Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!pyrdc!pyrnj!dasys1!tneff
From: tneff@dasys1.UUCP (Tom Neff)
Newsgroups: comp.binaries.ibm.pc.d
Subject: Re: Brown Bag Memory Test--worthless?
Message-ID: <7758@dasys1.UUCP>
Date: 17 Nov 88 19:44:08 GMT
References: <4022@whutt.ATT.COM>
Reply-To: tneff@dasys1.UUCP (Tom Neff)
Organization: Independent Users Guild
Lines: 19

In article <4022@whutt.ATT.COM> tes@whutt.ATT.COM (STERKEL) 
wonders whether Brown Bag's Memory Test 3.0 isn't worthless,
since it found his RAMs error free after 10,000 iterations
even though he "frequently" gets parity errors in "2 hours"
of use or less.

I wonder if he is aware that there's a difference between
"Parity Error 1" and "Parity Error 2".  Error 1 pertains to
motherboard RAM and virtually always means a bad chip.  Error
2 signals bad parity over the XT/AT bus, and can emanate from
a faulty peripheral card (and often does) rather than from
expansion memory itself.  When I get "Parity Error 2" I usually
start pulling interface cards until I isolate the problem.
Memory tests like the aforementioned BagWare :-) won't detect
these conditions.
-- 
Tom Neff			UUCP: ...!cmcl2!phri!dasys1!tneff
	"None of your toys	CIS: 76556,2536	       MCI: TNEFF
	 will function..."	GEnie: TOMNEFF	       BIX: t.neff (no kidding)