asus eee pc 1101HA: memtest error

[Tim]

On Mon, 2009-12-21 at 11:16 -0800, Colin Brace wrote:
> Just now I am running memtest from the Live OS (F12) on an USB stick.
> It has run now for some 8 hours, and during the 2nd pass I got an
> error message:
>  
> Tst: 7
> Pass: 2
> Failing address: 00007ba7454 - 123.6MB
> Good: 2aa1e9b
> Bad: 0aa1e19b
> Err-Bits: 20000000
> Count: 1
> Chan:
>  
> This netbook came with a factory-installed 2GB SIMM. Am I now
> justified in returning it to Acer as defective?

Can you repeat the error?  If it's a random failure, it mightn't be the
RAM.  And unless you can prove a consistent RAM problem, it's harder to
prove that it should be replaced, and much harder to convince a vendor
that they have to.  If it fails the memory test, it'll also fail in
normal operations.  Don't let a vendor claim a memory test isn't
important.

For my money, what I buy has to have zero errors.  I've put up with a
computer with crap RAM once before, and I never intend to do that again.
It makes everything unreliable.  You don't know whether your RAM caused
a problem, or the software had a bug, but you can guarantee that you'll
get more crashes than you'd otherwise have.  I don't accept vendors that
make claims that a certain percentage of errors is acceptable, let
*them* have the faulty goods if they don't care.

-- 
[tim at localhost ~]$ uname -r
2.6.27.25-78.2.56.fc9.i686

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