Crucial Ballistix 2x1GB PC4000 kit gone bad (merged)

[eutanasio]

I just got some Ballistix for my system....should I just send them back???..I cant go 5 mins without getting thousands of errors on memtest...no matter what setting I try. I am very frustrated at this...

Too bad mate

 

And yes, send them back ASAP.

 

I'm running my new sticks @ DDR596 3-3-3-8 1T 2.8V (over night Prime and Memtest + SuperPI 32M) stable for two weeks now. So fare everything's in good going and I'm hoping the best.

[Sharp]

pepinokid01 try not to post the same thing in two places.

As I said in your thread,

 

Ballisitix problem = modules working then going faulty after a few weeks.

http://www.dfi-street.com/forum/showthread.php?t=50837

[ajbird]

If you have dead ram crucial are very good at honouring the warrenty they replaced 2 dead bellistix sticks that i had without any fuss at all - so I bought 2 more. Just got to persuade the board to recognise all 4 gig of the stuff now

[caspanis]

Hi All,

 

I have a set of Crucial Ballixtix 2X 1GB PC4000 sticks that I had to RMA and I am now using the replacements.

 

I have the following problems :

 

1) System in general is stable but I can never get it to successfully run super PI whether using 1 instance ( shared between both cores ) or using two instances (affinity set to each core). Generally one of two things happen : A) The application fails and I get a Windows Pop-UP asking if I wish to report the matter to microsoft or B) I get a complete lockup requiring me to hard reset the system or cycle the power.

 

2) The system at times suffers from either a complete lock-up or a BSOD then immediate reboot. I must add that this occurs very infrequently but enough to be cause for concern.

 

3) On rare occasions , the system does not boot completely in that I get the single beep stating that POST was successfull but the system appears to hang at the beginning of the hardware display screen just before displaying the amount of memory detected (Note at this stage , 1 RED led is lit )

 

However all other benchmarks are successful ( memtest , HCI memtest , Prime 95, 3dmark0[356] , PcMark05 ) so what gives ? am I again going to have to do the RMA thing with Crucial ? Or do I forget Crucial and just buy another set of memory sticks known to work ?

 

PS. I am using the exact memory settings in this post by moderator Sharp , honestly these have worked really well for me except for the problems indicated above.

 

Comments/Advice most welcome.

 

Regards,

Caspanis

[hippy2981]

^^ i have had similar problems initially with my ballisitix. tests would give NO errors but random BSODs. i'd tried memtest86, stressprime except superPI at 2.6vdimm. i raised the vdimm to 2.7 and after a few weeks, same thing. so i raised to 2.8vdimm and after a week same thing. i tested superPI and it failed at 512K and worked for below values. which indicated that it's a RAM issue. i went for RMA to newegg and asked for a different RAM: OCZ. thanks to newegg for that.

 

i dont think anybody has ballistix sticks (even with newer chip revision) that have NOT failed. i dont know if crucial would refund you back the money, it depends. if you bought from a vendor then ask for different sticks. unfortunately, i think other sticks seems to be a better option than ballistix at the moment.

[caspanis]

^^ i have had similar problems initially with my ballisitix. tests would give NO errors but random BSODs. i'd tried memtest86, stressprime except superPI at 2.6vdimm. i raised the vdimm to 2.7 and after a few weeks, same thing. so i raised to 2.8vdimm and after a week same thing. i tested superPI and it failed at 512K and worked for below values. which indicated that it's a RAM issue. i went for RMA to newegg and asked for a different RAM: OCZ. thanks to newegg for that.

 

i dont think anybody has ballistix sticks (even with newer chip revision) that have NOT failed. i dont know if crucial would refund you back the money, it depends. if you bought from a vendor then ask for different sticks. unfortunately, i think other sticks seems to be a better option than ballistix at the moment.

 

At this point I am wayyy out of the 30 day refund window so its doubtful , but I really do not want to have to go into a RMA cycle with crucial (I bought the stick originally from crucial) but it seems inevitable , I mean has anyone seen the size of this thread !

