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- Joined
- 30 Dec 2003
- Posts
- 2,254
Hello!
I'm hoping for some advice: I've recently acquired a surplus Dell Precision 380. It has 3 GB DDR2 RAM (2x 1 GB, 2x 512 MB) which I wanted to upgrade to 8 GB. I purchased a set of 4x 2 GB Integral Value sticks from eBay. Upon installing them I ran memtest86+. After 8 passes one single bit error had been detected (pass 5). I ran memtest86+ again from the start the next evening and after 8 passes two single bit errors had been detected. One was at the same address as before (pass 4), the other was 3 GB away in the memory space (pass 6) but due to interleaving I had no idea if this was the same module or not.
Since then I have tried to pin down the faulty stick - I've run each stick one at a time in slot 1 for a minimum of 10 passes (in some cases much higher, up to 24 passes) and each stick passes with no errors.
Can anybody advise?
At this stage I've put all four sticks back in and will run memtest86+ over the weekend. Even if it then passes (unlikely, given the previous results), should I still be worried that I've now seen some failures? (Albeit a small number in several passes of a reasonably stressful scenario).
On Monday I will run the existing 3 GB RAM through memtest86+ and see how that goes - Hopefully this will verify whether the problem exists within the modules or motherboard. I am unable to change any memory settings in the Dell BIOS.
My main question is; given what I've discovered so far (and I will update with further findings as I get them) would you be happy to keep and use this memory or should I return it for a refund? Any advice greatly appreciated!
I'm hoping for some advice: I've recently acquired a surplus Dell Precision 380. It has 3 GB DDR2 RAM (2x 1 GB, 2x 512 MB) which I wanted to upgrade to 8 GB. I purchased a set of 4x 2 GB Integral Value sticks from eBay. Upon installing them I ran memtest86+. After 8 passes one single bit error had been detected (pass 5). I ran memtest86+ again from the start the next evening and after 8 passes two single bit errors had been detected. One was at the same address as before (pass 4), the other was 3 GB away in the memory space (pass 6) but due to interleaving I had no idea if this was the same module or not.
Since then I have tried to pin down the faulty stick - I've run each stick one at a time in slot 1 for a minimum of 10 passes (in some cases much higher, up to 24 passes) and each stick passes with no errors.
Can anybody advise?
At this stage I've put all four sticks back in and will run memtest86+ over the weekend. Even if it then passes (unlikely, given the previous results), should I still be worried that I've now seen some failures? (Albeit a small number in several passes of a reasonably stressful scenario).
On Monday I will run the existing 3 GB RAM through memtest86+ and see how that goes - Hopefully this will verify whether the problem exists within the modules or motherboard. I am unable to change any memory settings in the Dell BIOS.
My main question is; given what I've discovered so far (and I will update with further findings as I get them) would you be happy to keep and use this memory or should I return it for a refund? Any advice greatly appreciated!
