WhyAmIgettingMemoryErrors

Why Am I Getting Memory Errors?

To help understand why you are seeing memory errors, please have a look at HowMemoryEdacHardwareWorks.

The reason that you are seeing problems is very likely to be one of:

• Your RAM is bad
• Your Motherboard is bad
• Your CPU is bad (for CPUs which have the memory controller built into the CPU core, such at the AMD Opteron/Athlon-64)
• The connection between your motherboard and your CPU, or memory module is bad
• Some of your hardware is being operated outside of their design specification, such as:
  • Things are being run too hot
  • Timings are being violated (e.g. running memory too fast, or bad DRAM clock generation)
  • Supply voltages to the critical compontents are too high/low (this may even happend very briefly, as a supply "spike", or "droop")
• You have seen one or more "Single Event Upsets" - see SoftErrors
• The EDAC module is buggy

So Which One Is It Then?

Good question. Time to try some things:

Symptoms

Here are the most likely symptoms.

Problem	Error Addresses	Error Slot or Row	Error Frequency
Bad Memory Module(s)	Single/Few	Probably only 1	May vary if part is marginally out of spec
Bad Motherboard	Probably many	Maybe 1, maybe many	?
Bad Connection	Probably many	1 (bad mem), prob all (bad CPU)	?
Temp out of spec	Probably few	Maybe one, if different mem mfrs/parts	Usually higher, with higher temp
Timings out of spec	Probably few	Maybe one, if different mem mfrs/parts	Usually higher, with higher temp
Voltages out of spec	Probably random	Maybe one, if different mem mfrs/parts	Usually higher at higher system load
Single event upsets	Random	Varies with effective "cross-section" of part	Very rare

Things to try to isolate the problem

Suspected bad module:

• Remove Module
• Move Module to different slot (do errors move with module)
• Move Module to different machine
• See "suspected temp out of spec"
• See "suspected timings out of spec"
• See "voltages out of spec"
• Clean connections

Suspected bad motherboard:

• Check motherboard docs for memory module compatability
• Move modules to different slots
• Clean connections
• Upgrade BIOS
• Select BIOS "fail-safe defaults", or equivalent change settings from there to isolate cause

Suspected bad connection:

• Visually check connectors, pins, modules etc.
• HowToCleanEdgeConnectors

Suspected temp out of spec:

• Measure temp, compare to published specs:
  • Use internal machine sensors (motherboard, hard drive etc.) if possible
  • Use a temperature probe
• Check airflow
• De-dust
• Lower temp:
  • Lower room temp
  • Increase cooling
  • Improve airflow (tidy cables etc.)

Suspected timings out of spec:

• Try different BIOS version
• Set pessimistic memory timings in BIOS
• Compare memory controller timings to DIMM specs, using decode-dimms.pl from the Linux i2c project

Suspected voltage out of spec:

• Check PSU specs vs. total demand of system components
• Swap power supply with another machine
• Fit voltage regulator/spike surpressor to machine power supply

Suspected single event upsets:

• Fit less susceptible components
• Move to a lower altitude, or area with lower cosmic radiation
• Move your data centre underground
• Improve error-reporting utilities to ignore them