prime95 and memtest86
 

memtest86 is suggested on several posts where the pc fails without even running prime.

So my question is how the f*rk to you run memtest?
I got put it on a floppy and it wants to reboot the pc then it does nothing. I mean the pc has no nvram in it either so all is lost at reboot. Can someone explain how this is supposed to work?

memtest86 is a standalone application that you run without, or before. loading the os

PM

Make sure the BIOS is set to boot from the floppy before trying to boot from the hard disk

And make sure it's [i]installed[/i] to the floppy - don't just copy the zip/exe to the floppy, you need to unzip [url=http://www.memtest86.com/memt31a.zip]memt31a.zip[/url] somewhere on your harddrive, then run [i]install.bat[/i] to create the bootable floppy disk.

Alternately, if you're not comfortable with floppies, you can download an [url=http://www.memtest86.com/memtest86-3.1a.iso.zip]ISO version[/url] which you can burn a CD from.

it works now thanks /two more questions
 

Ok got some advice from prime95 forum site below. It is now running and looks like an excellent and very usefull program.

And make sure it's installed to the floppy - don't just copy the zip/exe to the floppy, you need to unzip memt31a.zip somewhere on your harddrive, then run install.bat to create the bootable floppy disk.

Alternately, if you're not comfortable with floppies, you can download an ISO version which you can burn a CD from

The problem was I was unzipping it to a floppy that was a windows 98 boot disk. Ok stupid me I think of windows 2000 having boot disks of 4. Anyhow will try it with a formated widows 2k disk next but trying it with a cdrom finally clicked using cd creator to make the cd from the iso image file.

Yada yadda don't need os. the problem I had was being a click on this lazy windows user the command line interface would popup and go away on install.bat but it works if I got into the command line and go to the right folder / path/ and type install.

then it asks for the target disk and voila. Then uplug the hard drive or remove it from bios etc to get it to reboot into this disk as I have seen windows tend to try and boot anyhow.
Thanks this may help me resolve what the source of the problem is with this Fic sd11.

1) Ok the Prime95 saw the L1 cache as 64K where the Memtest86 saw it as 128K. What is could cause this?

2) In trying different possible configurations in hardware I added 1 more dimm of same type 64 megs of pc133 same brand and style from same store labeled same that has worked in past and Windows 2000 promptly boots into a BSOD error.

This board was finicky when it was first bought back in 98 or so at the shop when I was there with friend. Didn't like a particular ram or wouldn't count it.
Its really a pc100 board too I believe first generation athlon 500 with amd chipset 751 memtest says, so also first generation of Fic SD11.

3) one other weird thing is it didn't like the first psu 420 watt that came with case new for this recently. Seemed to crash durring the windows install till I put a new 450 other one in. This one seems to turn on by itself at times just moving box around. This is even without switch connected to motherboard. Weird! also no hotkey in bios set to start this thing up like later boards and just moved box started it. Hmm maybe something else flaky?


Is on test #7 now with no errors so far in memtest86.

Any idea's on the L1 difference and the bsod error?