Is there any point to running memtest?

I am just curious as to what you guys think. I have some new memory I want to install in my T500. If I put the memory in, the machine recognizes the full amount and I don't get any errors off the bat, is there any point to do a memtest? Would a memtest help uncover any potential errors?

I can see the value of memtest if you have memory in your machine and are getting strange memory errors. It can help tell you if the memory is the problem.

Any point in my situation? Thanks.

 

Peace of mind. Nothing helps like a couple of successful passes of memtest.

 

Personally, I never have. I've only ever had one defective stick of RAM (in my brother's desktop), and in that case, the machine wouldn't even POST. I guess it's more for peace of mind (just like running Orthos for 24 hours after an undervolt to test stability); I just don't find it necessary.

 

I have always run memtest+ on every notebook i have ever owned, that is 20+ an i have not found a fault stick of memory yet.

 

Memtest is to rule out the sticks of RAM that pass POST and won't give you immediate BSOD, but when you run anything intensive you get random BSOD. It takes like an hour or two for a couple of passes...I highly suggest Memtest vs headaches later on down the road.

 

I do it just for peace of mind. Just leave the machine running overnight while you sleep, wake up, it'll be done like 10 passes. If it can do 10 passes fine, it's probably fine.

 

Yeah, you really need to run it for a few hours, overnight is best as mentioned below so the memory has time to get hot, so any faults due to bad joints/connections due to heat expansion will be detected.

John.

 

I always run memtest for at least one night for every memory module I buy, so that I can return it under DSR if found faulty, to save all the harassment with the retailers.

 

Pretty much the same thing for me. I run it whenever I get new RAM. I've caught some flaky modules this way in the past, and I'd much rather find them during a memtest86+ run than when data starts being silently corrupted.

 

Yes, if you care about having a solid machine, run memtest86+ on a new machine or with new modules after running a burn-in like prime95/mprime for a while.

 

Ok. Thanks guys! I ran memtest for like 3 passes but even that took like 6.5 hours(no errors). Do I really need to run for 10 passes? How many passes?

So over all I see 2 big reasons for running memtest:
1.) If there is a problem then you are dealing with the retailer for a return(which is easy in my case since it is newegg) instead of dealing with the memory manufacturer and their warranty policy.

2.) You are catching problems before they occur and before they can cause a loss/corruption of data.

 

Run memtest if you have doubt on the machine stability...

If the machine runs solid there's really a little point on doing such test.

 

Even machines with bad RAM can run just fine.

 

The point of most users is the have a PC that runs just fine, if for whatever reason, it runs fine with a faulty component, where's the problem ?

 

That's the purpose for redundancy.

 

Data corruption.