Boot Memtest: banging head against wall

[ppmax]

Hello--

Im trying to boot from a USB stick that I installed memtest onto. Here's what I've done several times without success:
Download pre-compiled bootable ISO
Use dd to copy ISO image to USB
Insert USB to Freenas box
Enter boot menu options; select USB device with memtest
Fail

Sorry if this is such a boneheaded question...but I can't for the life of me figure out why I can't boot memtest to run some tests! ;)

thx

 

[pschatz100]

YOu didn't give much information about what you actually did, but I suspect that if you do an internet search for "create boot disk for memtest", you will probably find much advice that will be helpful.

 

[ppmax]

Lol, someone told me to download the image from memtest.org. I just tried the image at memtest86.com and it worked

 

[jgreco]

There are two competing versions of memtest. Both have pros and cons.

 

[ppmax]

Well memtest86 booted on my system and quickly discovered one of my sticks is bad. I think this is the first time I've ever had RAM fail on me (granted, after ~8 years of use). For some reason I could never boot from the image at memtest.org...

Thanks again
PP

 

[pschatz100]

I keep a bootable flash drive with memtest on it, just in case I need to verify memory. I have never had a memory stick actually fail, but I did have a motherboard that became flakey - one of the memory slots failed and was causing errors that were difficult to track down.

Glad you solved your issue.