Crucial Ballistix 2x1GB PC4000 kit gone bad (merged)

[Keekles]

Just got off the phone with NewEgg. Since I RMA'd these ballistix once, and they sent me the wrong kit once, they are going to issue a refund with a re-stocking fee. If I place another order for another 2GB kit, they said they will waive the restocking fee, all I have to do is call them with the new order number.

 

Hello Redlines.

 

 

I am going the same way.

 

RMA these and get the Redline 2x1GB kit.

[hmf]

Good move...I did the same thing after my second set of crucials was bad. Newegg waived the shipping and restocking fees both times.

[deathman20]

Just got me some G.Skill PC4000's. They work great at the timings stated, and 2.6V as adding more voltage actually doesn't help out much at all in my initial tests.

 

Best thing is they run 33C under load! 7C cooler then the Ballistix did idling, now what is up with that, and thats running same voltages? The G.Skill is even running at 260Mhz with these settings and temps.

[Slammin]

I'm not ready to say my ballistics are going bad, but I will say that they are changing. Could this be the burn-in phenomenom? What I'm seeing is that I'm having to use more voltage to keep them stable, but they are still stable.

 

I used to only need 2.8v to run them at 270 but now I need 2.93. They still seem to top out at the same DD590 as they did when I first got them too, but they need more voltage. I also wonder too though that it could be some setting I have made during the past months I've spent tweaking them and just have not stumbled back across the particuliar setting.

 

I say this because I do have one old profile in CMOS that was set to 270 with 2.8v and it seems stable, but slower too with benchmarks. I guess I need to find out what tweak I used that could be causing me to need extra voltage on them.

 

Also, side question, but both Everest and CPUz say I am in dual channel mode, and I am using the orange slots, but why do these utilities say my ram is in slot 3+4? I would have expected to see them report slots 1+3 or 2+4.

[LanceDiamond]

I'm not ready to say my ballistics are going bad, but I will say that they are changing. Could this be the burn-in phenomenom? What I'm seeing is that I'm having to use more voltage to keep them stable, but they are still stable.

 

I'll say it for you Your ballistics are going bad. That's my oppinion anyway. As I understand the theory of burn-in you'd expect to have to use LESS voltage once your memory is burned in. You run it hot and high voltage to burn it in, with lots of cooling to prevent it from cooking itself. Then you can back off the voltage or get more agressive speeds at the same voltage. It sounds like yours has gone the other way - you need more voltage for the same speed. If you're inside 30 days, I highly recommend you at least call and get an RMA - maybe run it another week but you have the RMA just in case (Newegg's RMAs are good for 2 weeks.)

 

I'm not trying to be a Ballistics basher but what you're seeing sounds a lot like what mine did. Had to go higher on voltage for same stability at first, then top speed dropped, then stability at any voltage was gone, then the memory was gone and swapped.

[Vigilante]

I'm not ready to say my ballistics are going bad, but I will say that they are changing. Could this be the burn-in phenomenom? What I'm seeing is that I'm having to use more voltage to keep them stable, but they are still stable.

 

 

I am starting to think the same thing. I just got my 3rd set Nov 24th and they have been running at 270 1t @ 2.7Vwith no issues. Last few days I have noticied some stability issues, so i would run memtest and everything tested OK, until this morning. I came home from work moved the mouse and it crashed. It would not boot at all. Wouldn't even boot into safe mode, and I couldn't even run system repair off of the windows disk. I then went in to the bios and ran memtest and I got over 1000 errors in test 5. This is not heat related since my house is like 67 degrees and my pc is running super cool with all the fans. I had to bump up the voltage from 2.7 to 2.8 and now it passed 8 and a half hours of memtest again. I am sure this set is on its way out. Once it quits passing memtest again at stock speeds I am sending it back to newegg and I will not accept anything other that a refund or exchange for a different type of memory. I think 3 stikes is more than enough.

[PrometheuSBoxeR]

Well, I am sad to say that I just found this thread. I also read through the entire thing, and it seems like I am joining the bandwagon. I purchased my first set of Ballistix from NewEgg on 10/17/05. I had them running fine for about 1 month, until mine decided to go bad like the rest of them. I got random BSOD's and everything that could go wrong did. I ended up booting with only 1 stick and they worked, found the other stick was bad. So I called up Crucial and with no hassle they sent me a RMA. I am still as we speak waiting for my new set to come back. If they do, and hopefully they dont *crosses his fingers* end up failing on me. What is the best way to tackle this problem and get a working PC up and running. Im sure most of you know what I mean, or were/are in the same boat.

[deathman20]

Well, I am sad to say that I just found this thread. I also read through the entire thing, and it seems like I am joining the bandwagon. I purchased my first set of Ballistix from NewEgg on 10/17/05. I had them running fine for about 1 month, until mine decided to go bad like the rest of them. I got random BSOD's and everything that could go wrong did. I ended up booting with only 1 stick and they worked, found the other stick was bad. So I called up Crucial and with no hassle they sent me a RMA. I am still as we speak waiting for my new set to come back. If they do, and hopefully they dont *crosses his fingers* end up failing on me. What is the best way to tackle this problem and get a working PC up and running. Im sure most of you know what I mean, or were/are in the same boat.

 

Best way currently? Sell them and buy new ram.

[Craybit]

I have had my second set of Ballistix now for a week and I have been running them night and day at 250, 3383, 2.7v on 704-2bta bios. I started by running 48 hours (!) dual prime95, then 24 hours HCI Memtest. Now, when I'm at work it runs dual prime and when I'm asleep it runs HCI. So far, no problems. If the ballistix can put up with this for about 2 months, maybe I'll start to relax and think Crucial has solved whatever this "degrading" thing is but I gotta say, it kind of sux wondering if or when it might go bad. Has Crucial actually acknowledged to anyone that there's a problem or are they just cheerfully sending out RMA replacements?

[ltlo7]

I just RMA’d my set of Ballistix’s with Crucial and wondering if my next set will die out on me again? After reading this thread it seems that this might turn into a big problem? Not sure what Crucial is doing about this problem but it seems that they need to recall and replace these modules with something that doesn’t die or become faulty after a few months of use?

[Guest ElAguila]

I am hoping with som many of the sets of 503's having problems that newegg has yanked them from the shelf.

[grunjee]

Just want to add my experience here...

 

I am now on my 3rd set of Ballistix 2x1 GB PC4000 ram. My 1st set had a faulty module... it happens... got it RMA'd. I purchased directly from Crucial btw.

 

Replacement set came in, and I MemTested it over 30 hours. Passed without a problem, and all was rosey for about 2 months. I made no changes on my rig to the bios settings, nor did I flash the bios during this time. One day Windows just crapped out and couldn't even open IE. I fired up MemTest and sure enough one of the sticks was producing errors.

 

For the record, at no time did I overclock either of my sets; I ran them stock at 250 MHz with the spec timings. And I ran them at 2.5 - 2.6 V. Now I know some will say 'give them 2.8V' - but when I did this, with both sets, I'd get errors.

 

I thought I just had bad luck, but after reading this thread it seems I am not alone.

 

This has definitely made me question why I ever chose Crucial memory over OCZ... and I'm just crossing my fingers that my 3rd set doesn't die.