Vista integrated Memory Tester

Hello there! I recently had a bad memory stick that was randomly crashing apps and services and vista recommended that I use it's integrated memory testing tool. I did so and it rebooted to run the test. Surely enough it detected RAM problems as early as 0,1% of the test, so I went to the manufacturer and they replaced the bad module and all was fine. I ran the memory tester again and it passed the test with no errors. the problem is that now, every time I turn on the computer, the memory test starts again, although it never detects any problems. I tried the memory tester on my other pc, to see if it was an issue and sure enough, as soon as I run it once, it stays on the boot initialization sequence forever. Now I have 2 computers that keep running memory tester every time I turn them on. I am not too comfortable with the new BCD and the bcdedit tool in vista, to know how to remove it from the startup sequence. So my question is: Does anyone know how to prevent memory tester from running every time I turn on my computer? It's not affecting anything on my computer, it's just annoying. thanks in advance for any attention dedicated to this matter

Hello there!

I recently had a bad memory stick that was randomly crashing apps and services and vista recommended that I use it's integrated memory testing tool. I did so and it rebooted to run the test. Surely enough it detected RAM problems as early as 0,1% of the test, so I went to the manufacturer and they replaced the bad module and all was fine. I ran the memory tester again and it passed the test with no errors.

the problem is that now, every time I turn on the computer, the memory test starts again, although it never detects any problems. I tried the memory tester on my other pc, to see if it was an issue and sure enough, as soon as I run it once, it stays on the boot initialization sequence forever. Now I have 2 computers that keep running memory tester every time I turn them on.

I am not too comfortable with the new BCD and the bcdedit tool in vista, to know how to remove it from the startup sequence.

So my question is: Does anyone know how to prevent memory tester from running every time I turn on my computer?

It's not affecting anything on my computer, it's just annoying.

thanks in advance for any attention dedicated to this matter

I am not that familiar with that particular test but to control processes that startup automatically, I know of a few tools to enable/disable.
First run msconfig & also under the control panel, open up the administrative tools, and then services. Perhaps this test is under one of the two. If it is under services you can choose to either disable it or set it to manual, I would set it for manual. If it is under msconfig just uncheck the box and click ok. Windows will prompt you to restart your computer but you don't have to. If it isn't under either of these options I don't know what to tell you. Hope this helps.

One more thing, there is a pretty cool GUI driven BCD editor called EasyBCD that I use in XP but that also works in Vista, however I don't know if it will help with your problem but check it out anyway if you think that it is a boot up thing. You can check it out here: http://neosmart.net/dl.php?id=1. Did I mention that it is free?

Hi ideafix,

Here is a great little software program that has display startup info at your fingertips………….Suggest you try it to reduce startup activity. It is also great as Scotty is on patrol and he is one I do have in my startup folder.

Hope this helps you.

kind regards,

Installing WinPatrol is quick and easy.
When you run WinPatrol you may not notice any changes at all. The only visible change you'll see is Scotty on guard down in your system tray. That means WinPatrol is quietly on patrol and you'll only know it's running if there's some kind of potentially dangerous change made to your system.
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Hi again and thanks for your replies! I have tried the apps recommended by both of you but none lists the memory testing tool. The path to launch the tool is "%SystemRoot%\system32\MdSched.exe" and it configures your boot initialization sequence to run the test the next time you boot it. The problem is that after completion it doesn't remove that entry and it will start every time you turn the pc on. The memory tester is not a service, nor does it show up under any of the tabs using MSconfig. It seems to be a DOS-like tool that runs on system boot. I'd tell you to give it a try and run it, but then you just may end up like me, lol

Hi ideafix,

Here is a link that may help and a quote from it

The default is set to Standard.In addition to these choices you can choose to disable or enable the cache. The default is set to use the cache as it is used normally.You can also choose how many times you want to run the RAM tests. The default is two.

Using Google came up with the above.

kind regards,

hmm.. thanks tallin, but that's not it. That's the walkthrough on how to configure the memory tester if you wish to customize the way the tests are run, what types of tests should be ran and how many times they should be repeated. As for the part that says "…choose how many times you want to run the RAM tests…" - this refers to the number of times the tests should be repeated during each testing session, not the number of sessions themselves. "The default is two", which means that every time I boot my pc, a testing session starts and the battery of tests run twice. I have used google intensively, plus I posted in the MS discussion groups for Vista, but so far, nothing…

Oh gee, darn it ……………….sorry I could not be of more help and it seems so simple to correct. Are you sure you cannot disable or set it to manual in your Services? kind regards,

I'm afraid not. it's not a service, so it doesn't show up under services. A service would normally run under windows, after boot, but the memory diagnostic tool is a DOS-like tool that is loaded *before* windows starts up (you wouldn't want a memory diagnostic tool running while there are tons of services, processes and other apps residing in the memory) It really looks like this should be an easy to solve issue, but the way BCD is in Vista, I can't for the life of me figure out how to really see and edit a list of apps that are ran at system boot, (like boot.ini, autoexec.bat & config.sys were on older OSes) I do appreciate all the effort you and others are putting into this matter and I promise that if I find a solution to this, I will post back, so that others who may have the issue (or have gotten it by reading this post and trying it out ) may get rid of it too.

