GUI wrapper for the Memtest CLI memory/RAM tester.
Rember is a front-end GUI to the 'memtest' command line memory testing program. This application will allow the user to select the number of test loops, as well as the amount of memory to test. There is a 'Log' tab that will allow the user to monitor memory testing. The user can toggle a 'verbose' switch to limit the amount of output.The user can choose to quit Finder and other applications. Defective memory can cause computers to malfunction, crash, and behave in a variety of ways which can sometimes baffle end users and computer technicians alike. Apple provides hardware test CDs with most of their products, and there are some third-party utilties for Mac OS X which perform memory testing. In my experience, these tools have not always been able to quickly and efficiently diagnose memory problems. Rember has been designed to simplify the testing, and diagnosis of these problems. This software is free, and is covered under the GNU GPL. Please read accompanying "COPYING" file for more info. Features:
Easy to use testing console
Human-readable test report summarizes test results
I have Memtest in Expert Mode of applejack but this...
Razzledazzle
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Summary
...is better!<br />This review was originally posted on VersionTracker.com.<br />This GUI front end is easier to use and more importantly runs a test efficiently and quickly. In addition the user can select how many runs of the test to use and it will save the log which is great! This is a handy utility!
It's a nice start..
Xapplimatic
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Summary
This review was originally posted on VersionTracker.com.<br />Finally a GUI for this memory tester! Works well.. except that I thought the testing process was going a bit slow so I snooped with Activity Monitor and found that Rember was hogging 30% of the CPU on my PowerBook G4 (867-Aluminum-12").... leaving only about 60% of the CPU to the actual command line client to test with..
Further testing shows this to be the case only when the default tab (Rember) is selected. Selecting the "log" tab drops the CPU usage down to where it should be for Rember (below 1%) and allows the command line client to actually test the memory with over 90% of the CPU. However, there are still times when Rember is doing certain initial tests when even in "log" mode it takes up to 40% of the CPU as it updates the text in the log repeatedly with "\\|/-" marks. These should be a spinning line in the actual shell, but appears as individual characters for some reason in the log with this GUI wrapper.
Suggestions for the next version:
1. An icon?
2. Documentation. As it stands, there is none included.
3. Focus on performance. Is it possible to get the CPU usage down on the default tab and the log tab (during the random test)? I think the performance hit is probably related to the aqua update bar. Perhaps a different style of update indicator would greatly reduce unnecessary CPU use.
4. Possible for the GUI to tell the user *which* chunk of memory is being tested? Physical address reporting? i.e. I can tell the program to test `128 MB out of 1 Gig, but which 128 MB is it testing, always the same? Rolling? Randomly assigned?
I also have to wonder, since there is no documentation, if a failure is located, will it only be found by reading through the log tab, or will the default tab do something special to alert the user?