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From: Lowell Gilbert <freebsd-questions-local@be-well.ilk.org>
Date: 26 Nov 2004 12:14:46 -0500
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Subject: Re: Is this a sign of memory going bad?
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Chuck Robey <chuckr@chuckr.org> writes:

> With that in mind, sometimes, the very best memory test programs can give
> you better ideas that memory you thought was failing IS failing.  The
> opposite, proving that memory is good, is just totally, totally useless,
> you cannot take any data home at all about your memory being good.

That's exactly right.  The false negative rate is quite high, but the
false positive rate is virtually zero.  However, this makes it far
from useless, because in cases like the question that started the
thread, bad memory *is* extremely likely to be the cause, and a
software memory tester is probably going to report that.  Given the
frequency with which messages on this list say "no, it can't be bad
memory because it works under Windows," this is *extremely* useful.