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I recently purchased a used 16GB Kit (2x8GB) of Crucial Ballistix Sport VLP DDR3 Memory 1600MHz PC3-12800 1.35V to match the exact same kit I already have and expand from 16->32GB. I'm currently rocking an MSI Z77A-GD65. Since I was purchasing the RAM used on ebay, I decided to test it to see if it was in working order. This is the first time I've really used memtest and I don't have any prior experience with bad ram.
I started out by testing all 4 sticks at once. I'm only providing the full results for the first test just so everyone can see the details, I'll just mention the errors for the subsequent tests since nothing else changed. The memtest readout shows the voltage at 1.5V, but I've confirmed that it's set to 1.35V in the BIOS. The other SPD setting is at 1.5V, which is what I think memtest is choosing to display in the results for some reason. I don't have any XMP profile activated, my BIOS is updated to the latest and all the settings are at the default. Summary
System Information
Result summary
After the first test with all 4 sticks showed failures, I took out the ebay sticks and tested just my original 2 sticks and they passed with no errors. Next, I tested, just the ebay RAM in the same slots as the RAM that just passed and got the following results:
Seems reasonable enough - looks like one of the ebay sticks are bad, but it's likely not the CPU/Cache or channels because I just verified those with the previous test. Also, the errors are occurring at the same addresses on different passes, which points even more definitively to the ram.
I then tested both ebay sticks individually through the full set of tests and they passed with no errors. I then ran each stick through again, but only specify the bit fade test and row hammer test and they still didn't show any errors (I just used the default of 4 passes for all tests). Next, I just tried to reproduce the error again and ran both sticks of ebay RAM in the same slots as before, but just specified the Bit fade and row hammer tests to save time. These are the results:
Part of me wants to ignore it and go on with my life, but I've read that any error in memtest is a legitimate error and should be corrected. I don't do anything requiring fault-tolerant RAM, but I'm not a fan of applications crashing for no reason. That being said, I don't think I should ignore it. Also, this is fun.
I should also mention that I've run about 8 hours of Prime95 torture testing and seen no errors yet.
So I guess I have a few questions:
1) Is my analysis of these results faulty and in need of correction?
2) Is this just one of those cases where I need to test a single stick of RAM for 24 hours to catch the error?
3) If 2, then is it really worth replacing the RAM?
4) Is it common that 4 passes isn't enough to detect any errors? Should I trust the results that indicate my 2 original sticks of RAM are good?
Happy to provide more information as needed.
I started out by testing all 4 sticks at once. I'm only providing the full results for the first test just so everyone can see the details, I'll just mention the errors for the subsequent tests since nothing else changed. The memtest readout shows the voltage at 1.5V, but I've confirmed that it's set to 1.35V in the BIOS. The other SPD setting is at 1.5V, which is what I think memtest is choosing to display in the results for some reason. I don't have any XMP profile activated, my BIOS is updated to the latest and all the settings are at the default. Summary
| Report Date | 2019-10-31 08:14:25 |
| Generated by | MemTest86 V8.2 Free (64-bit) |
| Result | FAIL |
| EFI Specifications | 2.31 |
| System | |
| Manufacturer | MSI |
| Product Name | MS-7751 |
| Version | 2.0 |
| Serial Number | To be filled by O.E.M. |
| BIOS | |
| Vendor | American Megatrends Inc. |
| Version | V10.11 |
| Release Date | 10/09/2013 |
| Baseboard | |
| Manufacturer | MSI |
| Product Name | Z77A-GD65 (MS-7751) |
| Version | 2.0 |
| Serial Number | To be filled by O.E.M. |
| CPU Type | Intel Core i5-3570 @ 3.40GHz |
| CPU Clock | 3400 MHz [Turbo: 3800.0 MHz] |
| # Logical Processors | 4 |
| L1 Cache | 4 x 64K (93714 MB/s) |
| L2 Cache | 4 x 256K (52491 MB/s) |
| L3 Cache | 6144K (31109 MB/s) |
| Memory | 32740M (19095 MB/s) |
| DIMM Slot #0 | 8GB DDR3 XMP PC3-12800 |
| Crucial Technology / BLS8G3D1609ES2LX0. / A9022A79 | |
| 9-9-9-24 / 1600 MHz / 1.500V | |
| DIMM Slot #1 | 8GB DDR3 XMP PC3-12800 |
| Crucial Technology / BLS8G3D1609ES2LX0. / A9022563 | |
| 9-9-9-24 / 1600 MHz / 1.500V | |
| DIMM Slot #2 | 8GB DDR3 XMP PC3-12800 |
| Crucial Technology / BLS8G3D1609ES2LX0. / A60ACDE8 | |
| 9-9-9-24 / 1600 MHz / 1.500V | |
| DIMM Slot #3 | 8GB DDR3 XMP PC3-12800 |
| Crucial Technology / BLS8G3D1609ES2LX0. / A90224CF | |
| 9-9-9-24 / 1600 MHz / 1.500V |
| Test Start Time | 2019-10-30 22:50:09 |
| Elapsed Time | 8:48:23 |
| Memory Range Tested | 0x0 - 81F000000 (33264MB) |
