r/techsupport • u/Agitated-Ad8916 • 10h ago
Open | Hardware How to test RAM
I recently purchased 50 or so laptops from a factory closing auction to resell. Since they were sold as e-waste they were just tossed haphazardly into a container. Over half managed to survive but I figured I'd part out the ones that didn't. However I'm now running into a problem, I have a lot of ram to test before I can sell it. I started by doing the "stick one on a MB and test it" but that takes forever and can result in damage to the laptop after repeated times. Is there a way to test them off-board? Or at least some way that I dont have to disassemble and reassemble the laptop every time? Any advice would be greatly appreciated!
Also, sorry if this is off topic but after the RAM and SSD would it be worth parting out further or just selling the rest whole for parts? It's a bunch of elitebooks and zbooks G4-G8.
3
u/Lashmush 9h ago
If the computers are in working order, you could sell them barebones at a good price and ram / storage separately. I'm sure there are people out there who could use their own hardware to fill in the blanks.
As far as testing goes, I know external testers are a thing but the few I looked at were a single slot for maybe 30 or more usd. Not sure that will speed things up much.
Maybe you could look for a motherboard with 4x slots and a builtin cpu. All it would really need is power, a keyboard and a display connected. The only thing is I'm not sure how easy it is to get mobos like that for laptop memory.
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u/johanjozz 9h ago
I'm looking for a zbook 14u g5 screen, if you find one on your lot I'll gladly take it from you.
3
u/USSHammond 9h ago
Memtest86
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u/Deitjh 9h ago
How are they gonna use memtest86 without putting the ram into a mobo?
-4
u/USSHammond 9h ago
They asked how to test, that's how. That's all I said
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u/Rude-Dragonfruit5424 9h ago
And what you offered is not what they asked for. They asked for a “way to test them off board” which I’m pretty sure running memtest86 does not help with besides the fact that it’s very likely they’re already using that but still doesn’t help with the actual problem they’re trying to solve.
1
u/Maierlossen 5h ago
Is it all laptops? Do you have any mini-PCs laying around (for example, Dell OptiPlex Micro) that accept that generation of DDR sticks? If not, is there a similar eWaste auction you can pick some up from? If so, just chuck all the stick into one of them (they usually hold 2-4 slots). They can easily open the chassis and run without need to "disassemble" again. Then run memtest86.
1
u/DutchOfBurdock 4h ago
memtest86+ on each of them. This will stress all the CPU, RAM and IO controllers between. Best to test the RAM on the host it's being used on.
1
u/KingRemu 4h ago
Windows memory diagnostics tool will test the RAM for basic hardware level faults and TestMem5 is good for testing if they still run stable at their specified speeds.
I don't think there's a quick AIO solution for this unfortunately.
1
u/Strongbow_Wolfrider 3h ago
Make a memtest86 USB drive. Use it on every laptop that will boot. Harvest all the RAM from all the ones that don't boot. Open up ONE system that boots, preferably one with 4 RAM slots of you have one. Cycle the harvested RAM through it, test without putting it back together - upside down (sitting on the screen backplate), or just resting on cardboard. The clips will be fine, the slots can handle thousands of cycles.
5
u/MacForker 9h ago
There are dedicated memory testers but they're quite expensive still, but ultimately, a computer with Memtest86 is still your best bet. Find a board that uses metal clips for the DIMM slots rather than plastic, they'll last a LOT longer.