[Captain Obvious]

I installed a Sonnet G3 card into a 7500. I had some problems with it "hanging" and then freezing on startup. They recommended I shut off the "hidden" Startup Memort Tests option in the Memory Control Panel (try holding down the Command and Option Key while you launch the Memory Control Panel)

Now my question is... what function does this test serve? Am I opening up my computer to some possible risk by turing this off? I mean Apple didn't make it easy to shut it off so it makes me wonder. So anyone out there know about this?

[-Q-]

Essentially what this does is makes sure your RAM is working correctly. The more RAM you have, the longer this test takes b/c the OS is testing every component of the RAM to make sure it's within specifications.

If you've been running this entire time with the test on, I don't think you are opening yourself up to any risk. It's very rare for a RAM module to "go bad". They're usually either bad from the start, or work well for a very long time.

They don't make it easy (well, that opinion is relative, I guess) b/c a lot of the issues with OS 9 and earlier can be attributed to bad ram, or RAM that's outside Apple's specifications. That's why a few months ago, with the release of a firmware update, Apple "tightened the reins" on RAM manufacturers to enforce their specificaitons (I'm going to ignore whether or not this was done in a correct fashion).

And if you add more RAM, you can always turn the test back on temporarily to have it tested.

I don't think it's really a big deal at this point to turn it off.