Test 10 "sleeping" when I test individual sticks of RAM?

[hardway]

I am trying to test my DIMM's separately with this program because I got errors when I tested all four at once. Every time I get to test 10, it reads, "sleeping" and does a countdown, instead of running the test. It did not do this with all 4 sticks installed. Any ideas?

Memtest 86 Pro v6 running default test configuration
Corsair Dominator Platinum DDR4 4x8GB sticks
Skylake i7 6700K CPU
MSI z170a xpower gaming titanium with latest bios (v1.2)

[hardway]

Ok, I let it run through the "sleeping" countdown, which it did twice in a row, and then it started the test. Is this normal?

[David (PassMark)]

From the test description page.

Test 10 [Bit fade test, 2 patterns]The bit fade test initializes all of memory with a pattern and then sleeps for a few minutes. Then memory is examined to see if any memory bits have changed. All ones and all zero patterns are used.

It does this all the time, you probably just didn't notice it on the first run.

[hardway]

Ok, thanks! I ran memtest86 with all 4 DIMM's and got 8000+ errors:

Test Start Time	2015-12-04 09:39:17
Elapsed Time	13:45:52
Memory Range Tested	0x0 - 86F000000 (34544MB)
CPU Selection Mode	Single: CPU # 0
# Tests Passed	31/36 (86%)

Lowest Error Address	0x10FDE0100 (4349MB)
Highest Error Address	0x10FDE7EF8 (4349MB)
Bits in Error Mask	0000000004000000
Bits in Error	1
Max Contiguous Errors	1

Test	# Tests Passed	Errors
Test 0 [Address test, walking ones, 1 CPU]	3/3 (100%)	0
Test 1 [Address test, own address, 1 CPU]	3/3 (100%)	0
Test 2 [Address test, own address]	3/3 (100%)	0
Test 3 [Moving inversions, ones & zeroes]	3/3 (100%)	0
Test 4 [Moving inversions, 8-bit pattern]	3/3 (100%)	0
Test 5 [Moving inversions, random pattern]	3/3 (100%)	0
Test 6 [Block move, 64-byte blocks]	3/3 (100%)	0
Test 7 [Moving inversions, 32-bit pattern]	2/3 (66%)	1713
Test 8 [Random number sequence]	2/2 (100%)	0
Test 9 [Modulo 20, ones & zeros]	2/2 (100%)	0
Test 10 [Bit fade test, 2 patterns, 1 CPU]	1/2 (50%)	1038
Test 11 [Random number sequence, 64-bit]	1/2 (50%)	1439
Test 12 [Random number sequence, 128-bit]	1/2 (50%)	3371
Test 13 [Hammer test]	1/2 (50%)	907

Last 10 Errors

[Data Error] Test: 13, CPU: 0, Address: 10FDE4580, Expected: 00000000, Actual: 04000000

[Data Error] Test: 13, CPU: 0, Address: 10FDE7EF0, Expected: 00000000, Actual: 04000000

[Data Error] Test: 13, CPU: 0, Address: 10FDE7EE8, Expected: 00000000, Actual: 04000000

[Data Error] Test: 13, CPU: 0, Address: 10FDE7EE0, Expected: 00000000, Actual: 04000000

[Data Error] Test: 13, CPU: 0, Address: 10FDE7ED8, Expected: 00000000, Actual: 04000000

[Data Error] Test: 13, CPU: 0, Address: 10FDE7ED0, Expected: 00000000, Actual: 04000000

[Data Error] Test: 13, CPU: 0, Address: 10FDE7EC8, Expected: 00000000, Actual: 04000000

[Data Error] Test: 13, CPU: 0, Address: 10FDE7EB8, Expected: 00000000, Actual: 04000000

[Data Error] Test: 13, CPU: 0, Address: 10FDE7EB0, Expected: 00000000, Actual: 04000000

[Data Error] Test: 13, CPU: 0, Address: 10FDE7EA8, Expected: 00000000, Actual: 04000000

I then ran memtest on each individual DIMM and got no errors on any of them. Then I one of the DIMMS for two passes each in every slot to check the slots, and the DIMM had no errors in any of the slots.

