If you’re experiencing memory issues, Microsoft’s built-in diagnostic tool may be helpful.
While your computer’s SSD or hard drive is where all your apps, documents, and the Windows operating system itself are stored, it’s RAM that manages the data you actively work with. It temporarily stores information about applications and data to which the processor needs quick access. This is why RAM issues often lead to major performance issues, application crashes, unexpected reboots, and the infamous Blue Screen of Death (BSOD). You can always head to your nearest computer repair shop and have a certified technician take a look, but Windows offers a handy tool that lets you check for memory problems yourself.
The Windows Memory Diagnostic utility comes preinstalled and runs a series of tests designed to check whether your computer’s RAM can reliably store and return data. Any discrepancy between the data that was written to memory and that which is read back could indicate that something is wrong with the operation of your RAM.
Think of it like writing a message on a piece of paper and giving it to someone to keep. If you wrote “computer” but received a piece of paper that said “cmoputre,” you would know something went wrong after you handed it to that person. Windows Memory Diagnostic performs a similar test with your RAM, repeatedly writing and reading information while looking for errors in the returned data.
Although it is easy to perform, finding the results afterwards is not as intuitive.
How to Run Windows Memory Diagnostic
To prevent your computer’s RAM from being occupied by the operating system and other applications, the diagnostic tool operates outside of the usual Windows environment. Before running the test, it is recommended to save all your work.
The easiest way to access the utility is to open the Start Menulooking “Windows Memory Diagnostic” and clicking on the first result. Alternatively, you can press Windows + Rtype mdsched.exe and press Enter. A dialog box appears, giving you two options. Assuming you’re eager to start testing, click Reboot now and check for issues (recommended).
Your computer will now restart, load the Windows Memory Diagnostic utility, and automatically run the test. You’ll find information like current test success and overall test percentage indicators, but you can press F1 on your keyboard to customize how the test is performed. Here you can choose between Basic, Standard And Extended test mix options, each of which runs a different series of memory tests. Extended is the most comprehensive of the three but takes the longest to complete. You can also change the number of test passes, up to 15 repetitions for further analysis.
Once the test is complete, your computer will reboot into the Windows operating system as usual. Although the tool says that test results “will be displayed again after you log in,” they don’t always appear automatically. Anyway, you can access the results via Event Viewer by searching for it via the Start Menu.
Access results using Event Viewer
Windows Event Viewer is a powerful, built-in interface that lets you access detailed logs of system, security, and application events that occur on your computer. This includes the results returned by any diagnostic tool. Event Viewer displays a lot of information when you first launch it, so it’s understandable if you’re feeling a little overwhelmed. However, what we are specifically looking for is the log created by Windows Memory Diagnostic after the operation is completed.
Fortunately, we can filter through all of this to find what we need. Expand it Windows Log section on the left and navigate to System. In the Acts right pane, click Filter current log. Next, click the arrow next to the Event Sources field and check only the MemoryDiagnostics-Results option. Click ALL RIGHTand Event Viewer will only show logs related to the memory test.
Double-click each of the results until you find one with a description that either confirms that the test found no errors with your computer’s RAM or warns that hardware problems have been detected. While this may indicate that no errors were found, it does not completely rule out possible memory issues. You can always rerun Windows Memory Diagnostic using the combination of extended tests and increasing the number of passes.
If the test finds hardware issues and you are confident enough to do so, you can try removing and testing each RAM stick individually. This might help narrow down the particular module that’s giving you trouble. If you are familiar with the BIOS, you can also disable any XMP or EXPO memory profiles which are sometimes known to push your RAM beyond its default specifications and cause system stability issues.
