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Seriously defective or substandard RAM might render your Mac unbootable, but more commonly it will manifest as application crashes, unpredictable lock-ups and kernel panics. With memory capacity getting larger and larger, more potential for error is introduced. Rember will allow users to run tests to verify that installed memory functions normally.Unfortunately, OS X has no built-in diagnostic that can flag bad RAM as the culprit in such misbehavior, and of course there are other possible causes of such phenomena. For example, I recently troubleshot a Mac laptop that appeared to have memory issues, but the problem turned out to be a faulty processor.
Apple does provide hardware test CDs with most of their products, and there are some third-party utilties for Mac OS X which perform memory testing. . The Apple Hardware Test (AHT) is located either on the Mac OS X Install/Restore disc, or on a separate Hardware Test disk, and can perform some fairly heavy duty memory tests on a computer.If you have it available, it should be one of the first lines of defense in diagnosing computer problems. Although the AHT tests are thorough, they have not proven to find all defective memory. If these tests do not find the problem. If so, it's time to look elsewhere. Micromat's Tech Tool Pro also has a RAM test feature.
Then there is a dedicated RAM-testing utility for the Macintosh OS X platform called Memtest designed to find intermittent memory problems that are the frequent cause of unexplained crashes or freezes in Macs. Memtest can identify random memory problems that commercially available utilities miss completely. Memtest is a command-line program ported from Linux that has proven its reliability on the x86 side for years. This sofware is now available for Mac OS X.
However, Memtest must be run in the Terminal or in Single User Mode, which are terra incognita to many - it's fair to say most - Mac-users.
To the rescue comes Rember, a front-end GUI(Graphical User Interface) to the 'Memtest' command line memory testing program that allows the user to select the number of test loops, as well as the amount of memory to test. There is a 'Log' tab that will allow the user to monitor and save results of memory testing. The user can toggle a 'verbose' switch to limit the amount of output.
Technorati I've consulted counsel that it is preferable to use Memtest itself if possible, since the Mac OS GUI uses a fair chunk of memory itself that is excluded from testing. However, if you find that a problem, Rember is a much more user-friendly solution.
Rember is simplicity itself to use, and the user interface is quite intuitive. Just open the application,
select the amount of memory to test, either by attempting to get as much as possible, or by testing specific amounts. Quit all other applications, including the Finder to free up as much memory as possible before testing. Specify the number of loops to run (techs advise doing at least three). Infinite loops are also configurable. Verbose logging displays test information under the "Log" tab.
Rember System requirements:
Rember v.0.3.3b (Mac OS X, 10.3.9 and higher)
Rember v.0.3b (Mac OS X, 10.3.8 and lower)
Rember v.0.2.1b (Mac OS X, 10.2.x)
This software is free, and is covered under the GNU GPL.
For more information, visit:
http://www.kelleycomputing.net/rember/
If you would like to try Memtest itself in the command line, it can be found here:
http://www.memtestosx.org/
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Charles W. Moore
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