anyone ever killed his ram by overclocking ? I just did :(

[flexy]

hi,


i got my system running since december now...having a 256MB DDR266 crucial ramstick. I had my FSB overclocked to 144.

Well yesterday (just before i was going to install my brandnew XP professional)...i got this horrible crash, screwed up windows, lost some data...

I did various tests...until i came to the idea to run a memchecker (ctram51.exe). I ran this checker before thru the whole 256MB - and it run without a flaw, like 2 weeks ago.

Yesterday my upper 128MB of the 256MB were reported defective - also the bios memory self check said "memory fail". I of course tried to re-seat the ram, put it into another bank etc.....it's definetly defectice.

Anyone else ever shot his RAM by overclocking ??????

Btw. i have good cooling in my system (as far as i can say)....i have an intake fan in the front...i even widened the holes so i get better airflow for the intake...i have a blowing fan on the back of my case. (In addition to the 8045 on my CPU and the PSU fan). Case temps usually 29C, CPU 40C idle, 47 load.

Didnt prevent this from happen...

greetings

Btw. i think the ctram51.exe is a very good ram test (maybe better than memtest86)...it writes itself to video memory and executes from there, it tests the video memory it is in...and then it tests all the physical ram available from withing the video memory.

 

[flexy]

<< Yeah, such tragic things happen . I havent killed a stick yet, though. That's b/c I use very generic, no-name RAM. I can't go at all above it's rated speed which is 133MHz, at 135MHz some errors occur and at 150MHz it doesn't power at all (and thanks God!). Would not do CAS2 anywhere above 100MHz, the same - errors, corruption occurs. Thus, I never OC my RAM, just the CPU and FSB. The RAM is at it's rated 133MHz right now and it's very stable.

I think that your RAM just burned out. 144MHz is acceptable only for hand-picked advanced quality memory, like Mushkin or Kingston, I believe. While Crucial may be of a good quality, it's not a paragon for OCing purpose, IMVHO. >>



well...i am always reading about people clocking their crucial DDR2100 as high as 150.....i didnt even think that i have a "high" overclock or something with my 144....and the other thing is that of course the sys was running fine since mid. december.....'til yesterday....it was also reported stable according to many tests i did over time..including prime95 etc etc...

Now i am really afraid about overclocking...prolly wont go over 140 with the next stick now...that's 7mhz over the specs....i am geting really fed up with overclocking..you knows just 2 weeks ago i received a replaced radeon 8500 retail because my 1st one (obviously) has been damaged overclocking it 10mhz on core/mem (same problem with the card...only there it was the video memory cranking out)....now the sysmem.... and btw. i did NOT save on my components...i thought i bought "good quality" parts including soyo mobo...crucial ram etc....

Do you think that Mushkin or Kingston is better than Crucial ???

 

[WaTaGuMp]

I killed my cheap ass ram that I had before getting my Crucial ram. I have a 1.5 cas timings avaliable on my mobo settings and I tried it and got the BEEEEEEEEP of death.

 

[rondeemc]

For what its worth this can happen without overclocking. I had to rma a stick of 256 ddr back to crucial a couple of months back. Problem was my system would switch between 256 and 128. Crucial was very interested in seeing the unit. Apparently they were seeing a high number of failures with the 256 sticks. Of course they crossshipped me a new unit and had to charge me $31 (remember those days) until they received the defective one. Should be no problem returning it.

 

[flexy]

<< For what its worth this can happen without overclocking. I had to rma a stick of 256 ddr back to crucial a couple of months back. Problem was my system would switch between 256 and 128. Crucial was very interested in seeing the unit. Apparently they were seeing a high number of failures with the 256 sticks. Of course they crossshipped me a new unit and had to charge me $31 (remember those days) until they received the defective one. Should be no problem returning it. >>



i called them as first thing in the morning today and got my RMA #.

cross shipping is nice...but since i am broke (bought 19" monitor i dont have money left on my acct. to charge like $90.....so i send the unit tonite. The lady on the phone told me it will take a week or so.

The best thing is that we found an unused router at work with an DDR266 stick (hope this stick is ok, tho)..and guess where this stick will reside over the next week 'til i get my replacement back from crucial? ))

btw. the current ram prices are silly.....i paid $29 when i got mine in december........now it's like over $90.....

 

[Wuzup101]

Hehe...that's why I buy from crucial...lifetime warenty...Isn't it great. You can burn um up and still return um. I have no problems with my 384mbs (in 2 sticks obviously) of pc133 @150mhz fsb w/ 4 way interleave on.

 

[Olias]

I had a 256MB stick of Crucial PC2100 go wonky on me. I was running it at 150FSB/2.7v and the system started acting-up after being stable for some time before that. I noticed it was only detecting it as 128MB. Even at 133FSB it was only showing 128MB. I tried it in another PC and it wouldn't even boot. Crucial cross shipped me a replacement and I now stay at 143FSB.

