[wplug] strange memory issue

[Rick Reynolds]

On Nov 5, 2009, at 10:16 PM, Robert E. Coutch wrote:

> A couple questions.
>
> Does the memory match the motherboard specs for timing, voltage, etc.
> Are we talking about DDR or DDR2 memory and if so do the memories  
> use high
> density chips and does your mother board support those?
>


I used Crucial.com's "find the memory you need" feature and I believe  
it got me the correct memory for my motherboard.


> Finally, you didn't get them cheap from eBay did you?
>

Nope, new memory from Crucial.

They seem to be working fine now.  I've had the system up for a couple  
of days (before it would crash within an hour at the longest).

Thanks,
Rick Reynolds
-- 
"Talk is cheap and Sally's talk is cheaper than most." -- Gus Pike





> On Wednesday 04 November 2009 06:09:04 pm Rick Reynolds wrote:
>> Hi wpluggers,
>>
>> I'm more of a lurker than a really consistent member, so greetings.
>> I'm seeing a somewhat strange memory issue with an older system of
>> mine and I wondered if anyone on the list has any insights about it.
>> The system is a Tyan Tiger MPX S2466N motherboard with 2 1600 MHz
>> Athlon processors.  It has been a nice Linux server for me for years.
>> I recently decided to upgrade the memory to its max of 4GB (4 x 1GB
>> sticks) and use it as a vmware platform for smaller virtual servers.
>> My plans are to use either ESXi or vmware server 2 on it.
>>
>> I've had nothing but problems with it after the memory upgrade -
>> mainly segfaults of user space apps, starting with vmware server.
>> After chasing the problem from a software point of view, I decided to
>> check the memory with memtest86.  Problems detected all over!  After
>> reporting lots of errors, memtest86 itself would halt after a few
>> minutes due to an "unexpected interrupt."
>>
>> So I decided to test each stick separately to find the culprit(s).
>> Since the original memory errors had been found within a couple of
>> minutes, I only gave each stick around 5 minutes of testing before
>> moving on to the next one in an effort to find the problem as quickly
>> as possible.  All four sticks passed this quick test.
>>
>> I am now rerunning the original test with all four sticks in place  
>> and
>> it has been chugging along for the past 35 minutes with no found
>> issues.  Things that are different with the later tests: (1) each
>> single stick test was done with the stick in the first slot; and (2)
>> the four sticks in there now are almost certainly in a different  
>> order
>> than they were earlier.
>>
>> I'll be thrilled if the memory passes memtest86's tests, but I'd
>> really love to get a nice, warm-fuzzy about the state of this server
>> before I start counting on it. Anyone got an explanation for why the
>> memory might be behaving better now?
>>
>> Thanks,
>> Rick Reynolds
>
>
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