From owner-freebsd-hackers Thu Apr 10 06:16:31 1997 Return-Path: Received: (from root@localhost) by freefall.freebsd.org (8.8.5/8.8.5) id GAA04562 for hackers-outgoing; Thu, 10 Apr 1997 06:16:31 -0700 (PDT) Received: from etinc.com (et-gw-fr1.etinc.com [204.141.244.98]) by freefall.freebsd.org (8.8.5/8.8.5) with ESMTP id GAA04557 for ; Thu, 10 Apr 1997 06:16:28 -0700 (PDT) Received: from dbws.etinc.com (db@dbws.etinc.com [204.141.95.130]) by etinc.com (8.8.3/8.6.9) with SMTP id JAA26488; Thu, 10 Apr 1997 09:20:41 -0400 (EDT) Message-Id: <3.0.32.19970410091311.006a8f8c@etinc.com> X-Sender: dennis@etinc.com X-Mailer: Windows Eudora Pro Version 3.0 (32) Date: Thu, 10 Apr 1997 09:13:13 -0400 To: Michael Smith , andreas@klemm.gtn.com (Andreas Klemm) From: dennis Subject: Re: 2.2.1R NFS and FTP load problem FOUND Cc: terry@lambert.org, hackers@FreeBSD.ORG Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" Sender: owner-hackers@FreeBSD.ORG X-Loop: FreeBSD.org Precedence: bulk At 01:12 PM 4/10/97 +0930, Michael Smith wrote: >Andreas Klemm stands accused of saying: >> > >> > A good memory diagnostic is to boot the FreeBSD install; if it fails >> > in 8M or more, you probably have flakey RAM. 8-). >> >> BSDI comes with a RAM tester as add on utiliy on the BSDI CD. >> YOu can dd floppy image to floppy, boot from that floppy ... > >I tested a pile of RAM testers here at one stage while I was having a >running brawl with our then-RAM supplier about some memory I knew was >faulty. > >I didn't find a single one that would tell me the memory was busted, >but it most certainly was. (They eventually relented, stuck it on >their tester, said "oh, well it is actually stuffed" and replaced it. >We shop elsewhere now.) Blaming "bad ram" is like the doctor telling you you "have a virus" when he has no clue what else to tell you....... If you have real bad ram (a dead pin or a bad location(s)), you get consistent failures that go away when you replace the ram or use another machine. If you have "flakey" ram (bad timing, etc) you get random failures and crashes. f you get the same failure on 2 machines with different ram it ain't the ram..... db