Is this a sign of memory going bad?

[Rob]

Chuck Robey wrote:
> On Thu, 25 Nov 2004, Haulmark, Chris wrote:
> 
> 
>>Someone broke the silence:
>>
>>
>>>On Thu, Nov 25, 2004 at 04:05:53PM -0500, Lowell Gilbert wrote:
>>>
>>>>Jonathon McKitrick <jcm at FreeBSD-uk.eu.org> writes:
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>>This is what I get from make buildworld.  I've gotten signal 10,
>>>>>11, and now 5.
>>>>>
>>>>>Is this bad memory?
>>>>
>>>>That's a reasonable guess, but the only way to tell for sure is to
>>>>test it.
>>>
>>>Is there a port to do this, or do I have to take it out and take it
>>>somewhere else to get it tested?
>>>
>>>jm
>>
>>sysutils/memtest in the ports.
> 
> 
> I don't want to embarrass anyone here, but something needs to be said.
> Note this next sentence carefully: THERE IS NO SUCH THING AS A WORKING
> MEMORY TEST PROGRAM!!!

What about the BIOS RAM test? I mean the counter that you can interrupt with
the ESC key, at the beginning of the boot process? Will that reliably indicate
problems with the RAM, or is that test also rubbish?

Rob.