I then put all 4 DIMMS back in, but in a different pattern, and ran memtest again while I slept last night. This generated only 90 errors, at the same address, and in a different test than before:

Test Start Time	2015-12-05 23:53:43
Elapsed Time	6:38:51
Memory Range Tested	0x0 - 86F000000 (34544MB)
CPU Selection Mode	Single: CPU # 0
# Tests Passed	26/27 (96%)

Lowest Error Address	0x10FDE0210 (4349MB)
Highest Error Address	0x10FDE7ED8 (4349MB)
Bits in Error Mask	0000000004000000
Bits in Error	1
Max Contiguous Errors	1

Test	# Tests Passed	Errors
Test 0 [Address test, walking ones, 1 CPU]	2/2 (100%)	0
Test 1 [Address test, own address, 1 CPU]	2/2 (100%)	0
Test 2 [Address test, own address]	2/2 (100%)	0
Test 3 [Moving inversions, ones & zeroes]	2/2 (100%)	0
Test 4 [Moving inversions, 8-bit pattern]	2/2 (100%)	0
Test 5 [Moving inversions, random pattern]	2/2 (100%)	0
Test 6 [Block move, 64-byte blocks]	2/2 (100%)	0
Test 7 [Moving inversions, 32-bit pattern]	2/2 (100%)	0
Test 8 [Random number sequence]	1/2 (50%)	90
Test 9 [Modulo 20, ones & zeros]	2/2 (100%)	0
Test 10 [Bit fade test, 2 patterns, 1 CPU]	2/2 (100%)	0
Test 11 [Random number sequence, 64-bit]	2/2 (100%)	0
Test 12 [Random number sequence, 128-bit]	2/2 (100%)	0
Test 13 [Hammer test]	1/1 (100%)	0

Last 10 Errors

[Data Error] Test: 8, CPU: 0, Address: 10FDE2008, Expected: 761C049B, Actual: 721C049B

[Data Error] Test: 8, CPU: 0, Address: 10FDE7ED8, Expected: E988A898, Actual: ED88A898

[Data Error] Test: 8, CPU: 0, Address: 10FDE7A90, Expected: 01F6879E, Actual: 05F6879E

[Data Error] Test: 8, CPU: 0, Address: 10FDE7690, Expected: 077E669E, Actual: 037E669E

[Data Error] Test: 8, CPU: 0, Address: 10FDE7588, Expected: 3F3141C4, Actual: 3B3141C4

[Data Error] Test: 8, CPU: 0, Address: 10FDE72A0, Expected: 645887C2, Actual: 605887C2

[Data Error] Test: 8, CPU: 0, Address: 10FDE7298, Expected: E4443108, Actual: E0443108

[Data Error] Test: 8, CPU: 0, Address: 10FDE71E8, Expected: 375F9F9C, Actual: 335F9F9C

[Data Error] Test: 8, CPU: 0, Address: 10FDE7198, Expected: 9B9C06C8, Actual: 9F9C06C8

[Data Error] Test: 8, CPU: 0, Address: 10FDE7188, Expected: 5B94E8C4, Actual: 5F94E8C4

System:

Skylake i7 6700K
32GB DDR4 (4x8GB) Corsair Dominator Platinum 2666Mhz (PC4 2133)
MSI Z170a XPOWER Gaming Titanium

I ran the above series of tests in XMP mode (2666Mhz). I am now re-running all four DIMMS at 2133Mhz to see if the memory controller was getting overstressed at the higher frequency. Any ideas based off of my results?

[David (PassMark)]

I think they are real ram errors. The same bit is in error each time.

The differences between testing 1 stick and multiple sticks are,

1) The address mapping will be slightly different. There is a certain amount of RAM used by BIOS/UEFI for its internal functions. So with 1 stick it might be the case that the bad physical addresses are allocation to some UEFI block of RAM that doesn't get tested. But with multiple sticks the bad addresses are pushed higher up the address range and are now in a block of free RAM, and so get tested.

2) With multiple sticks the memory controller normally does interleaving. Which changes the access patterns (i.e the frequency of hitting certain bytes in each RAM chip changes). It might be that the fault only appears in certain circumstances.

3) From an electrical point of view there is more load on the system. More current and maybe more EMI.

Also check your BIOS is up to date.

From time to time we also hear of people bumping up the voltage levels very slightly to get machines stable.

[hardway]

Thanks David.

I just finished 12 hrs of memtest running the memory at the SPD frequency of 2133 MHz, and got no errors. Would real RAM errors only show up at the higher frequency?

