How to Test Memory with MS Memory Diagnostic
How to Use MS Memory Diagnostic – MS Memory Diagnostic Tutorial
Ok, so you have downloaded MS Memory Diagnostic but now don’t know what to do with program. Follow along and I will have you setup in under 5 minutes.
You should have already downloaded MS Memory Diagnostic (mtinst.exe). If you have not downloaded it, click on the link below to download the program.
01. Save the file to your desktop. One you have downloaded the file double click on it.
02. It will give you an open file prompt. Click “Run” to start the program.
03. This will open the Windows Memory Diagnostic window. You need to click “Accept” to proceed.
04. You will now be given two options.
- Create Startup Disk…
- Save CD Image to Disk…
05. Click “Save CD Image to Disk” and save the file somewhere you can easily find it. I recommend saving it to the desktop. Once you have browsed to the desktop click the “Save” button.
06. It will tell you “file saved successfully”. Click “OK”. You can now press “Cancel” to close the MS Memory Diagnostic setup window.
07. Now find the “windiag.iso” file on your desktop. This file is in ISO format because it will create a “bootable” CD you can use to diagnose your memory. We will need to burn this file to CD now.
08. I recommend using Nero to burn the file to CD since Nero works great with ISO files. If you do not have Nero you can download a trial version of the program from the Nero homepage that will work for burning this ISO file to disk.
Click Here to Download a Trial Version of Nero
09. Once you have Nero on your PC “right” click on the “windiag.iso” file. It will open a new menu.
10. Select the “Open With” option and then choose “Nero“.
11. This should open up Nero and will automatically load the windiag.iso file into the program to be burned. You should be at a “final burn settings” window.
12. Make sure you have a blank CD in your CD-Burner and click the “Burn” button to create the MS Memory Diagnostic Disk.
13. Once the program is done burning the CD it will eject the disk. You now have your bootable MS Memory Diagnostic CD.
14. You can now restart your computer with the CD in the drive, and it should automatically boot into the diagnostic program and start testing your memory.
If it does not start the program and boots back into Windows you need to check in your BIOS to make sure your “boot order” is set so the CD-Rom boots up before the hard drive/s.
How to Set the Boot Order in the BIOS (Coming Soon)
15. Once MS Memory Diagnostic loads it will perform 6 passes on your memory to complete one cycle of the test. It is recommend to let the program perform several test cycles but from my experience bad memory will usually be caught during the first six passes of the test.
MS Memory Diagnostic uses handy colors during the test indicate the program status.
Blue – Indicates a test is in progress.
Green – Indicates one of six passes during the test has been completed.
Red – Indicates a test pass has failed and confirms that you have bad memory.
Congratulations, you are now a pro at memory troubleshooting using MS Memory Diagnostic to test for faulty RAM.
Martin Said,
August 17, 2009 @ 3:33 am
How much memory can be tested? what is the limit?
Is this tester fooled by dual memory?
Is there a more up to date version?
admin Said,
August 17, 2009 @ 7:30 am
Martin,
I do not know if there is a “Limit” Per se. But I recommend only testing 1 stick of memory at a time. This way you can determine which stick of memory is actually bad. Otherwise if you test all your memory simultaneously and you get memory errors you will need to run each stick by itself to determine which one is faulty.
I have tested dual memory with MS Memory Diagnostic without issue, but if you are running into problems there are other free memory diagnostic applications out there. My second recommendation would be Memtest86.
As far as up-to-date software I would recommend checking out some other free memory diagnostic softwares if you feel MS Memory Diagnostic will not meet your needs.
Thanks for the comment!