Reliability of Computer Memory?

olddoc writes "In the days of 512MB systems, I remember reading about cosmic rays causing memory errors and how errors become more frequent with more RAM. Now, home PCs are stuffed with 6GB or 8GB and no one uses ECC memory in them. Recently I had consistent BSODs with Vista64 on a PC with 4GB; I tried memtest86 and it always failed within hours. Yet when I ran 64-bit Ubuntu at 100% load and using all memory, it ran fine for days. I have two questions: 1) Do people trust a memtest86 error to mean a bad memory module or motherboard or CPU? 2) When I check my email on my desktop 16GB PC next year, should I be running ECC memory?"

Surprise?

[Anonymous Coward]

Recently I had consistent BSODs with Vista64 on a PC with 4GB...

This was a surprise?

tinfoil is the answer

[Anonymous Coward]

wrap your _whole_ computer in tinfoil to deflect those pesky cosmic rays. it also works to keep them out of your head too.

Re:tinfoil is the answer

[platypussrex]

I have an even better idea. You know how water cooling makes your computer run better? Well my theory is that water cooling would work the same way for the OP. He needs to get a large tank, fill it with ice water, and be sure to keep his head fully submerged while doing all his computer work. I'm sure he'll be amazed at his increased productivity.

Re:Memtest not perfect.

[0100010001010011]

I bet Windows will love you replacing the DIMM's while running.

Re:tinfoil is the answer

[JWSmythe]

... or so they've made you believe.

    The tin foil hat works. We can't read your mind. Feel safe wearing the tin foil hat. You've protected yourself against our evil plot to control your mind. :)

If it was really a cosmic ray

[circletimessquare]

Then it would proba%ly alter not just one byte, b%t a chain of them. The cha%n of modified bytes would be stru%g out, in a regular patter%. Now if only there were so%e way to read memory in%a chain of bytes, as if it w%re a string, to visu%lize the cosmic ray mod%fication. hmmm...

Re:Memtest not perfect.

[Anthony_Cargile]

I bet Windows will love you replacing the DIMM's while running.

Yeah wait until it starts to sleep first, or even better if you catch it while hibernating

Re:Error response

[Anthony_Cargile]

Anyone else have RAM modules degrade over time? I've never seen this.

I don't know if this is from degraded RAM, or rats pissing on the motherboard, but an olde IBM PC running DOS (upgraded to 3?) started having little blips on-screen and other strange characters appear in the output of programs and the shell itself, and in addition to this it would randomly lock up occasionally displaying a stack error.

I know the floppy is alright, because it boots fine without any of these symptoms occurring from other machines it boots from. The video cardish component appears fine to the naked eye, but does not explain the random stack errors and unexplained lockups. I've always wondered what the hell was wrong with this thing (and a certain someone won't stop nagging me to throw it away, already) but it could very well be degraded RAM. Can't boot up memtest86 because (CPU i386) but the symptoms seem to all point to bad RAM.

Re:Memtest not perfect.

[Antidamage]

I've often had it pick up bad ram, usually within the first five minutes. One time, the memory in question had been through a number of unprotected power surges. The motherboard and power supply were dead too.

You can reliably replicate my results by removing the ram, snapping it in half and putting it back in. No need to wait for a power surge to see memtest86 shine.

Re:Memtest not perfect.

[Hal_Porter]

Memtestx86 is bögus. My machine alwayS generated errors when I run the test but it works fOne otherwise ÿ

Re:Paranoia?

[Anonymous Coward]

and having sex in the back of a red 1948 Buick convertible at a drive-in movie theater on Tuesday night, Feb. 29th under a blue moon... all at the same time....

Mom?

metal armour is the answer

[captainpanic]

I usually wear medieval armour. Not only does that work as efficient as tinfoil, it's also very fashionable.

Re:tinfoil is the answer

[Waccoon]

Meanwhile, aren't some people wrapping their WiFi antennas with tin foil to boost reception?

Re:Surprise?

[alexandre_ganso]

... vista is way too slow for my, and many other's tastes.

Now you got what he meant with "rock solid"....

Re:Surprise?

[evan_arrrr!]

So what you're saying is that you've figured out how to keep your PC running WITHOUT power? Why are we still driving gas-powered vehicles? Somebody get this man to Washington!

Re:Joking aside...

[bosef1]

I remember when my Dad and I picked up our first bits at the store. We had a hatchback, so it was pretty easy to just slide them in sideways, but then we had to bungie-cord everything down so they wouldn't shift too much on the ride home. Darn kids today with their multi-gigabyte memory chips.

Re:Surprise?

[Dan East]

In reference to the parent, gp, ggp, etc. Either I'm reading the alternate-reality edition of Slashdot, or y'all are warming up for Wednesday.

Re:Memtest not perfect.

[machine321]

That's impressive. Most memory tester software so I've tried requires a working power supply and motherboard.

Re:Surprise?

[andy9o]

PEBKAC

Re:Surprise?

[unfunk]

"61 days, rebooting only for updates" still flies in the face of everybody that claims that Vista will crash on a weekly/daily/hourly basis. His point is still valid without you needing to wave your epenis.

Re:(Sensible) People do use ECC RAM

[Thundersnatch]

actual program code being such a small percentage of RAM usage these days

I see you've never experienced the joys of J2EE.

Re:Surprise?

[Anonymous Coward]

Ah, words to conjure with. A new t-shirt for sysadmins is born.

Re:Surprise?

[mcvos]

I have never had a harddrive fail. Never. Not on a fresh computer and not on a decade old one.

Can I hire you as admin for our raid-0 disk server?

Re:tinfoil is the answer

[flyingfsck]

That will only work if you use heavy water - Deuterium. ;

New Microsoft ad slogan

[mkcmkc]

You must be unlucky or the cause.

This would make a great slogan for Microsoft's new ad campaign:

• Windows: if it doesn't work perfectly, it's your fault.

Re:Memtest not perfect.

[drinkypoo]

It is in Microsoft's best interest to identify the few cases in which Windows is not the problem.