Tried the UBCD for the 1st time. Most of the tests ran ok, but these three failed.
1. (F4) Stress CPU gets Illegal Instruction immediaetly
2. Both versions of DOCMEM just lock up after selecting Quick Test
3. TestMem4 stops with "Loading Step #8 Failed"

My system is a AMD Duron 800 128MB PC133 and is running Windows ME just fine.

All other tests seem to run ok.

I have noticed this also over the past couple of weeks, but kept forgetting to post about it.

I've been thinking about posting to ask what everyone thinks is the best memory and cpu tester in the project. I usually use MemTest86+. After using it on about 50 different sticks of memory I still haven't found one that reports errors?? I wonder if all this memory is really good, or this program isn't testing hard enough?

I also don't care for the CPU or burn in testers either. I understand that they should be a bit basic, but they are just too vague. I wonder if they actually do anything? I did have a processor that registered about 20 errors after an overnight test (can't remember what test I used) but it seems perfectly fine after running more tests, loading Windows onto the system, etc.???

StressCPU requires a CPU that has SSE. Do you have such a CPU?

PS: Eventually, I'll add check for SSE in next version of UBCD, to avoid such problems.

This program tests as hard as it is possible. You either haven't let it run all the tests or all your memory was fine, really.


No.. they don't do anything at all. People write them to fool others, and we have nothing better to do than put useless software in UBCD.
If you don't see fancy windows on the screen that doesn't mean it doesn't do anything.
Read the programs' webpages and eventually contact their author for more information on how they work and what they do (maybe it turns out they actually do something).


Loading Windows is not at all a demanding test so it's not relevant for stability testing.

I test all memory for a minimum of 2 hours, if it's a bigger stick (128 or 256) I try to do them overnight. I only have 2 systems setup for those and 8 hours a day to do that. While they are testing I dig through more stuff and put together systems.

The processor was a P4, I think 1.5Ghz. So I wonder, how do we test a processor then??

I've seen strange things:
For example a system that stumped my boss. It would start 2000, but freeze at the graphic screen when the progress indicator....right before the log in screen.
I noticed the CD drive was acting funny so I replaced it. The used replacement was acting funny also? So I grabbed a new IDE cable for the drive......I finally got to the login screen and into the system!

I was trying to install 98 on a used system I had just put together. It was an image disc that uses Norton to dump an image on the drive and really speeds up installs. Everytime it would get to 16% progress, it would reboot?? The only thing I honestly thought of was the power supply. I replaced it with another used one....it worked! System has been running for days fine.

Oh the wonderful world of used computer parts!!

I remember reading that Win9x/ME are less aggressive on DRAM usage. So you could have a faulty DRAM stick, but you may still be able to run Win9x/ME fine most of the time, but if you try running Win2K/XP, it may not even be able to boot.

The best memory test out there is Gold Memory Pro, see http://www.goldmemory.cz/. Probably the best $29 I ever spent. It found random RAM errors when MEMTEST86 found nothing.

PAG