RAM check - Followup question

[Garrett Cooper]

On Fri, 27 Jan 2006, Philip Juels wrote:

> Curious...the system is a Dell Optiplex GX270...RAM system is PC3200 2x512MB 
> DIMMs in a the dual-channel arrangment.  If I run memtest against this setup, 
> I get numerous errors.  However, if run memtest with only one DIMM installed 
> (either one), I get no reported errors.  Would this still be an issue with 
> the DIMMs or something wrong with the mobo?
>
> PJ
>
> PS...pardon me for asking a hardware question on a FreeBSD list :-)
>
> Philip Juels wrote:
>
>> Thanks...I downloaded the iso and memtest confirmed that the system has 
>> memory problems.
>> 
>> PJ
>> 
>> Noel Jones wrote:
>> 
>>> On 1/26/06, Philip Juels <pjuels at rics.bwh.harvard.edu> wrote:
>>> 
>>>> I'm running into random seg faults during KDE and Gnome compilation, and
>>>> I and others on the list suspect faulty RAM.  Are there any utils out
>>>> there that can test/diagnose RAM (aside from the laughable BIOS POST).
>>>>
>>>> 
>>> 
>>> 
>>> http://www.memtest86.com/
>>> http://www.memtest.org/
>>> 
>>> -- 
>>> Noel Jones

I'm not sure if my last reply made it onto the list, but consider checking 
the motherboard to see if any capacitors are bulging (ie tops aren't flat, 
see this article: 
http://forums.us.dell.com/supportforums/board/message?board.id=oplex_other&message.id=16841), 
or see if putting the RAM into a different slot doesn't cure the issue.
-Garrett