Why Memory Fails and What You Can Do About It

Trusting your documents to a personal computer can be risky. Hard disks crash, viruses strike and RAM fails. The risk of suffering serious setbacks, though, can be substantially reduced by taking some easy precautions. Just as you would back-up your hard disk and run an anti virus utility, you should periodically test your system RAM.

Defective memory can cause data loss, prevent your monitor from displaying properly or even cause your hard disk to crash. Every element in your system depends on RAM (random access memory). Unfortunately, RAM fails, and when it does, lost work is an inevitable result.

We expect that most machines will break eventually. We look at all the moving parts -- think about hard drives spinning rapidly for hours on end, car engines running for thousands of miles -- and we know that eventually the machine will stop working. We see it happen every day.

The same is true of system memory. RAM may not spin, chug or move, but it is acted upon in countless ways -- ways that, given RAM's fragile nature, can have devastating effects.

These are some of the most common (though by no means all) causes of system memory failure:

Static Electricity

If you have opened your personal computer, you know that under the metal case are relatively vulnerable electronics. Brushing against system RAM while carrying even the slightest static charge can destroy the chip by subjecting the chips to momentary discharges of excessive electricity.

Power Surges

We all know about the devastating effect lightning can have on a PC. While a $20 surge protector may reduce risk, it does not eliminate it. In fact, power brown-outs -- where power levels dip momentarily (because somebody upstairs just started the blow dryer) -- are not handled by most surge protectors and can be just as damaging over time as surges. Actually, your PC is hit with a power surge every time you turn it on and electricity rushes into the cold system. Even when these brown-outs and surges do not cause immediate problems, they can stress the semiconductor chips, which has a cumulative damaging effect.

Dust, Smoke and Pet Hair

Did you ever wonder why the television is usually the dustiest spot in the house? Dust and other air impurities are attracted by the electrical charge inside appliances like your TV and PC where they settle. Over time, these materials can build up enough to carry electrical charges and "short" the PC's circuitry. The dust also forms a blanket, diminishing the electronics' ability to release heat and stay cool. This results in heat stress and additional potential damage.

Temperature Changes

Put your hand on the back of a PC that has been running for several hours. It is very warm. As with all things, PC components expand when their temperatures increase. Components of different materials (like the metal RAM prongs and the plastic material it is attached to) expand and contract at different rates. Listen closely to your PC creak when turned off after hours of use. This expansion and contraction can, over time, stress the system RAM as well as the connections between the RAM and the other components.

What can I do to reduce the chances of losing work because of bad memory?

Though we can take precautions, there are no guaranteed methods for eliminating all chances of memory error. What we can do, though, is minimize our chances of losing work because of defective memory by using RAMexam to test the memory regularly.

RAMexam is a sophisticated, yet easy to use, software utility that tests system RAM and identifies defective memory before it leads to lost work and data. While the causes of memory failure are many, the types of RAM failure are few. RAMexam operates using the knowledge of these limited ways that memory fails.

RAMexam uses an underlying consistent fault model to detect RAM errors efficiently even in complex, multiple fault situations. Using sophisticated strategies of writing and reading bit patterns in memory -- where each strategy targets a specific type of failure -- RAMexam provides faster and more effective testing.

Ways to use RAMexam

RAMexam may be used in several ways:

• You can run RAMexam every time you boot your system by including RAMexam in your AUTOEXEC.BAT. Use the command line switch for a "Quick" test if you run RAMexam like this. Running RAMexam at system start-up time adds between a few seconds and a few minutes to the time it takes to boot your system, depending on how much memory you have and the speed of your system. RAMexam includes RSetup, a utility that can configure your system testing automatically.
• You can run RAMexam as often as you like from the DOS prompt. RAMexam's interactive interface and on-line help make it easy to choose the appropriate test.
• RAMexam can test only available memory (you wouldn't want a memory tester to write through existing data in memory). You can use RAMexam for more extensive testing by running it on a "clean" system without resident software such as disk caches, RAM disks or memory managers. Running RAMexam without resident software active is the most effective way to test your system. The MAKEBOOT program, included with RAMexam, creates a bootable diskette for this purpose. Booting from this diskette is an easy way to fully test your system memory.

A Word About Windows & Memory Testing

When Microsoft Windows starts up, one of the first things it does is to grab almost every available byte of system memory. Conventional memory, high DOS memory (UMBs) and extended memory are all allocated. Windows users should be especially zealous about doing periodic RAM testing because Windows is one of the few applications to use the multiple megabytes of RAM on most systems. Frequently, a system will run without incident until Windows loads -- at which point Windows accesses a byte of defective RAM that previously had never been used. Whatever version of Windows you use, you should test the RAM on your system first so that you can find defective RAM before Windows trips on it.

A Note for OS/2 Users

RAMexam can test the memory on systems that run OS/2 -- in fact RAMexam will test RAM on any Intel 386, 486 or Pentium compatible microprocessor regardless of the operating system. The user does need access to a system running DOS so that they can first install RAMexam on that system and use MAKEBOOT.COM to create a bootable test diskette. (MAKEBOOT will not run in an OS/2 DOS session because OS/2 does not support the necessary DOS SYS.COM command.) Once created, the diskette can be used to test any Intel 386 compatible or above based system.

What else can I do to avoid memory errors?

As with most of life, a byte of prevention is worth a megabyte of cure. Maintaining a proper environment for your PC can significantly reduce the chance of memory failure. Here are some tips:

• Work in an environment that is as dust free as possible.
• Keep pets away from computer work areas.
• Do not smoke in the same room as your PC.
• Plug your PC into its own electrical circuit.
• Use a surge protector or, even better, an uninterruptible power supply (UPS).
• If you use a modem or fax board, make sure that you use a telephone line surge protector.
• Always use a grounding cable when opening your PC.

Even with these precautions, there is no guarantee that RAM will not fail. RAM testing, though, will significantly reduce the risk of losing work to defective RAM.

RAMexam is the only dedicated RAM testing utility available. Unlike system diagnostic utilities that are designed to identify problems after you experience symptoms, RAMexam is designed to detect problems before you suffer their consequences.

RAMexam is available directly from Qualitas for only $24.00. Place your order now!

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