Definition: memtest86: A thorough real-mode memory tester. Memtest86 scans your RAM for errors. This tester runs independently of any OS - it is run at computer boot-up, so that it can test *all* of you memory. You may want to look at `memtest' (in package `sysutils'), which allows to test your memory within Linux, but this one won't be able to test your whole RAM. This used to be part of the hwtools package, which still contains another real-mode memory tester optimized for mmx machines (but less actively maintained). It can output a list of bad RAM regions usable by the BadRAM kernel patch, so that you can still use you old RAM with one or 2 bad bits.
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Source: Debian 3.0r0 APT / Linux Dictionary V 0.16
http://www.tldp.org/LDP/Linux-Dictionary/html/index.html
Author: Binh Nguyen linuxfilesystem(at)yahoo(dot)com(dot)au
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