller's DMA,
.... . If your memory is running a little too slow, or too fast,
one of these memory access methods could exercise the flaw
sometimes, and others may never exercise the flaw.

Additionally, the temperature of the computer box varies with
load, room temperature, disk activity.... The CPU's temperature
varies depending on what you are doing with it (idling, CPU
intensive routines, ...).

So, the only real test for a memory card is to use it heavily
loaded in the system it is going to be deployed in.

-Chuck