I do appreciate all the effort you and others are putting into this matter and I promise that if I find a solution to this, I will post back, so that others who may have the issue (or have gotten it by reading this post and trying it out ) may get rid of it too.

We would appreciate the above - very often we try to help and cannot as in this case, and never really hear if a fix was affected in the longer scheme of things.One would think Microsoft would come to the party for you, but then "pigs might fly also" [external image: Posted Image]

kind regards,

Hi I am no genius with Vista, but could it be possible to stop it through some of the options in the safe boot screen? (the screen right after you hit F8) Like Debugging mode and directory service mode…… Regards Abydos

Hello there!

I recently had a bad memory stick that was randomly crashing apps and services and vista recommended that I use it's integrated memory testing tool. I did so and it rebooted to run the test. Surely enough it detected RAM problems as early as 0,1% of the test, so I went to the manufacturer and they replaced the bad module and all was fine. I ran the memory tester again and it passed the test with no errors.

the problem is that now, every time I turn on the computer, the memory test starts again, although it never detects any problems. I tried the memory tester on my other pc, to see if it was an issue and sure enough, as soon as I run it once, it stays on the boot initialization sequence forever. Now I have 2 computers that keep running memory tester every time I turn them on.

I am not too comfortable with the new BCD and the bcdedit tool in vista, to know how to remove it from the startup sequence.

So my question is: Does anyone know how to prevent memory tester from running every time I turn on my computer?

It's not affecting anything on my computer, it's just annoying.

thanks in advance for any attention dedicated to this matter

Hi ideafix,

I secured this reply from another forum having posted your problem as above.

The link below provides a tutorial for using the "Vista Memory Diagnostics Tool".. Although I haven't performed the steps mentioned, it appears like you should be able to proceed through the instructions, through the Windows boot manager to the Windows Memory Diagnostic Tool, the click the "F1" key to select specific setting options (Windows Memory Diagnostics Tool-Options).. At the bottom of the screen you should see an option to "Set the Total number of times the test mix will repeat". It appears like the 0=infinite is the default.. I'm guessing that changing that option to 1 should cause it to run once only..

http://www.bleepingcomputer.com/tutorials/tutorial146.html

Hope this helps.

Please let me know if this helps you…………….thanks

kind regards,

Hmmm… no… this is the same as what you already suggested… it refers to the number of passes the tool should perform.

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As you can see here, each of the 3 configurable items (Test Mix; Cache; Pass Count) has a description below it, and "Set the Total number of times the test mix will repeat" is a description for Pass Count - the number of passes for each testing session, which can be between 0 and 99 (where 0 equals an infinite loop of tests within the current testing session) and where 2 is the default number of passes.

This is annoying, I know, but we'll get there eventually

Ok, I was getting fed up with it, so I decided to take matters into my own hands and learn the basics of BCDedit. After tampering around a bit, I was able to notice a difference between my BCD and that of a PC that was booting Vista normally. See the following screens:

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The one on the left is my BCD and the one on the right is a "healthy" single-OS BCD.

As you clearly can see, on my BCD, there's a bootsequence entry

BCD wasn't being updated after a successful test run and the bootsequence {memdiag} entry remained in BCD, thus creating a never ending cycle of memory tests at startup.

The solution to this is quite simple, however. You just have to rewrite the BCD in order to delete the bootsequence {memdiag} entry.
For that, you have to run the command line prompt in administrator mode and type bcdedit /bootsequence {memdiag} /remove .

Do not change the toolsdisplayorder {memdiag} entry as this is what allows the memory diagnostic tool to be used when you are booting using boot manager (if you press spacebar when the screen goes black right after the BIOS post or if you have dual/multiboot).

If you then restart your pc, you will notice that Vista is now booting as it should.

I hope this helps anyone in a similar situation.

And thanks for all your input

Hi Ideafix, You have done wonderfully well, solving your own problem. You are clearly well trained in the tech side of computers. I have posted your problem around the internet forums to try to assist and so far have drawn a blank! Thanks for posting back as your conclusion to your problem may help others in the future, Great work and again our thanks for the reply. kind regards,

my pleasure I know how frustrating some "little" issues can be Keep up the good work