Memtest86 is a thorough, stand alone memory test for x86 architecture computers. BIOS based memory tests are a quick, cursory check and often miss many of the failures that are detected by Memtest86.

Limitations: This is a .ISO file. You will need a blank CD\DVD and a program that can burn an ISO image. ImgBurn is one of the better choices and simple to use.

USB version can be downloaded here.

Changelog:

Added a new boot trace option that single steps through the testing process and displays messages and data that is valuable in diagnosing problems with test execution. A large number of trace points have been added in key portions of the code (in particular SMP startup routines) to provide visibility of obscure failures. This feature will allow non-technical users to provide troubleshooting data for better test stability.

Added a new One Pass feature. This feature runs the complete test once and then exits, but only if there were no errors. This provides a convenient method for unattended testing. One Pass may be enabled via a boot option or via an on-line command.

Images for CD, USB key and Floppy disks now use Syslinux for booting and include a variety of standard options and two previous versions of Memtest86. The new boot time options may be specified at the boot prompt.

A feature has been added to allow customization of the list of tests to be run. The test list may be specified via a boot option or via an on-line command.

A feature has been added to restrict specific CPUs that are to be used for testing. The maximum number of CPUs may be specified or a 32 bit CPU mask may be specified. These are enabled with boot options.

A number of problem with use of on-line commands when testing with more than one CPU have been fixed.

A selection of boot time parameters are were added. These options enable boot tracing, the One Pass feature, limit the maximum number of CPUs to use, specify a CPU mask to select CPUs to be used and setup serial console parameters.

Improved and extended CPU identification routines. Newer CPUID based method is now used to determine cache sizes for Intel CPUs for better accuracy and support-ability.

Routines for calculating cache and memory speeds have been reworked for better accuracy. An overflow problem has been fixed that resulted in no memory speed being reported for CPUs with large L3 caches.

Fixed some errors in the crash reporting routines.

Misc minor fixes and code cleanup.