| CPU Selection Mode | Parallel (All CPUs) |
| ECC Polling | Enabled |
| # Tests Passed | 44/48 (91%) |
| Lowest Error Address | 0x16C3AD628 (5827MB) |
| Highest Error Address | 0x7EA1A559C (32417MB) |
| Bits in Error Mask | 0000000000001028 |
| Bits in Error | 3 |
| Max Contiguous Errors | 1 |
| Test | # Tests Passed | Errors |
| Test 0 [Address test, walking ones, 1 CPU] | 4/4 (100%) | 0 |
| Test 1 [Address test, own address, 1 CPU] | 4/4 (100%) | 0 |
| Test 2 [Address test, own address] | 4/4 (100%) | 0 |
| Test 3 [Moving inversions, ones & zeroes] | 4/4 (100%) | 0 |
| Test 4 [Moving inversions, 8-bit pattern] | 4/4 (100%) | 0 |
| Test 5 [Moving inversions, random pattern] | 4/4 (100%) | 0 |
| Test 6 [Block move, 64-byte blocks] | 4/4 (100%) | 0 |
| Test 7 [Moving inversions, 32-bit pattern] | 4/4 (100%) | 0 |
| Test 8 [Random number sequence] | 4/4 (100%) | 0 |
| Test 9 [Modulo 20, ones & zeros] | 4/4 (100%) | 0 |
| Test 10 [Bit fade test, 2 patterns, 1 CPU] | 2/4 (50%) | 2 |
| Test 13 [Hammer test] | 2/4 (50%) | 3 |
| Last 10 Errors |
| 2019-10-31 07:21:22 - [Data Error] Test: 13, CPU: 0, Address: 5B010CD30, Expected: D9F456B5, Actual: D9F45695 |
| 2019-10-31 06:33:17 - [Data Error] Test: 10, CPU: 0, Address: 7EA1A559C, Expected: 00000000, Actual: 00000008 |
| 2019-10-31 02:34:11 - [Data Error] Test: 13, CPU: 0, Address: 5B010CD30, Expected: 496C0D30, Actual: 496C0D10 |
| 2019-10-31 02:03:34 - [Data Error] Test: 13, CPU: 0, Address: 16C3AD628, Expected: DA4D2BCE, Actual: DA4D3BCE |
| 2019-10-31 01:45:57 - [Data Error] Test: 10, CPU: 0, Address: 7EA1A559C, Expected: 00000000, Actual: 00000008 |
After the first test with all 4 sticks showed failures, I took out the ebay sticks and tested just my original 2 sticks and they passed with no errors. Next, I tested, just the ebay RAM in the same slots as the RAM that just passed and got the following results:
| Lowest Error Address | 0x1AF50DB38 (6901MB) |
| Highest Error Address | 0x3F50D551C (16208MB) |
| Bits in Error Mask | 0000000000000108 |
| Bits in Error | 2 |
| Max Contiguous Errors | 1 |
| Test 10 [Bit fade test, 2 patterns, 1 CPU] | 0/4 (0%) | 7 |
| 2019-10-31 23:35:55 - [Data Error] Test: 10, CPU: 0, Address: 3F50D551C, Expected: 00000000, Actual: 00000008 |
| 2019-10-31 23:35:53 - [Data Error] Test: 10, CPU: 0, Address: 1AF50DB38, Expected: 00000000, Actual: 00000100 |
| 2019-10-31 21:22:30 - [Data Error] Test: 10, CPU: 0, Address: 3F50D551C, Expected: 00000000, Actual: 00000008 |
| 2019-10-31 21:22:28 - [Data Error] Test: 10, CPU: 0, Address: 1AF50DB38, Expected: 00000000, Actual: 00000100 |
| 2019-10-31 20:17:37 - [Data Error] Test: 10, CPU: 0, Address: 3F50D551C, Expected: 00000000, Actual: 00000008 |
| 2019-10-31 20:17:35 - [Data Error] Test: 10, CPU: 0, Address: 1AF50DB38, Expected: 00000000, Actual: 00000100 |
Seems reasonable enough - looks like one of the ebay sticks are bad, but it's likely not the CPU/Cache or channels because I just verified those with the previous test. Also, the errors are occurring at the same addresses on different passes, which points even more definitively to the ram.
I then tested both ebay sticks individually through the full set of tests and they passed with no errors. I then ran each stick through again, but only specify the bit fade test and row hammer test and they still didn't show any errors (I just used the default of 4 passes for all tests). Next, I just tried to reproduce the error again and ran both sticks of ebay RAM in the same slots as before, but just specified the Bit fade and row hammer tests to save time. These are the results:
| Lowest Error Address | 0x1E488F1A4 (7752MB) |
| Highest Error Address | 0x1E488F1A4 (7752MB) |
| Bits in Error Mask | 0000000020000000 |
| Bits in Error | 1 |
| Max Contiguous Errors | 1 |
| Test | # Tests Passed | Errors |
| Test 10 [Bit fade test, 2 patterns, 1 CPU] | 4/4 (100%) | 0 |
| Test 13 [Hammer test] | 3/4 (75%) | 1 |
| Last 10 Errors |
| 2019-11-02 17:11:40 - [Data Error] Test: 13, CPU: 0, Address: 1E488F1A4, Expected: DCD92510, Actual: FCD92510 |
Part of me wants to ignore it and go on with my life, but I've read that any error in memtest is a legitimate error and should be corrected. I don't do anything requiring fault-tolerant RAM, but I'm not a fan of applications crashing for no reason. That being said, I don't think I should ignore it. Also, this is fun.
I should also mention that I've run about 8 hours of Prime95 torture testing and seen no errors yet.
So I guess I have a few questions:
1) Is my analysis of these results faulty and in need of correction?
2) Is this just one of those cases where I need to test a single stick of RAM for 24 hours to catch the error?
3) If 2, then is it really worth replacing the RAM?
4) Is it common that 4 passes isn't enough to detect any errors? Should I trust the results that indicate my 2 original sticks of RAM are good?
Happy to provide more information as needed.
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