How to identified which DRAM IC defective

[DenT]

Hi,
We recently purchased MemTest86 Pro v11.7 to perform memory testing. Could you please advise on how to identify which DRAM device or DIMM is defective when memory errors are detected during the test?

[Simon (PassMark)]

See: https://www.memtest86.com/tech_DIMM_Decoding.html
Note that DIMM/Chip decoding is only supported for certain motherboards, memory and CPU architectures
https://www.memtest86.com/tech_DIMM_...rted-platforms
Chip decode is only available in site license

Theres only one DIMM in your screenshot?

[DenT]

Hi,

Yes, we testing one dimm and see the result can detect which DRAM defective. My memtest86 not site license?

Attached with the MemTest logs


MemTest86-20260723-071921_325937.log

[David (PassMark)]

The Chip decode level is only available in site license.

Generally home users & small business users don't care which specific chip is bad on a module, as they can't be repaired or replaced, except at specialist facilities.

[DenT]

Hi,

Does PassMark have any software that can detect whether a DIMM has a no-POST or no-power issue?

[David (PassMark)]

If the machine won't boot when using a bad RAM stick, then no software solution is going to help, as the hardware needs to mostly work, before the software can run.

If we made a hardware solution to check if a DIMM can boot, then it would need to emulate what a motherboard & CPU does. (e.g. training sequences, reading SPD data, checking available capacity, etc..). This would be a lot of work to emulate hardware that is already cheap and available. Easiest solution is just to get a cheap CPU and motherboard and then test the DIMM's allow you to get into BIOS or boot into MemTest86.