 

[flexy]

<< Hehe...that's why I buy from crucial...lifetime warenty...Isn't it great. You can burn um up and still return um. I have no problems with my 384mbs (in 2 sticks obviously) of pc133 @150mhz fsb w/ 4 way interleave on. >>



i think crucial has a great customer service, fast shipping and the ram is of good quality....nothing to complain !!!!


However, i found some other websites (eg. www.ocsystem(s?).com etc....)..where they sell CAS2 2400 DDRAM for overclockers, with heat spreaders and stuff (from OCZ) ...and they're even cheaper than crucial's !!! There are a lot of really good brands around with better specs and on par (or even better) prices than crucial's cas2.5 2100 DDR ram !!!!!


greetings

 

[RalfHutter]

flexy - You're right, there are a lot of other very good brands of RAM besides Crucial (i.e. - Mushkin, Corsair, Kingmax), BUT please don't include OCZ in that list. Do some searches for "OCZ" here, and at HardOCP, Hard Forums, Overclockers.com forums and see the very low opinion most people have of OCZ RAM. There's a lot of real bad feelings about this company's business practices. Caveat Emptor.

 

[xSkillZ]

i got 2x256MB SDRam broken with O/C... and i only tried 140mhz fsb that time... well... i got em changed and back i got 1 high quality stick (M.tec) it can do 150MHz FSB at the most aggressive timings so i'm happy... and i don't know if it can go higher.. cos my mobo don't like any stick over 150mhz fsb... but 150 works just fine yo!

 

[Assimilator1]

Flexy
How do you know overclocking killed it? ,that sounds very unlikely to me especially with the modest FSB you had.I would say that was coincidence
I have the same RAM at 153 MHz CAS2-2-2-6 & 4way inter & it still running fine so far (since late November ,running SETI 24/7).
When I 1st set it up I was stunned it could do CAS2 at such a high FSB

Btw in the past I have had PC66 CL2 RAM at 100MHz ,PC100 CL2 @ 126MHz both were fine ,however in my fathers old PC he had a stick die on him & his system wasn't even overclocked

 

[MatthewF01]

Has anyone ever heard about Samsung 256 MB DDR2100??

I have 2 sticks, and Im running all my board settings (K7S5A) at the best (ive done research) and I havent fried them yet, but how can i tell they are running faster than at the default settings? Is BIOS the only method of overclocking, and should I trust these mem. for doing so?

 

[Freshbrain]

Well, 144 doesn't seem too high to me, besides, before burning it should have given some inestability and errors, not just die... The only RAM I saw dead was because the Voltage was at 2.9 and fluctuating in a deffective motherboard. How high was your voltage?

 

[jiffylube1024]

Hmm, I also think it's coincidental that your RAM fried if you only upped it to 144 MHz. Unless you cranked the voltage too high. Myself I'm running 1 stick of 256 MB Crucial PC2100 @ 166 MHz w/ 2-2-2-5 timings (the most agressive) at default voltage with zero problems right now. It boots and runs @ 174 MHz 2-2-2-5 but with some errors; I quickly reset it to 166MHz.

Edit: Oh yeah and I got it recently (withing a month) so maybe the yields have increased, as this seems to run just like a DDR2700 stick would.

 

[Deskstar]

I doubt that overclocking by itself killed your ram . The combo of some voltage leakage inside the ram, the higher voltage load that you applied, plus the overclocking probably did it in.
A number of sites have overclocked Crucial PC2100 DDR sticks. I think that the highest I saw was 177 at CAS 2 and 187 at CAS 2.5. Of course these settings were not kept for months on end. Still that memory is quality stuff and will overclock substantially. I would not be at all surprised to see Crucial release PC2700 (DDR333) memory in the very near future to compete with others and to fill the slots of the newer motherboards for Intel chips.

 

[Assimilator1]

jiffylube1024
Myself I'm running 1 stick of 256 MB Crucial PC2100 @ 166 MHz w/ 2-2-2-5 timings (the most agressive) at default voltage with zero problems right now.

How the heck did you manage that!?:Q ,any tricks I should know about? ,I see from your sig that is in a P4 rig ,what chipset does it use?
Btw your rig would be awesome at SETI

 

[treemonkey]

I fried 2 sticks of Crucial PC2100. Love that lifetime warr. The second time there was smoke and the heat partially melted one of my DIMMs... now I can only run 256MB On the bright side, I sold the stick I RMAed for 33.00 for 88.00.

 

[Assimilator1]

Woah! thats a pretty serious failure!:Q ,what MHz was that at? ,what voltage?