Comet Blog
Ramblings of Comet--Berkeley

memtest86+ v2.01 good 80808080 bad 80808000

Wednesday, April 09, 2008   12:46:00 PM PDT

I recently tested a Pentium 4 system with an Intel motherboard by running memtest86+ to check out the ram memory chips.

I kept getting the following error no matter how I swapped around the memory chips on the motherboard: 

   Test #3
   Address: 00000100020 1.0MB
   Good: 80808080
   Bad: 80808000

I would try one chip and then the other. I moved the two chips around the 4 available memory slots on the motherboard, but still got the same results.

The system seemed to be very stable and so the memory test error did not make sense.

I did a search on google and found the following forum thread:

http://forum.x86-secret.com/archive/index.php?t-3670.html

And finally figured out that the error comes from plugging the mouse into a USB port instead of plugging it into the standard PS/2 port...

In fact I can "crash" memtest86+ every time just by moving the mouse when it gets to test #3.

But if the mouse is plugged into the PS/2 port, then there is no memory error and moving the mouse has no effect.

Moral of the story?

"If you take a test and fail, but everything checks out ok otherwise, then ignore the test."

or

"Stop playing around with your mouse and plug it into the right slot...."
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