Memory Test
Symptoms
I’ve been getting these random Blue Screens of Death (BSOD) on the laptop I just bought. People say there can be all sorts of causes, and even the AIs I asked gave me different explanations. But honestly, with so many possible reasons, it felt way beyond what I could figure out myself. When I reached out to the manufacturer’s service center, their response was basically the same as saying, ‘We don’t really know.’ Since the crashes only happen once in a while, it’s tough to nail down the exact cause.
Approach
I figured the BSOD could be caused by things like driver issues or missing updates. But since I always kept the drivers up to date using the manufacturer’s utility, and Windows itself was fully updated, I ruled those out. That left me with the storage drive (SSD) and the memory. I checked the SSD with its own utility and it was working fine, so the only suspect left was the memory.
I ran a check using mdsched.exe, which comes with Windows 11, and found that it reported some errors. But you really have to run this test multiple times, because sometimes it shows everything as normal. If even one of those runs shows a problem, then the next step is to use MemTest86.
MemTest86
MemTest86 seems to be a really good tool for thoroughly testing memory. In my case, it took over four hours, but eventually I found out there were 106 errors. In the end, it showed me the following screen.
Eventually, I had the memory replaced by the shop where I bought it. After nervously running the test again for four hours, I was relieved to finally see a success message like the one below.
My conclusion
These days, brands like ASUS, Lenovo, and MSI are selling budget laptops, and in some cases the sellers upgrade the memory before selling them. But you have to be careful with that memory. What they often do is just buy the modules and assemble their own finished memory sticks. That’s why I think it’s essential to run MemTest86. This is a separate issue from the laptop manufacturers themselves, since they usually claim it’s not their responsibility. In the end, if you buy a cheap laptop, you have to put in the effort yourself.