How To Check Ram Slots Vista

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There may be instances where your computers RAM or memory starts giving you problems and you want to know the stability of your RAM. Windows Vista comes with a built in memory diagnostic tool that can help scan your RAM or memory. If you are overclocking or tweaking your RAM settings in BIOS then you can use this tool to do RAM or memory stability check.

A dialog will pop up asking if you want to reboot and check for problems now, or check for problems the next time you restart. If you choose to restart now, Vista will reboot into the memory diagnostic utility: You can also get to this utility directly from the boot manager menu. You’ll notice it at the bottom of the window in the screenshot.

There are two ways you can access this tool:

Accessing the Memory Diagnostic Tool from boot menu
Accessing the Memory Diagnostic tool within Window Vista

How to access Memory Diagnostic Tool from boot menu

1. Power up your computer and keep pressing F8 key until you see the Boot menu option

2. Now use your TAB key to select memory diagnostic tool in the bottom of the screen.

This method is applicable if your computer has only Windows Vista installed. If you have a dual boot system then you would be automatically presented the boot menu once you power up your computer. Once you are presented with Boot menu you can access the memory diagnostic tool by pressing F8 key.

How to access Memory Diagnostic Tool from within Windows Vista

1. Go to Control Panel by Start Menu > Settings > Control Panel

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2. In the Control Panel select the “Administrative Tools”

3. Select the Memory Diagnostic Tool from Administrative Tools

4. The Memory Diagnostic Tool will offer two options to select. You can choose immediate restart of your computer or schedule to run the memory diagnostic tool to run at next reboot.

What are the various options that Memory Diagnostic Tool provides?

The memory diagnostic tool provides three options to choose from:

Basic: MATS+, INVC, and SCHCKR (cache enabled)
Standard: LRAND, Stride6 (cache enabled), CHCKR3, WMATS+, and WINVC
Extended: LRAND, Stride6 (cache enabled), CHCKR3, WMATS+, and WINVC, ERAND, Stride6 (cache disabled), and CHCKR8

By default the memory diagnostic tool uses the Basic option and 2 passes to choose.

After the tests are completed the resulted would be presented to you after booting into Vista.

Memory Diagnostic Tool in Action:

Click the pics below to enlarge

Update Nov 4, 2007:

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You can use this tool with Windows XP as well. Download this tool from here and use it in Windows XP.

Though there are lot of freeware utilities available to these tests but we should appreciate the fact that Microsoft included this tool with Windows Vista