Run nVidia/AMD GPU graphics memory tests from an Easy2Boot drive

I recently came across a YouTube video which booted from a large dedicated USB drive to run Nvidia and AMD diagnostics using MATS (Memory Automated Test System) and MODS (Modular Diagnostic Software).

Nvidia has a proprietary software tool called MODS (Nvidia MOdular Diagnostic Software) which has a standalone VRAM test called MATS. How to use MATS can be found below.

• Here is a written guide on how to use MATS Nvidia Memory Testing Guide.
• Here is a video by MV TechLabs on How to set up and use MATS
• Overview of MATS/MODS: https://rk.edu.pl/en/nvidia-modular-diagnostic-software-mods/

Note: To get the Kings_Overkill USB drive fully working - scroll down!

The USB he created comprised of three separate Primary MBR partitions with each partition containing a separate set of bootable files:

• Partition 1: nVidia RTX 30xx Series And Before 5GB
• Partition 2: nVidia RTX 20xx, GTX 16xx/10xx/9xx/7xx/6xx/5xx Series And Before 5GB
• Partition 3: AMD RX4xx/RX5xx/RXVEGA64/R7/R9 Series/HD7xxx 60GB

I made a separate USB drive from the .rar files from the instructions in the video but for some reason the ext4 Partition 3 seems to be corrupt on my drive and would not boot at all :-(.

However I could legacy boot and UEFI64-boot OK to Partitions 1 and 2 of the new USB drive.

I wanted to add some sort of bootable images of these to my E2B drive so I used RMPrepUSB - File - Make grub4dos ISO file function to make a bootable ISO. However, the ISO file only worked when Legacy booting (it hung on a UEFI boot as did Ventoy).

So I used MakePartImage to make some .imgPTN23 partition image files directly from the first two partitions.

There is also a DOS option.

Linux test environment.

These seem to both Legacy and UEFI64 boot OK, but as I do not have a system with an Nvidia card it does not automatically run the test (as I think it is supposed to).

The folders contain different versions of the MATS test in each image:

RTX20xx (Partition 2)

• 400.250
• 400.281.2
• 367.56.4
• 400.271_1650
• 400.247_1660
• 400.221.1_2080
• 400.198_1660TI
• 400.184_2080TI
• 400.221.1_2070
• 400.179_1660TI
• gt610c
• gt620
• gt630
• gt640
• gt720
• gt730
• gt7405
• gt10307
• gtx650
• gtx680
• gtx690b
• gtx750
• gtx760b
• gtx780
• gtx950j
• gtx960w
• gtx970a
• gtx970v
• gtx980i

RTX30xx (Partition 1)

• 455.127
• 455.107_3060
• 455.120_3080
• 455.107_SKU10_3070

I think the first number (400 or 455) may be the version of MATS used with the last number being the graphics card model number???

RTX30xx DOS boot

8400GS

ENGT520

ENGTX560 

G505, 

GT420

GT620

GT630

GT640

GTX260

GTX285

GTX295

GTX560\26570 (0265MP1)

dir c:\mods

cd C:\mods\gtx560

run  mods or mats ?

Before testing, you should ensure the integrated graphics is disabled in the BIOS settings (set IGPU?) and disable CPU power management in the BIOS settings also. Secure Boot should be disabled if UEFI64-booting.

Apparently, to run the AMD GPU tests you should:

• Select Option 3
• When the text scrolls up the screen, at the end it says 'Press ENTER for maintenance or press control+D to continue'
• You need to Press ENTER
• Then type ls (LS but lower case) and ENTER
• Now you see a list of AMD GPU models to test.
• To run the test from the list type ./ then the name of the models from the list - for example ./390 for R9-390 and afterwards run ./390g to display the result log.

However, I could not boot from the ext4 Partition 3 (see section below for fixes)!

How to make a MODS and MATS USB drive

First make an E2B USB drive. Use the Gear Wheel icon in Make_E2B.exe to create the USB drive and specify the sizes of the partitions so that Partition 2 (FAT32) is about 1GB and Partition 3 (NTFS) is at least 80GB.

For all three images, your E2B USB drive should have three partitions (use the Gear Icon button in Make_E2B.exe and use a Windows 10 system to make the E2B drive). Partition 1 needs to be at least 6GB and Partition 3 at least 80GB if you want to add the AMD image.

