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I need to fix a friend's phone this evening that has suddenly produced loads of android.process.media and com.google.process.gapps errors. I am going to reinstall the OS as it's an older ROM but it got me wondering: there is memtest for x86 based devices that will test the RAM of a PC, is there a similar app that can be loaded in place of an OS on Android that will do the same thing?

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  • Not that I know of, for starters MemTest x86 is specifically orientated obviously to x86 architecture. None such thing exists for ARMv6 or ARMv7 architecture! The reason you're getting force closes there - has nothing to do with RAM chips, rather, a app that was installed somewhat crashed the dalvikvm's cache which produces the neglible effect, or possibly modified a framework portion to add extra icons and whatnots and re-flashed it back in or pushed it into the handset...
    – t0mm13b
    Commented Feb 19, 2013 at 0:27
  • I loaded a fresh ROM to the device and have not had a recurrence of the issue. I still feel this question has merit in that it might someday be answered -- I know of no hardware diagnostics, be it for ARMv6, ARMv7, or any other potential architecture. It would be useful. Commented Feb 20, 2013 at 4:14
  • In all fairness, the controls and regulations involved in producing RAM chips is quite high and there would be no room for errors that would be tolerated either (think of equivalent Intel's pre-fabrication factory...) Devices like smartphones with their RAM chips tightly integrated, are not going to fail. SO I think your question is not a real question and not constructive either. As you have found out, a simple wipe/flash of the ROM cured the hiccup and has zero to do with RAM chips!!!
    – t0mm13b
    Commented Feb 20, 2013 at 12:38
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    Sorry tm, but obviously you know only little about integrated circuits. Of course the memory of a handheld device can fail. It is in this respect no different than any other memory. The reason why there are no testing utilities are not clear to me either. I guess that most people would not bother to check but just claim their guarantee. Also, these tools run typically at boot time, so the phone must be put in recovery mode - also not very attractive when you can just exchange the device.
    – Martur
    Commented Aug 7, 2013 at 8:06
  • Unfortunately there isn't any tool like memtest86 for ARM architecture. Related: How to disable bad RAM addresses and fix bad storage blocks?. Commented Nov 2, 2019 at 21:43

2 Answers 2

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This tests RAM, storage and well many other device features: Phone Check (and Test)

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  • Apps can't test hardware resources without root access. All they can do is either rely on system provided APIs to get AMAP information about hardware, or perform a stress test within the limitations enforced by OS. So they can't estimate performance correctly. Commented Nov 2, 2019 at 21:30
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Like to point out that Apps most definitely can test hardware without root access. Bad memory can be traced via stress tests even within OS limitations, although not pinpointed but to know if its bad or not its quite useful.

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