Memtest question

So..

I recently purchased new RAM for my Dell i9300 laptop after asking questions here. I ended up replacing the 2x 512 MB DDR2-533 it had with Crucial 2x 1GB DDR-533. It seemed a bit slower actually, it added 10 seconds to the "hang time" between the windows XP screen and when it finally displays the login screen. I'm assuming this will go away as the PC gets use to the RAM? I'm clueless. I then decided to run MemTest (I never have before), got it on a bootable CD, and when i ran it, i came into errors. Should i RMA the two sticks i received.. or is this amount of errors common?..

Basically, It displayed a "Test" column and a "Errors" column. At Test 1, it had 20 errors. At the last test, 10, it was up to 168 errors.. Any opinions on this? I'm sure zero errors is ideal, but should i be worried?

Thanks in advance..

 

RULE for RAM: no errors are good errors. You should never have errors when testing, if you do they are faulty.

Quick answer: yes, you should RMA the sticks. But you should test each stick individually to see which, or both, stick(s) is/are broken. If only one is broken you should RMA that one and keep the other one. But if both are broken, definitely RMA both. Seems to me you just got ones that slipped through the cracks.

 

It's very rare to have two bad SODIMMs of RAM, so test each stick individually, like notyou mentioned. Provided only one is bad, your notebook should run fine off of the good one while you have the bad one is replaced.

 

Just was away testing each stick by themselves.. i tested each twice..

They still give the same number of errors. On top of that, i stuck the old memory sticks in and testing them individually as well. They gave the same number of errors. Do i need to keep testing them like 10 times each? Or could it be a faulty memory controller or something?

Either way, nice to be screwed. (Thank you for the replies)

Edit: I'm using Memtest 3.4, if that makes any difference.

 

That's very odd you'd get the same # of errors. One time through is good enough. Can't be a memory controller (AMD CPU's only currently) issue since it's only a pathway to the RAM, not part of the RAM itself.

 

Would taking a picture of it help in any diagnosis?

 

I'd say no, it's definitely odd that you'd be getting errors on all 4 sticks though, have you tried them in a different laptop? It could turn out to be a MB problem yet.

 

Don't have another laptop to test them in unfortunately. So i guess i'll see if the 2x 1GB sticks get any better while booting.. No idea what to do. Seems like i'm out of luck either way.

 

It won't get better (you'll likely BSOD if important stuff is put into the bad memory), you'd best RMA the sticks and check the new ones as soon as you get them.

 

Alright, I'll try RMA'ing them and see if the new ones are any better.. It's my luck though that i'm screwed either way. Hopefully it just means the memory that came with my laptop and the new memory are both bad. I've had this laptop about 2.5 years and haven't had ANY issues with the memory at all yet. Thanks for the input.

 

I RMA'd and sent them back just now. I hope the new memory performs better but i have a hunch that it won't since both my old AND the new memory had the same errors.. either they're both bad or it's something other than the sticks themselves? Either way, thanks Notyou for the help. You'll probably see me back here next week