Step 1: Download ready-made RTX20xx and RTX30xx E2B image files

You can download each of the .imgPTN23 files from the 'Other files' folder on the 1Drive Alternate Downloads site. Each file is 1.8GB and password protected (password is e2b). Use 7Z or WinRar to unzip them. Look for:

• MATS_RTX20xx_password_is_e2b.zip 
• MATS_RTX30xx_password_is_e2b.zip

Copy these two .imgPTN23 files to the NTFS Partition 1 of your USB drive (e.g. \_ISO\MAINMENU folder) and run \MAKE_THIS_DRIVE_CONTIGUOUS.cmd.

To run the software, legacy-boot to Easy2Boot (see below) or UEFI-boot to agFM on Partition 2 and select one of the .imgPTN23 files to switch in a new partition and run the software.

RTX 20xx legacy boot menu (after switching in the image file).

If you legacy-boot to the image, you can restore the E2B partition using option 0 (see above).

To restore the original E2B partition on a UEFI system, you will need to UEFI64-boot to agFM on the second partition on the E2B USB drive and choose the 'Restore E2B Partition' option.

UEFI-boot from Partition 2 to restore the E2B partition.

Step 2: AMD Partition image

A follow-up article describes how I added a large 63GB Partition 3 AMD ext4 image to my E2B USB drive (legacy+UEFI, E2B and agFM menus). 

To add the AMD partition image:

1. Download the TEST_AMD_GPU_PTN3.imgPTNREP3 file and copy it to Partition 3 (NTFS >60GB).

2. The E2B and agFM Menu files for TEST_AMD_GPU_PTN3.imgPTNREP3 are here. Copy them to a menu folder (e.g. \_ISO\MAINMENU) on the E2B USB drive - Partition 1. 

Contact me for a download link to the very large TEST_AMD_GPU_PTN3.imgPTNREP3 file (made using 7Zip) if you want it. The TEST_AMD_GPU_PTN3.imgPTNREP3 file must be placed on the large NTFS Partition 3 of your E2B USB drive in the root (top level).

  - 0 oo 0 -

Running the tests

Useful commands when booted to the Linux images are:

less /report.txt  - check report after RTX test run

biosinfo  - check type of graphics card  as reported by Video BIOS

vga  - test vga memory?

mats -h    - list mats commands

mats will automatically make a report.log file

reboot

cd  rx470
./tserver -boardtest=mylog

cd ./367.56.04
./mods gputest.js -skip_rm_state_init -mfg -notest
./mats -3d_card -e 10

./mods gputest.js -oqa -old_gold -test 178 -fan_speed 70 -dramclk_percent 100 -ignore_fatal_errors -run_on_error -matsinfo

AMD: ./tserver -boardtest=memfa

nVidia 367: ./mods gputest.js -skip_rm_state_init -mfg -notest

nVidia 455: ./mods gputest.js -skip_rm_state_init -notest

nVidia 400: ./mods gputest.js -skip_rm_state_init -short -notest

./mats -3d_card -e 10

./mats -n1 -e10

For the 455.127 test,  steps 1,2,3 have errors - use these commands instead:

./mods gputest.js -skip_rm_state_init -notest 

for dual graphics card test commands: 

./mats -3d_card -e 10 

./mats -n 1 -e 10

Search the partition (after switching in the .imgPTN23 file) for .PDF files for more info on how to use the programs.

Some other videos on MODS/MATS are here:

and pages of general info are here and here and here 

Tip: Search for 'easymats 0005' to find a download of a larger 5-partition version with Chinese instructions (but download images are English). I suspect the kings_overkill download was made from this larger disk image.

easymats 0005 legacy boot menu

Fix for Kings_Overkill AMD booting issues

These instructions only apply to the Kings_Overkill USB drive made in the YT video at the top of this page (or possibly the easymats 0005 USB drive if you have the same issues).

If you make a 3 partition USB drive using the Kings_Overkill files (1.pmf, 2.pmf, 3.pmf) then you can legacy boot to the above grub4dos menu but grub4dos does not seem to like the ext4 partition when you choose menu entry 3 for AMD.

I suspect part of the problem is to do with using a recent version of DiskGenius (or maybe using a 64-bit version instead of a 32-bit version or maybe it was originally ext2 or ext3?). Maybe you could find an older 32-bit DiskGenius version and the fixes below would not be needed? He used DiskGenius 5.4.2.1239 which is not the current version (which is 5.4.3).

