Change Log

Enhancements in v3.4 (2/Aug/2007)

  • Added an error summary display.
  • Added support for additional chipsets. (from Memtest86+ v1.70).
  • Additions and corrections for CPU detection.
  • Support for memory module information reporting.
  • Misc bug fixes.

Enhancements in v3.3 (12/Jan/2007)

  • Added support for additional chipsets. (from Memtest86+ v1.60)
  • Changed Modulo 20 test (#8) to use a more effective random pattern rather than simple ones and zeros.
  • Fixed a bug that prevented testing of low memory.
  • Added an advanced menu option to display SPD info (only for selected chipsets).
  • Updated CPU detection for new CPUs and corrected some bugs.
  • Reworked online command text for better clarity.
  • Added a fix to correct a Badram pattern bug.

Enhancements in v3.2 (11/Nov/2004)

  • Added two new, highly effective tests that use random number patterns (tests 4 and 6)
  • Reworked the online commands:
    • Changed wording for better clarity
    • Dropped Cache Mode menu
  • Updated CPU detection for newer AMD, Intel and Cyrix CPUs
  • Reworked test sequence:
    • Dropped ineffective non cached tests (Numbers 7-11)
    • Changed cache mode to "cached" for test 2
    • Fixed a bug that did not allow some tests to be skipped
    • Added bailout for Bit fade test
  • Error reports are highlighted in red to provide a more vivid error indication
  • Added support for a large number of additional chipsets (from Memtest86+ v1.30)
  • Added an advanced setup feature that with new chiset allows memory timings to be altered from inside Memtest86. (from Memtest86+ v1.30)
  • Misc bugfixes and code cleanup.

Enhancements in v3.1a (11/Mar/2004)

  • Added processor detection for newer AMD processors
  • Added new "Bit Fade" extended test
  • Fixed a compile time bug with gcc version 3.x.
  • E7500 memory controller ECC support
  • Added support for 16bit ECC syndromes
  • Option to keep the serial port baud rate of the boot loader

Enhancements in v3.0 (22/May/2002) - Provided by Eric Biederman

  • Testing of more than 2gb of memory is at last fixed (tested with 6Gb)
  • The infrastructure is to poll ecc error reporting chipset regisets, and the support has been done for some chipsets.
  • Uses dynamic relocation information records to make itself PIC instead of requiring 2 copies of memtest86 in the binary.
  • The serial console code does not do redundant writes to the serial port. Very little slow down at 9600 baud.
  • You can press ^l or just l to get a screen refresh, when you are connecting and unconnecting a serial cable.
  • Netbooting is working again
  • LinuxBIOS support (To get the memory size)
  • Many bugfixes and code cleanup

Enhancements in v2.9 (29/Feb/2002)

  • The memory sizing code has been completely rewritten. By default Memtest86 gets a memory map from the BIOS that is now used to find available memory. A new online configuration option provides three choices for how memory will be sized, including the old "probe" method. The default mode generally will not test all of memory, but should be more stable. See the Memory Sizing section for details.
  • Testing of more than 2gb of memory should now work. A number of bugs were found and corrected that prevented testing above 2gb. Testing with more than 2gb has been limited and there could be problems with a full 4gb of memory.
  • Memory is divided into segments for testing. This allow for frequent progress updates and responsiveness to interactive commands. The memory segment size has been increased from 8 to 32mb. This should improve testing effectivness but progress reports will be less frequent.
  • Minor bug fixes

Enhancements in v2.8 (18/Oct/2001)

  • Eric Biederman reworked the build process making it far simpler and also to produce a network bootable ELF image.
  • Re-wrote the memory and cache speed detection code. Previously the reported numbers were inaccurate for intel CPU's and completely wrong for the Athlon and Duron.
  • Disabled the serial console by default since it was slowing down testing.
  • Added CPU detection for Pentium 4
  • Minor bug fixes

Enhancements in v2.7 (12/Jul/2001)

  • Expanded workaround for errors caused by BIOS USB keyboard support to include test #5.
  • Re-worked L1 / L2 cache detection code to provide clearer reporting.
  • Fixed an obvious bug in the computation of cache and memory speeds.
  • Added a menu option to disable the serial console.
  • Changed on-line menu to stay in the menu between option selections.
  • Fixed bugs in the test restart and redraw code.
  • Adjusted code size to fix compilation problems with RedHat 7.1.
  • Misc updates to the documentation.

