Advice - bad RAM

[Chris Mohler]

On Sun, Sep 20, 2009 at 2:59 AM, Rakotomandimby Mihamina
<mihamina at gulfsat.mg> wrote:
> 09/20/2009 04:20 AM, Chris Mohler:
>> curious last time).  But before the install, I ran memtest86 and lo
>> and behold there were 10 errors in the first minute.
>
> RAM should be 0 error.
> Anyway, try to invert sticks places.

Easier said than done - one of the sticks is under the keyboard!  ;^)

Original OEM came with 2x1GB DIMMs.

I purchased one new 2GB stick today and replaced DIMM 0 under the
keyboard.  I removed the easy-to-access DIMM 1 from the bottom of the
unit.  memtest86 passed w/no errors.  Added DIMM 1 back to it's
original position - again no errors.  I then inserted the original
module from DIMM 0 into DIMM 1 and viola - tons of errors.  All
indicators point to one faulty stick of RAM.  Will run memtest
overnight to be sure though.

Thanks everyone for chiming in.  One nice side effect of this
experience is now I know how to use i8kutils to change fan speed
manually.  The memmap trick is also useful in a pinch :)

Chris