The very old version of grub4dos that is used in the image does not seem to like the ext4 volume made by DiskGenius and grub4dos cannot read any files from it. Newer versions of grub4dos can read the ext4 partition however...

To fix the three/four partition in the KINGS_OVERKILL USB disk made using Disk Genius, I did the following:

1. Run RMPrepUSB - Install grub4dos - say Yes for MBR update and Yes to update the grldr file.

Put the 2019 \grldr file on both Partitions 1 and 2

This usually installs the grldr file to Partition 1, but depending on the drive letter given to partition 1 by Windows it may update the grldr on partition 2 instead.

Check the grldr file date on partition 1 and if it is before 2019 then copy the 2019 grldr file on partition 2 to the root of partition 1. 

Basically, we are updating the \grldr grub4dos file on partitions 1 and 2 to a newer version which understands ext4.

2. You should now find that the '3 AMD' menu entry now starts to boot to Linux but that it fails with a Linux error message to 'update e2fsck' and something about the 'ext4 64-bit feature is not supported'.

To fix this, I booted to a 64-bit version of Linux Mint in Virtual Box and attached the USB drive to the VM. You could boot to a Mint ISO from an E2B USB drive and then connect the Kings_Overkill USB drive to another USB port.

Under Mint, I first ran the Linux commands to find the correct partition and fix it for any problems:

sudo fdisk -l 

sudo umount /dev/sda3

sudo e2fsck -f /dev/sda3

This checks that partition 3 was not corrupt (I did not correct the time clock error as Mint had a different time zone from the Linux on the USB drive and I didn't want to confuse it). I don't know if this would have mattered or not.

I then copied all the Mint fsck* files from \sbin to the \sbin folder on the USB drive. I also did this with the e2fsck file too but I am not sure if that was needed. I mounted /dev/sda3 (the USB drive) onto a 'test' directory as follows (you may need to change the drive letter in sda3 - e.g. sdb3 or sdc3, etc.)...

mkdir test

         sudo fdisk -l 

sudo mount /dev/sda3 test

sudo cp /sbin/fsck* ./test/sbin/

sudo cp /sbin/e2fs* ./test/sbin

sudo umount ./test

Now I can legacy boot from Partition 1 of the USB drive and run menu entry 3 for AMD...

Programs are in the /mods folder

e.g. I can run a test by typing the name.

        cd ~   (change to ~ directory - usually already there)

./260

and to see the results log (if one was generated), I type:

./260g

Fix UEFI booting to AMD Partition 3

Partition 3 is an ext4 partition but for UEFI booting, a UEFI boot partition must be a FAT partition. I am not quite sure if UEFI-booting to Ptn 3 was ever working in the original image?

Also, the two FAT partitions use syslinux which cannot boot a kernel file on another partition.

We can create a new UEFI syslinux.cfg boot menu on both Partition 1 and Partition 2 so that UEFI booting from either partition will allow us to choose between an RTX test or the AMD Partition 3 test. To do this we must copy the Partition 3 initial boot files (kernel and ram drive files) to both Partition 1 and Partition 2.

1. Download the .zip file from here (this saves you having to boot to Linux and copy them from the ext4 partition).

2. Copy both the initrd.img-2.6.32-24-generic and vmlinuz-2.6.32-24-generic files to the root of BOTH Partition 1 and Partition 2

3. Copy the syslinux.cfg file in the download for the RTX30xx series to \EFI\BOOT\ folder of Partition 1

e.g. \EFI\BOOT\syslinux.cfg

4. Copy the syslinux.cfg file for the RTX20xx series to \EFI\BOOT\ folder of Partition 2

e.g. \EFI\BOOT\syslinux.cfg

You should now be able to UEFI64-boot to Partition 1 or 2 by pressing your BIOS F8/F12 BIOS Boot Selection key at start-up and choose one of the two EFI FAT partitions:

• Partition 1: RTX30xx or AMD
• Partition 2: RTX20xx or AMD

You must type in AMD if you want to boot to Partition 3

Partition 3 requires you to press ENTER at this point.

Here are the AMD test folders on Partition 3:

  

syslinux.cfg example:

Please let me know if you have any comments or more information.

Live online chat support is available on my two websites easy2boot.xyz and rmprepusb.com.