Is memtest86 self-contained or does it have an underlying OS?

Question

I'm trying to convince Intel that I have a hardware problem, but they say it is a problem with the Linux OS, and that I should use Windows instead.

The hardware has the same problem when I boot from a memtest86 USB, but I don't know for sure that memtest86 doesn't also rely on a Linux kernel.

Please confirm or deny that memtest86 uses Linux.

If that's a simple open source program, why can't just send source code to Intel tell them this code can reproduce the problem and slap on their face? — 炸鱼薯条德里克, Sep 12 '19 at 04:58
@炸鱼薯条德里克, 最好和羔羊说话而不是与老虎搏斗。 — Ray Butterworth, Sep 13 '19 at 13:59

score 1 · Accepted Answer · answered Sep 12 '19 at 04:44

memtest86 is self-contained, it doesn’t rely on an underlying OS. (I’m using memtest86+ here but the answer is the same for memtest86+ and memtest86.) Its boot process is described in the README.background file; it goes from boot to running memory tests without any operating system being involved.

There are however parts of the source code which are copied from the Linux kernel; for example, head.S originally came from Linux. This copied code is a very small part of memtest86+, and memtest86+ is much simpler than Linux, so I wouldn’t let that be used as the basis for any argument over the validity of the memory tests’ results.

They finally said they'd honour the warranty. The link to how memtest86 loads probably helped a lot. Thanks. Why they assume everyone runs Windows and they don't have their own stand-alone diagnostic program, I've no idea. It's not like Intel is a small company. — Ray Butterworth, Sep 23 '19 at 19:57

Is memtest86 self-contained or does it have an underlying OS?

1 Answers1