MP 1,1-5,1 Is A Memtest86 result on 2010 Mac Pro a hill to die on with a dealer?

[Jos.]

I recently bought a used dual-processor 2010 Mac Pro from a local dealer that is more than reputable, they said they took the dual-processor 2010 Mac Pro that had been upgraded to 128GB of memory, a Radeon HD 7950 and a MacBook PCI SSD as a trade-in from a recording studio.

When I run Memtest86 I have a screen full of error messages within a couple minutes.

So I called the dealer and they sent somebody over, the technician removed the CPU heatsinks to verify that the chipset heatsink was properly seated and ran the official Apple diagnostic over a weekend which generated no errors.

So Memtest86 says there is a memory issue and the Apple diagnostic says there is nothing wrong with the machine at all and the Dealer’s position is the Apple diagnostic is authoritative and Memtest86 is irrelevant and neither Dell or HP would care about what Memtest86 has to say either if their own diagnostics pass. They insist this machine was in a professional recording studio less than a month ago and was only rebooted for software updates.

There are reports online of false-positives from Memtest86 but they refer to much more recent machines.

Incompatibilities with MemTest86 and newer Apple BOOTROMs - PassMark Support Forums

Hello everyone! I've been doing some research and experiments with MemTest86 and some 2015 13" MacBook Airs and 2015 15" MacBook Pros. Among these

forums.passmark.com

Am I the stupid know-it-all customer in this situation or should Memtest86 errors not be discounted?

Exact Configuration:

Dual 2.4GHz Quad-Core Intel Xeon E5620s
128GB Kingston Registered ECC Memory
Quad Western Digital "Blue" 6TB Hard Drives in SoftRAID Mirrors
256GB MacBook Pro SSD mounted on PCI Card
Radeon 7950HD with third-party silent heatsink
Running macOS Mojave with all up-to-date patches.

 

[timerickson]

Apple's test is definitely not authoritative or exhaustive in my book. I would run diglloyd's Memory Tester instead: https://diglloydtools.com/memorytester.html — He also makes a disk checker

Hopefully others will chime in with experience for/against Memtest86, and alternatives

 

[iliyan61]

Apple hardware test is a bit crap and nowhere near authoritative IMO but memtest is also not authoritative. I'd just take the mac and make sure there's a good warranty and if you have issues get em to sort it out,

 

[KeesMacPro]

I've been using REMBER in case of doubts about the RAM for years and it always reported correctly.

 

[timerickson]

I've been using REMBER in case of doubts about the RAM for years and it always reported correctly.

This appears to just be a GUI for memtest, and hasn't been updated for 10 years, so I don't understand what benefit it offers?

 

[KeesMacPro]

This appears to just be a GUI for memtest, and hasn't been updated for 10 years, so I don't understand what benefit it offers?

..Just chiming in..
Anyway, assuming your statement is correct, if it hasnt been updated for 10 years does that imply it's not reliable ?
After all , we're talking about a ~10 years old machine too...

 

[dlopan]

diglloyd tools are great but too expensive. the apple tests come in 2 versions. basic one they normally use is worthless but there is another one they don't give out. take the machine to a apple store and bitch at them for the more advanced testing.

 

[Jos.]

I am sorry for not replying sooner.

The dealer who sold the machine saw my post here and I felt I shouldn’t say anything further until I resolved things with them.

One of their salesmen decided to run Memtest86 on his personal Mac Pro that he described as “fifty pounds of dodgy parts from China” and he encountered no errors after letting it run for three full cycles on his 64GB of memory.

So he came over with his machine and we transferred the memory from the used Mac Pro into his Mac Pro and once again completed Memtest86 without any errors. We didn’t test his memory in the used machine but subsequent to my original post I transferred 12GB of memory from an old Dell server and it also generated errors in the used Mac Pro.

Based on this the dealer agreed that the processor board or the integrated memory controller on one of the processors is likely defective and said that the service manager shouldn’t have been dismissive of the Memtest86 result and in future they will use Memtest86 to test hardware they take back.

