Testing RAM for memory issues - Revision history

Aki: Author

2026-07-10T19:19:33Z

Author

← Older revision		Revision as of 13:19, 10 July 2026
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			{{Infobox Author\|a=[[User:Aki\|Aki]]\|w=\|d=Aki1024}}
	This page will guide you towards running a copy of Ubuntu from RAM to test RAM for issues. A tool like [https://www.nirsoft.net/utils/blue_screen_view.html BlueScreenView] may tell you that bluescreens are being caused by ntoskrnl.exe with "Bug Check String" of MEMORY_MANAGEMENT, which would be a reason to be testing RAM.		This page will guide you towards running a copy of Ubuntu from RAM to test RAM for issues. A tool like [https://www.nirsoft.net/utils/blue_screen_view.html BlueScreenView] may tell you that bluescreens are being caused by ntoskrnl.exe with "Bug Check String" of MEMORY_MANAGEMENT, which would be a reason to be testing RAM.

Aki at 17:23, 11 June 2026

2026-06-11T17:23:52Z

← Older revision		Revision as of 11:23, 11 June 2026
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	From the shell we need to install Memory Tester application. Run <code>sudo apt install memtester</code>. This shouldn't take more then a minute or two. An internet connection will be required for this.		From the shell we need to install Memory Tester application. Run <code>sudo apt install memtester</code>. This shouldn't take more then a minute or two. An internet connection will be required for this.

	Now that memtester is installed, we need to know how much RAM we want to test against. <code>free -h</code> will tell us information about the ram. The right column "Available" tells us how many gigabytes we are going to test. Floor round that value to an integer. Run <code>sudo memtester 30G 1<code> where 30 is replaced with the available RAM you saw in the last step.		Now that memtester is installed, we need to know how much RAM we want to test against. <code>free -h</code> will tell us information about the ram. The right column "Available" tells us how many gigabytes we are going to test. Floor round that value to an integer. Run <code>sudo memtester 30G 1</code> where 30 is replaced with the available RAM you saw in the last step. The last 1 option is the number of loops of the test should be ran.

	Running a full test of the memtester can take a while if everything is good. If the word FAILURE appears, you'll know you have found a problem with your RAM, and you don't need to finish the memory tester.		Running a full test of the memtester can take a while if everything is good. If the word FAILURE appears, you'll know you have found a problem with your RAM, and you don't need to finish the memory tester.

Aki: Initial

2026-06-11T17:22:08Z

Initial

New page

This page will guide you towards running a copy of Ubuntu from RAM to test RAM for issues. A tool like [https://www.nirsoft.net/utils/blue_screen_view.html BlueScreenView] may tell you that bluescreens are being caused by ntoskrnl.exe with "Bug Check String" of MEMORY_MANAGEMENT, which would be a reason to be testing RAM.

==Download Ubuntu==
[https://ubuntu.com/download Download page]<br />
I used Ubuntu server. The desktop version might work, but I don't know how to get into the shell on that path.
Page with info on how to create a bootable USB stick: [https://ubuntu.com/tutorials/try-ubuntu-before-you-install#2-getting-started Ubuntu tutorial]

==Boot from USB/DVD Drive==
F12 is a common boot menu. The other steps from the Ubuntu tutorial above will be able to help you better than I can.

==Memtester==
The first screen that comes up when it boots into the try/install image has an option for <code>Try or Install Ubuntu Server</code>. Select that.

This will cause a lot of text to fly by. After it was done, I was on a select language screen installer page. At that point, <code>Ctrl+Alt+F2</code> will drop out of the installer and into the shell.

From the shell we need to install Memory Tester application. Run <code>sudo apt install memtester</code>. This shouldn't take more then a minute or two. An internet connection will be required for this.

Now that memtester is installed, we need to know how much RAM we want to test against. <code>free -h</code> will tell us information about the ram. The right column "Available" tells us how many gigabytes we are going to test. Floor round that value to an integer. Run <code>sudo memtester 30G 1<code> where 30 is replaced with the available RAM you saw in the last step.

Running a full test of the memtester can take a while if everything is good. If the word FAILURE appears, you'll know you have found a problem with your RAM, and you don't need to finish the memory tester.

==Narrowing Down the Bad Stick==
You likely have multiple sticks of RAM, and hopefully only 1 is bad. Turn off and unplug your machine, take out all but 1 stick of RAM, and do the memtester steps again. After about 10 of those test succeed, or at least the test that you saw the error with all the sticks installed, should be enough to validate a stick of ram and move onto the next one.

[[Category:Help]]