hardware testing - e.g. memory - on old hardware

Mykroft Holmes IV mykroft at mykroft.com
Tue Dec 16 17:52:06 PST 2003


paul van den bergen wrote:

>Like most geeks[1] I have a pile of roting hardware at home...  Someone 
>yesterday mentioned (vaguely) about utilities for testing hardware - 
>especially RAM - but presumably this could be extended to other hardware - 
>that would 
>1) tell you if it is OK.
>  
>

This is possible, as long as the old hardware supports the RAM you are 
testing. With the evolution of RAM standards over the last few years, 
and the incompatibilities even among straight SDRAM (PC66/100, 
High-density chips not supported on older systems) it may not do you any 
good.

>2) isolate and by some mechanism make unusable sections of memory perminantly 
>damaged.
>  
>

No Can Do. If there's bad sections, you toss the DIMM/SIMM/Module.

>I figured this would be quite usefull for redundant hardware (where age and 
>lack of replacement parts might tempt one to hold onto hardware as long as 
>possible)
>
>anyone have any idea if there is such a beasty?
>
>
>
>
>[1] I have a theory about geeks.... there are geek-wannabes, geeks, ubergeeks 
>and Gnurus... and the process is progressive and non-linear....
>
>  
>
Adam



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