program activity simulator

[Neto]

Is there such a thing as a "program activity simulator"?
A computer came in for repairs that had been throwing various errors while under constant use. By the time they brought it in to me, it was no longer starting at all. I pulled the HDD, and it couldn't boot on another system, either. Used Seagate DiscWizard to get an image, and it won't boot when applied to a good HDD, either. (I had already ran all of the Seagate SeaTools tests, and the HDD passed all of them.)
The computer system starts fine on a different HDD. Re-imaged the original HDD (it was a new drive last October), and had a single failure, after which I installed a new RAM card, as some of the error codes pointed to possible RAM issues. (I have had very few RAM card failures in the more than 600 systems I've built, an on those few occasions when one DID fail, it was a total failure.) Since then it has been running night and day for at least 5 to 6 days, with a program running, but no actual activity.

As I said, it would no longer boot up at all by the time I got it, but the customer stated:
Most of the time the stopcode for a restart is memory_management, a few others we've collected are: IRQL_NOT_LESS_OR_EQUAL BAD_POOL_HEADER Badsystemconfiginfo

The one I saw that single time I got a failure after re-imaging the HDD was: IRQL_NOT_LESS_OR_EQUAL.

Any suggestions for a (preferably free) program I could install & run (off-line) that would simulate constant user activity?
'Brigado (Thanks)

[Josh]

If replacing the RAM didn’t help it’s either a bad CPU or a bad motherboard. CPUs have their own RAM inside them that can cause the same issues.

[Soloist]

Maybe they tried to straighten the pins

[Neto]

If replacing the RAM didn’t help it’s either a bad CPU or a bad motherboard. CPUs have their own RAM inside them that can cause the same issues.

It hasn't shut down again since I installed a new RAM card. But since it was shutting down for them while in active use, I was hoping there'd be a program that would keep it active w/o me needing to be right there.

(I had forgotten about this, but I think I had a test program for RAM, because I had been testing them just by installing temporarily, and if it showed them in the BIOS, I assumed that they were good. But later I had a bad one that would only fail - and shut down the system - after it got warmed up. I try to always get this testing done before 30 days have past, so that I can still return them to the vendor in exchange for new ones, and not have to go through the manufacturer. But I'm pretty sure I DID have a test program, but my memory is not real great anymore.)

[Soloist]

It hasn't shut down again since I installed a new RAM card. But since it was shutting down for them while in active use, I was hoping there'd be a program that would keep it active w/o me needing to be right there.

(I had forgotten about this, but I think I had a test program for RAM, because I had been testing them just by installing temporarily, and if it showed them in the BIOS, I assumed that they were good. But later I had a bad one that would only fail - and shut down the system - after it got warmed up. I try to always get this testing done before 30 days have past, so that I can still return them to the vendor in exchange for new ones, and not have to go through the manufacturer. But I'm pretty sure I DID have a test program, but my memory is not real great anymore.)

You did get the manufacturer’s warranty right?

[Neto]

It hasn't shut down again since I installed a new RAM card. But since it was shutting down for them while in active use, I was hoping there'd be a program that would keep it active w/o me needing to be right there.

(I had forgotten about this, but I think I had a test program for RAM, because I had been testing them just by installing temporarily, and if it showed them in the BIOS, I assumed that they were good. But later I had a bad one that would only fail - and shut down the system - after it got warmed up. I try to always get this testing done before 30 days have past, so that I can still return them to the vendor in exchange for new ones, and not have to go through the manufacturer. But I'm pretty sure I DID have a test program, but my memory is not real great anymore.)

You did get the manufacturer’s warranty right?

It's expired. (Or is that only at 3 score and ten? In that case, there's still 2 1/2 years on the original warranty.)

[Neto]

....
(I had forgotten about this, but I think I had a test program for RAM, because I had been testing them just by installing temporarily, and if it showed them in the BIOS, I assumed that they were good. But later I had a bad one that would only fail - and shut down the system - after it got warmed up. I try to always get this testing done before 30 days have past, so that I can still return them to the vendor in exchange for new ones, and not have to go through the manufacturer. But I'm pretty sure I DID have a test program, but my memory is not real great anymore.)

I finally got a vague "memory" that I had been using a built-in Windows memory test tool to verify the condition of RAM cards. Bingo! Found it at Windows\System32. MdSched.exe. It asks if you want to run it the next time you restart the system, or 'right now'. I ran the test on the new RAM card, and no problems were found. Then I re-installed the 'original' RAM card and ran it again. Almost immediately the message appeared saying: "Your Computer has a Memory Problem." So do I, but that's not what I was testing here..... Anyway, I'm fairly confident now that the problem is identified (and fixed).

Thanks to all who responded!

[Josh]

You can grab memtest86 which is good at finding memory problems.