more info Re: [lug] wierd rh7.2 install failure

[D. Stimits]

Nate Duehr wrote:
...
> There's a program that will exercise the RAM heavily called memtest86
> that boots from a floppy image, and it's interesting to run and see
> where the problems lie, but when a machine starts segfaulting during a
> Linux install like that I usually start by:

http://www.teresaudio.com/memtest86/

Let it run for at least 3 hours or so, 24 if possible.

...
> - Turning off "turbo" stuff or anything strange in the BIOS that tries
> to speed up RAM access.  CAS Latency, etc... depending on motherboard.
> 
...

That's one I'd forgotten about. Ram that is marginal at one speed is
sometimes fully functional at a slower speed. If the bus speed is set
too fast for the ram (and this sometimes happens even when the ram is
rated at a given speed, just because not all manufacturers give the same
quality and tend to push it too far), it'll behave the same way as ram
that is marginal due to failure. Going into the BIOS and making the wait
state and extra 10 ns longer (or extra wait state) could get it going
(not ideal if your ram is supposed to work at the faster speed).

D. Stimits, stimits at idcomm.com