This machine has a twin that is still onsite with the customer because of the lockdown but they’re hoping they will be able to switch out the machines for me in the New Year.

 

[s66]

The dealer who sold the machine saw my post here and I felt I shouldn’t say anything further until I resolved things with them.

You didn't name them in any way, did you ?
It's just weird to ask that, instead of just promising they'll do the right thing.

One of their salesmen decided to run Memtest86 on his personal Mac Pro that he described as “fifty pounds of dodgy parts from China” and he encountered no errors after letting it run for three full cycles on his 64GB of memory.

So he came over with his machine and we transferred the memory from the used Mac Pro into his Mac Pro and once again completed Memtest86 without any errors. We didn’t test his memory in the used machine but subsequent to my original post I transferred 12GB of memory from an old Dell server and it also generated errors in the used Mac Pro.

Dealer: is that an Apple Authorized Dealer ?

The 2010 MP is "obsolete": https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201624
Out here that means the authorized repair centers will not touch it (literally)

Based on this the dealer agreed that the processor board or the integrated memory controller on one of the processors is likely defective and said that the service manager shouldn’t have been dismissive of the Memtest86 result and in future they will use Memtest86 to test hardware they take back.

Any halfway decent store would immediately take the defective machine back for a full refund and issue an apology.

This machine has a twin that is still onsite with the customer because of the lockdown but they’re hoping they will be able to switch out the machines for me in the New Year.

So they make you wait for another potentially not OK machine they might get their hands on from another customer ?

I hope you paid very little for the machine. Otherwise, I strongly suggest to try to get your money back.

I hope you realize the machine will be unable
- to run a current macOS version
- to get CPU patches from Intel and as such will remain forever a security problem on the hardware level

 

[s66]

diglloyd tools are great but too expensive. the apple tests come in 2 versions. basic one they normally use is worthless but there is another one they don't give out. take the machine to a apple store and bitch at them for the more advanced testing.

2010 MP is "obsolete". You need an authorized dealer for them to have the good tools to test it and they'll -at least out here- will not touch obsolete machines at all. Moreover I doubt the "behind the closed doors" Apple tools will do anything on an obsolete machine but flag it as such.

 

[Jos.]

You didn't name them in any way, did you ?
It's just weird to ask that, instead of just promising they'll do the right thing.


Dealer: is that an Apple Authorized Dealer ?

The 2010 MP is "obsolete": https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201624
Out here that means the authorized repair centers will not touch it (literally)


Any halfway decent store would immediately take the defective machine back for a full refund and issue an apology.

So they make you wait for another potentially not OK machine they might get their hands on from another customer ?

I hope you paid very little for the machine. Otherwise, I strongly suggest to try to get your money back.

I hope you realize the machine will be unable
- to run a current macOS version
- to get CPU patches from Intel and as such will remain forever a security problem on the hardware level

We bought this machine because our Trashcans are getting upgraded to Catalina imminently and we have some things that can't make the jump because of 32-bit dependencies and we have some even older stuff toiling away on an old 2008 iMac that require PowerPC Rosetta.

An old Mac Pro seemed like a suitable alternative since the recently orphaned applications will run just great on it and we can boot it into Snow Leopard if we really have to. (Yes, we have a Snow Leopard compatible video card.)

We did not ask for a refund, I wasn't certain I wasn't the crazy person with an AliExpress OBD2 scanner having a tantrum at the car dealership in this situation.

 

[DFP1989]

I'm stunned the store went to so much effort on a 10-year-old machine that couldn't have been worth a huge amount. Kudos to them.

 

[s66]

We bought this machine because [....]

I wasn't certain I wasn't the crazy person with an AliExpress OBD2 scanner having a tantrum at the car dealership in this situation.

For the record: I was not trying to make you justify what you did at all.

And I'd not worry about throwing a tantrum over a vendor delivering something that doesn't feel right. It's their job to be ready for that. They'll know it happens.
The (overly) upset customer is too much of a bad publicity without them offering a full refund. With the full refund: nobody can blame them for not doing the best they could in a bad situation. That's why I find it odd that they reacted the way they did, that's all.