MemTest86 Technical Information

DIMM / Chip error decoding (Pro & Site Edition only)

MemTest86 V10 (Pro Edition) supports decoding and identification of the DDR5/DIMM module on which a particular error occurred. This can be used to more efficiently narrow down potentially bad RAM modules. This is done by decoding the memory address with an error and locating the physical hardware that corresponds to that address. The possibiliity of multiple channels, multiple ranks, interleaving & hashing of addresses makes this a complex process.

If supported, MemTest86 reports the decoded DIMM and DRAM chip when memory errors are detected during testing. In additional, a graphical summary report of memory errors for each module is displayed on test completion (shown below), as well as in the HTML report.

Memtest86 address decode results

Note that due to the nature of the tests, accurate slot and chip decoding is not possible for test 6 or test 14. Due to this, no errors found during either test are decoded.

Chip numbering convention

MemTest86 (Site Edition) further supports decoding of the individual memory chip in which the error occurred. The DRAM chip naming (U0...U7) can be adjusted by with config parameter CHIPMAP. See configuration options for details.

The chip ordering convention is illustrated in the images below.

DDR5 UDIMM 1 Rank x8

DDR5 UDIMM 1 Rank x8

DDR5 UDIMM 2 Rank x8

DDR5 UDIMM 2 Rank x8

DDR5 UDIMM 1 Rank x16

DDR5 UDIMM 1 Rank x16

DDR5 SODIMM 1 Rank x8

DDR5 SODIMM 1 Rank x8

DDR5 SODIMM 2 Rank x8

DDR5 SODIMM 2 Rank x8

DDR5 SODIMM 1 Rank x16

DDR5 SODIMM 1 Rank x16

The memory channel, slot and chip number can be identified as below.

Memtest86 address decode example


Supported Platforms

Note: V10 only supports DIMM and Chip decoding for select motherboards, memory and CPU architectures

Currently decoding is available for:

  • Motherboards
    • Z690-LGA1700
    • Z390-LGA1151
    • B360-LGA1151
    • Z490-LGA1200
    • B460-LGA1200
    • Z590-LGA1200
    • B560-LGA1200
    • B660-LGA1700
    • Z790-LGA1700
    • X570-AM4
    • B650-AM5
  • Processors
    • Intel 8th gen Coffee lake processors(1)
    • Intel 9th gen Coffee lake processors(1)
    • Intel 10th gen Comet lake processors(1)
    • Intel 11th gen Rocket lake processors(1)
    • Intel 12th gen Alder lake processors
    • Intel 13th gen Raptor lake processors
    • AMD Ryzen 3000 series (Matisse)
    • AMD Ryzen 5000 series (Vermeer)
    • AMD Ryzen 7000 series (Raphael)(2)
  • Memory
    • 16/32GB Single/Dual rank x8 DDR5 SDRAM
    • 8GB Single rank x16 DDR5 SDRAM
    • 8/16GB Single/Dual rank x8 DDR4 SDRAM
    • 4GB Single rank x16 DDR4 SDRAM
    • UDIMM/SODIMM form factors

1. Currently, the failing DIMM for 1Rx16 DDR4 SDRAM is not correctly identified if both slots of a given channel are occupied.^

2. Failing DIMM can be identified but detecting the failing chip is not yet available^