Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!pallas!dgl292
From: dgl292@pallas.athenanet.com (Doug Lee)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc
Subject: Re: Free Utilities
Summary: Changing RAM refresh rate is DANGEROUS!
Keywords: RAM refresh rate
Message-ID: <313@pallas.athenanet.com>
Date: 15 Mar 90 19:55:57 GMT
References: <72@demott.COM>
Reply-To: dgl292@pallas.UUCP (Doug Lee)
Organization: Athenanet, Inc., Springfield, IL
Lines: 21
Organization:

In article <72@demott.COM> kdq@demott.COM (Kevin D. Quitt) writes:
>    REFTEST allows you to adjust the DRAM refresh rate on your machine
>to optimize performance.  Based on its numbers, Norton's si, and my own
>benchmark suite, my machine now exhibits a 4.1% speed increase.  BTW,

CAREFUL!!!  Adjusting the RAM refresh rate can, indeed, produce a speed
increase.  However, changing it too much can, in my experience, cause some
WEIRD problems.  On my machine, which is a Zeos 12 MHz 286, a refresh rate
which was too slow caused a slow death of memory (i.e., bits started flipping
at random!!!).  The trouble is NOT something you are guaranteed to see
immediately; sometimes I could run for several minutes before noticing
strange behavior.

I have no way of knowing how other machines will respond to an overly slow
refresh rate, but I would advise caution to anyone who tries to slow it
down beyond the rate recommended by the manufacturer (which, BTW, seems
often to be slower than the rate IMPLEMENTED by the manufacturer).

Good luck.

Doug Lee  (dgl292@athenanet.com or uunet!pallas!dgl292)