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Intermittent Failure on Test 10

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  • Intermittent Failure on Test 10

    Hi,

    I've been doing some hardware testing due to overall poor performance on my Mac system. On running memtest, I got numerous errors on test 10 on my system. All other tests and loops passed.

    My iMac has 4 sticks (2x2GB, 2x4GB). I pulled one side (1 2GB, 1 4GB), re-tested and had no failures. I then added one stick from the other side (2nd 2GB stick), reproduced the failure, and assumed that stick was bad. I put the other 4 GB stick back in, tested and also got a failure on test 10.

    I then proceeded to test one of the slots that likely had the consistently failing stick. I took the KG 2 sticks, and moved one to the appropriate slot (6 GB total). I tested and got no failures.

    Then, just for definitively replicating that I had 2 known bad sticks, I pulled the KG RAM and stuck in the suspect RAM, and retested. I used the specific slot that was also suspect, but tested good. In this last test, with 6 GB in the machine, I have gotten no failures.

    At this point, I suspect that I either have a weird failure on my machine using 8 GB or more of allocated memory, or something is popping a false positive.

    I've attached screenshots of my findings. I should also mention that the number of failures found is very consistent.

    Any ideas/suggestions are appreciated.
    Attached Files

  • #2
    If you are running from USB, could you upload or e-mail us the MemTest86.log file found in the EFI\BOOT\ directory. The Bit Fade Test verifies whether or not the written data is persistent after 5 minutes of non-activity. Judging from the patterns in the screenshot, it does not look like a bit fade error but another application may have written to the memory locations within the 5 minute period.

    What is the model of your Mac system?

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    • #3
      I did not run from the USB image, but I can find a spare stick and re-test today or tomorrow.

      I have an iMac (mid-2010) with a 2.93 GHz i7. Same specs as here: http://www.everymac.com/systems/apple/imac/specs/imac-core-i5-2.8-27-inch-aluminum-mid-2010-specs.html

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      • #4
        There's a possibility that this could be a firmware bug, as we have seen a similar issue:

        http://www.passmark.com/forum/showth...-on-MacBookPro

        Though the Mid 2010 iMacs seem to have a max RAM capacity of 16GB, it could be a firmware issue that spans across multiple platforms. So I might check and see if a firmware update is available:

        http://support.apple.com/kb/ht1237

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        • #5
          Logs

          I verified that my EFI version is up to date on this system. I'll send along the log file, which will hopefully help to figure this out.

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