Check for problems with your installed memory

By Ed Bott

Every modern version of Windows includes a utility designed to stress-test your physical memory. It's a great troubleshooting tool when you need to diagnose the root cause of crashes, hangs, and other problems that can be caused by defective hardware.

Windows will automatically run the Windows Memory Diagnostic app if it detects evidence of possible problems with RAM. But you can run it on demand any time using the command Mdsched. It's located in the C:WindowsSystem32 folder, so there's no need to type a full path.

As the name suggests, this command schedules the Memory Diagnostic utility to run after a restart. The text-mode utility itself is distinctly old-fashioned looking, and you can adjust its options by pressing F1 and using the Tab and arrow keys. Press F10 to accept the new options and run the test.

When the Memory Diagnostic completes, Windows restarts. In Windows 7, you'll see the results as a pop-up from the system tray. To see the results in other Windows versions, or to review historical results, open Event Viewer, click Windows Logs in the left pane, click System, and look for a recent entry whose Source is listed as MemoryDiagnostics-Results. If you're lucky, you'll see "no errors" as the status. If you see anything else, contact the system manufacturer for additional diagnostic help.

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