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A shaky overclock causes similar symptoms as faulty RAM. Many of you are running Intel XMP 3.0 or AMD EXPO memory kits, so it's best to differentiate between an unstable memory overclock from a defective DIMM or DIMMs. In a worst-case scenario, your system might not even post and welcome you with multiple beeps.īefore running any diagnostics on your RAM, you should ensure it's running at the stock default frequency. General symptoms of bad RAM include random blue screens of death (BSOD), system crashes or restarts, operating system freezes, and missing memory. But yes, receiving DOA (dead on arrival) RAM isn't uncommon, like any other PC component. Often, there are early signs of a failing or faulty DIMM. When you’re done, you can just press the “Esc” key to exit it and restart your computer.RAM doesn't usually stop working out of the blue. Information about any errors will be displayed on your screen. It will keep running tests until you choose to stop it, allowing you to test how the memory behaves over a longer period of time. The tool will boot and automatically start scanning your memory, running through test after test and informing you if it finds a problem. Once you’ve created bootable media, restart your computer and tell it to boot from the USB drive you copied the memory test tool to. RELATED: How to Boot Your Computer From a Disc or USB Drive Be sure you’ve backed up any important files on the drive first.
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Warning: Writing the MemTest86 image to a USB drive will erase its contents. Just run the EXE file included with the download and provide a spare USB drive to create a bootable USB drive. MemTest86 provides a USB image you can copy to a USB drive. However, we’ve used MemTest86 for a long time.īoth of these are bootable, self-contained tools.
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If you’re looking for another option, you could also try the free and open-source MemTest86+. RELATED: How to Enable or Disable Memory Compression in Windows 11 You don’t need to pay for anything. MemTest86 is signed by Microsoft, so it will work even on systems with Secure Boot enabled. It performs a wider variety of tests and may find issues that the included Windows test won’t. The latest releases of this tool offer a paid version with more features, although the free version should do everything you need. If you’re looking for a more powerful testing tool, you can download and use MemTest86.
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