My BIOS is the most current version on the MSI website.

[David (PassMark)]

Yes, all RAM will eventually fail as you increase the frequency and decrease the timings.

So it appears the RAM doesn't live up to its impressive sounding "Dominator Platinum" name.

[hardway]

Yes, all RAM will eventually fail as you increase the frequency and decrease the timings.

So it appears the RAM doesn't live up to its impressive sounding "Dominator Platinum" name.

Yeah, no kidding. I got it in a package deal from newegg with the i7 and a gtx 980, hopefully the replacement kit does better.

[David (PassMark)]

You could probably live with it running at the slower speed.
It is only in rare applications that the RAM speed has a significant impact. The clock speed difference might only amount to 5% difference in real world usage.

There is also the possibility that it is the motherboard that doesn't like the higher speed. Can be hard to know who to blame.

[hardway]

I tested the voltage at the DIMM slots with my Fluke and in XMP (2666MHz) I was getting 1.219V. I upped it to 1.23V in the BIOS, which gave me 1.24V at the DIMM slots according to the multimeter, and manually set the RAM to 2666 MHz. I am retesting now. So far I am error free but we will see how it goes.

I am sure that I would be fine at 2133MHz, it just irks me to know I bought a product that was supposed to "Work flawlessly" with XMP and didn't.

The Z170 chipsets are pretty new and the BIOS is only at v1.2, so the mobo could definitely be playing a role here.

[hardway]

Ok, ran memtest all night (9+ hrs) and got no errors at the higher voltage:

Summary

Report Date	2015-12-07 07:23:17
Generated by	MemTest86 V6.2.0 Pro (64-bit)
Result	PASS

System Information

EFI Specifications	2.40
CPU Type	Intel Core i7-6700K @ 4.00GHz
CPU Clock	4029 MHz
# Logical Processors	8
L1 Cache	4 x 64K (250004 MB/s)
L2 Cache	4 x 256K (111927 MB/s)
L3 Cache	8192K (62233 MB/s)
Memory	33019M (23919 MB/s)
DIMM Slot #0	8GB DDR4 PC4-21300
	0215 / CMD32GX4M4A2666C15
	2667 MHz
DIMM Slot #1	8GB DDR4 PC4-21300
	0215 / CMD32GX4M4A2666C15
	2667 MHz
DIMM Slot #2	8GB DDR4 PC4-21300
	0215 / CMD32GX4M4A2666C15
	2667 MHz
DIMM Slot #3	8GB DDR4 PC4-21300
	0215 / CMD32GX4M4A2666C15
	2667 MHz

Result summary

Test Start Time	2015-12-06 22:05:56
Elapsed Time	9:14:16
Memory Range Tested	0x0 - 86F000000 (34544MB)
CPU Selection Mode	Single: CPU # 0
# Tests Passed	35/35 (100%)

Test	# Tests Passed	Errors
Test 0 [Address test, walking ones, 1 CPU]	3/3 (100%)	0
Test 1 [Address test, own address, 1 CPU]	3/3 (100%)	0
Test 2 [Address test, own address]	3/3 (100%)	0
Test 3 [Moving inversions, ones & zeroes]	3/3 (100%)	0
Test 4 [Moving inversions, 8-bit pattern]	3/3 (100%)	0
Test 5 [Moving inversions, random pattern]	3/3 (100%)	0
Test 6 [Block move, 64-byte blocks]	3/3 (100%)	0
Test 7 [Moving inversions, 32-bit pattern]	2/2 (100%)	0
Test 8 [Random number sequence]	2/2 (100%)	0
Test 9 [Modulo 20, ones & zeros]	2/2 (100%)	0
Test 10 [Bit fade test, 2 patterns, 1 CPU]	2/2 (100%)	0
Test 11 [Random number sequence, 64-bit]	2/2 (100%)	0
Test 12 [Random number sequence, 128-bit]	2/2 (100%)	0
Test 13 [Hammer test]

Not exactly sure what to make of it. Is the RAM below spec, or is it some interaction with the mobo or memory controller on the CPU? I don't know.

Corsair claims the memory will do 2666 MHz at 1.2V, so I suppose if we are rounding to one decimal place, 1.24V is still 1.2V, but that is not the standard XMP profile 1 voltage, it's higher.