 

At this point , IF the sticks are again faulty , then I either :

1) Do the RMA thing again , and again , and again or

2) Buy some OCZ and kiss over $300 goodbye :mad:

 

I hate this.

 

Caspanis

[Guest Igor]

I've had my Ballistix set for 3 months now. Still going strong @280MHz 3-3-3-7-1T 2.8V... fingers crossed...

 

Ok, apparently crossing fingers doesn't help. My 2GB set went bad last week. Won't pass memtest86 even at 200MHz. I bought the set from Overclockers UK and they're sending me G.Skill PC4000 HZ 2GB kit as a replacement. It's a bit cheaper than Ballistix on their catalog, but would cost me 300€ to buy it here (in Finland), so it's a good deal for me.

[Nil Einne]

If you have had 2 or more failures, you might be able to convince them or the people you bought the RAM from to offer a refund. Tell them it's your second failure and show them this thread. Tell them you suspect it may just happen again and it might be best for both of you if they just refund you and then you can go on your merry way with another brand and they don't have to keep replacing your dead RAM. It might work...

 

I haven't tried it (yet, only 1 failure so far and I haven't replaced that) but it sound to me as if they will probably be willing given the circumstances.

 

P.S. Even one may be enough, but 2 will probably be a lot more likely

[Guest Igor]

Looks like my Ballistix set isn't dead after all... this is very strange, but I had a Kingston Valueram 2x512MB set in my computer during a lanparty last weekend, and I had some problems with overclocking the CPU by using dividers. So I ended up playing the weekend with my Opteron @9x215MHz with 1:1 divider. Kinda dissappointing 'cause I used to have it @9x312MHz no matter what the RAM divider was...

 

Anyway, this lead me to try the Ballistix set once again with 1:1 divider before sending them back to OcUK, and to my surprise these sticks worked fine @200MHz and @250MHz. This is with a setup that gave me errors in memtest after 5 minutes of testing just last week with BIOS defaults @200MHz 1:1. I then went on and ran memtest86+ @280MHz 3-3-3-7-1T for over 8 hours and got no errors! I don't know what has happened, but there seems to be nothing wrong with my Ballistix after all (anymore?).

 

I figured that the problem must then be either in the DFI board or in the Opteron. To repeat the error situation I loaded my 9x312MHz for CPU / 280MHz for RAM setup from CMOS Reloaded, and ran memtest86+ for another 8 hours, and prime for 9 hours, and still no errors. :eek2: This morning when I left to work I left HCI memtest running, will see how it does when I get home.

 

I have no idea what was bugging my system last week, but whatever it was seems to be gone now.

[eliatamby]

On another note, it severely disappoints me that Crucial hasn't fessed up to the problem and willingly offered refunds to purchasers who bought their products through Newegg or other known online retailers...

 

mate, they won't even refund defective products bought at their OWN online store.

[lancedefrance]

can someone PLEASSSSSE look at my post here and tell me if the symptoms are consistent with ballistix going bad?

 

http://www.dfi-street.com/forum/showthread...8007#post468007

[letdown427]

Just try running memtest again now?

 

My set are about 4months old, when I got them, I ran them at 2-2-2-5 at 200Mhz no problems, memtested for 65passes without failure!

 

In March started getting crashes in games. Memtested, got an error in #5 and then thousands in #8.

 

So dropped timings to stock 3-4-4-8, but went for 220Mhz for OC CPU as started playing Live For Speed again which loves CPU. Anyway, started getting annoying things like firefox freezing up until I minimized it and back again and stupid things, tried me some memtest again at 3-4-4-8 and at a mere 200Mhz, and sure enough errors galore.

 

These have been running at just 2.7v (crap mobo, gone now ) so I haven't exactly fried them. They've just died out on me. Fortunately, OcUK where I bought them were hapy to replace them, and I asked for some Mushkin XP4000 instead of just a replacement, and they're on their way