Enhancements in v2.6 (25/May/2001)

  • Added workaround for errors caused by BIOS USB keyboard support.
  • Fixed problems with reporting of 1 GHZ + processor speeds.
  • Fixed Duron cache detection.
  • Added screen buffer so that menus will work correctly from a serial console.
  • The Memtest86 image is now built in ELF format.

Enhancements in v2.5 (13/Dec/00)

  • Enhanced CPU and cache detection to correctly identify Duron CPU and K6-III 1mb cache.
  • Added code to report cache-able memory size.
  • Added limited support for parity memory.
  • Support was added to allow use of on-line commands from a serial port.
  • Dropped option for changing refresh rates. This was not useful and did not work on newer motherboards.
  • Improved fatal exception reporting to include a register and stack dump.
  • The pass number is now displayed in the error report.
  • Fixed a bug that crashed the test when selecting one of the extended tests.

Enhancements in v2.4

  • The error report format was reworked for better clarity and now includes a decimal address in megabytes.
  • A new memory move test was added (from Robert Redelmeier's CPU-Burn)
  • The test sequence and iterations were modified.
  • Fixed scrolling problems with the BadRAM patterns.
  • Updated and improved CPU and cache detection.

Enhancements in v2.3

  • Measurement and reporting of memory and cache performance was added.
  • All of the test routines were rewritten in assembler to improve both error detection and speed.
  • A progress meter was added to show pass and test completion.
  • The screen layout was reworked to hopefully be more readable.
  • Support for creating BadRAM patterns was added.
  • An error summary option was added to the online commands.

Enhancements in v2.2

  • Added two new address tests.
  • Added an on-line command for setting test address range.
  • Optimized test code for faster execution (-O3, -funroll-loops and -fomit-frame-pointer).
  • Added and elapsed time counter.
  • Adjusted menu options for better consistency.

Enhancements in v2.1

  • Fixed a bug in the CPU detection that caused the test to hang or crash with some 486 and Cryrix CPU's
  • Added CPU detection for Cyrix CPU's
  • Extended and improved CPU detection for Intel and AMD CPU's
  • Added a compile time option (BIOS_MEMSZ) for obtaining the last memory address from the BIOS. This should fix problems with memory sizing on certain motherboards. This option is not enabled by default. It may be enabled by default in a future release.

Enhancements in v2.0

  • Added new Modulo-20 test algorithm.
  • Added a 32 bit shifting pattern to the moving inversions algorithm.
  • Created test sections to specify algorithm, pattern, cache and refresh rate.
  • Improved test progress indicators.
  • Created popup menus for configuration.
  • Added menu for test selection.
  • Added CPU and cache identification.
  • Added a "bail out" feature to quit the current test when it does not fit the test selection parameters.
  • Re-arranged the screen layout and colors.
  • Created local include files for I/O and serial interface definitions rather than using the sometimes incompatible system include files.
  • Broke up the "C" source code into four separate source modules.

Enhancements in v1.5

  • Some additional changes were made to fix obscure memory sizing problems.
  • The 4 bit wide data pattern was increased to 8 bits since 8 bit wide memory chips are becoming more common.
  • A new test algorithm was added to improve detection of data pattern sensitive errors.

Enhancements in v1.4

  • Changes to the memory sizing code to avoid problems with some motherboards where Memtest86 would find more memory than actually exists.
  • Added support for a console serial port. (thanks to Doug Sisk)
  • On-line commands are now available for configuring Memtest86 on the fly (see On-line Commands).

Enhancements in v1.3

  • Scrolling of memory errors is now provided. Previously, only one screen of error information was displayed.
  • Memtest86 can now be booted from any disk via lilo.
  • Detection of up to 4gb of memory has been fixed is now enabled by default. This capability was clearly broken in v1.2a and should work correctly now but has not been fully tested (4gb PC's are a bit rare).
  • The maximum memory size supported by the motherboard is now being calculated correctly. In previous versions there were cases where not all of memory would be tested and the maximum memory size supported was incorrect.
  • For some types of failures the good and bad values were reported to be same with an Xor value of 0. This has been fixed by retaining the data read from memory and not re-reading the bad data in the error reporting routine.
  • APM (advanced power management) is now disabled by Memtest86. This keeps the screen from blanking while the test is running.
  • Problems with enabling & disabling cache on some motherboards have been corrected.