On Sep 7, 2006, at 6:02 PM, Ed Howland wrote:
> If you run it at different times, say after powered down for 12 hours,
> then when powered up for at least 1 hour, do you get the same results.
> If you get different results that aren't even in the same bank's
> address range, it is likely to be the controller chip, otherwise the
> bank.
>
> ...
>
>> We also ran Dell's own memory diagnostic, which didn't produce any
>> errors.
>
> Just putting on my conspiracy hat here, but doesn't Dell benefit as a
> company if their testing system finds fewer errors (i.e. their quality
> must be higher?)
>
> I'd sooner trust another testing software first. Can you move the
> banks around? Do you have another Dell server to swap with?

On this particular system we did all of the suggestions from the  
Memtest86 page[1]:

1) Removing modules
2) Rotating modules
3) Replacing modules

Yet, we still got errors, although we didn't note if they were the  
same errors.  We then did the following tests:

1) ran Memtest on a second PowerEdge 1750.  Result: no errors.
2) removed the RAM from the second machine, installed the RAM from  
the first machine into the second machine, and reran the test.   
Result: no errors.
3) installed the RAM removed from the second machine into the first  
machine and reran the test.  Result: errors.

We haven't checked to see if the errors are the same errors as  
before.  In any case, these tests suggest that something is amiss on  
the MoBo of the first machine.

>> The questions I have are:
>>
>> 1) does are machine have problems with RAM or not?
> Probably, esp. if repeated test runs under diff conditions (uptime,
> heat, cosmic rays exposure) still produce errors.
>> 2) what do the errors that Memtest86 output mean?
> See above
>> 3) why is there a discrepancy between Dell's test and Memtest86?
> Dell probably sucks more at this, maybe on purpose.

Which puts us in a challenging position: how do we convince Dell  
there's something wrong with the machine, especially since the  
machines are coming off warranty in just under a month?

Regards,
- Robert
http://www.cwelug.org/downloads
Help others get OpenSource software.  Distribute FLOSS
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