Quote Originally Posted by normnet View Post
I'm tempted to write a windows program which would load a very large array to utilize a good share of RAM and load the array with all binary 1's.
Then wait a few days and on button click test if the data has been retained as all 1's.

PC's require a reboot after a period of time or they become buggy which also may indicate RAM isn't always meant for holding data long term.

Norm
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I agree with your previous post in the context of minor differences of opinion, it is of course, simply a discussion after all - (I think for the purposes of this discussion we can rule out RAM issues in hardware - but more on that below, also, win98 et al, well, that in computer terms is neolithic. lol..

I am always willing to learn, and that is part and parcel of a discussion. So I welcome the input.

On your above quote,
Again, I simply do not agree that hardware is the culprit - or indeed that a reboot is 'required', - a reboot may become necesaary in certain situation though -
PC's require a reboot after a period of time or they become buggy which also may indicate RAM isn't always meant for holding data long term.
But, a reboot may WELL be required due to continuously running programs behaving badly, or indeed, undetected OS / driver / Kernal issues. (Most likely nowadays is the first ! - I am not for one minute saying the OS is 'perfect' - I do not believe it is possible to say that today - and probably will not in my lifetime
I do not think there is ONE program out there, be it an APP or OS or DRIVER etc that is 100% perfect and can cope with 100% of anything the user can do or situations that the designers never envisaged.

However, I DO beleive very certainly, that a ram issue (hardware) would never ever be selective and repeatable - in the context of it would not cause the same issue to be repeated.
YES, ram failure can occur, but that tends to lead to a whole different scenario , one of unpredictable system crashes. or often failure to boot, or, a crash on a certain level of ram usage. I do not beleive ram gradually 'weakens' it's retention value with time.
Thermal issues CAN and do cause ram failure, and other processor or sub processor failure - but they are again, totally unpredictable. NOT repeatable in a specific app.

Go ahead, and write the test you suggest - by all means - I would be interested in your results.
RAM - IS meant to hold data for long term - we used to have ECC ram, but no longer used really in any mainstream, we have replaced it to a certain extent with CRC, checksums etc etc -

The bottom line is really that the MOST likely cause of these issues is an APP that doesn't do it's housekeeping correctly.
Joe