Crucial strikes again :(

[markrb]

I bought 2 256mb PC2100 modules from Crucial directly and had major issues with one of them. My machine wouldn't boot with just that module the other worked perfect.
I called tech support and they went over what I did to test it and decided it was a bad module. They replaced it after charging my credit card until they recieve the original back.
So far ok, but when I recieved the second module it worked perfect, but only showed 128mb. I figured they had just mislabeled the module, but when I called them they had me read the numbers off the chips and said that it was a 256mb module it was just bad. Ok so here we go again, they charged my credit card and shipped me out a new module. Believe it or not that one was dead. Machine wouldn't even post. I called them again and they said that I had indeed recieved another bad module and they would have to charge my card again until they got the original back. Now thats three charges and I haven't seen a credit yet. I am sure I will, but they are eating up my credit line.
I talked to them and said maybe my motherboard just doesn't like their memory, but I had to agree with them that I did have 1 module working perfectly in my system. If it was an incompatability issue this module shouldn't work either.
Crucial seems to be well loved here and it's probably just my bad luck that I had three bad modules in a row, but it still irks me a little.
The customer service people are always nice and pleasent to work with. The last women I talked to said that they have less then a 1% failure rate. I replied that with me they are at 75%. If the newest module fails I will give up and go to someone else.

Mark

 

[Vegito]

what kinda mobo and power supply do you have... i order about 40-50 gb of crucial memory annually with no problems yet

and i run server farms

 

[j@cko]

When I saw your title I thought the price has risen again!.. Guess not..

 

[markrb]

I am running a 400 watt Antec PSU with a Soltek SL-75DRV2 motherboard.
According to Crucial my motherboard has been tested and it is the memory that is bad.
I do have one stick that is 100% perfect.
Each of the failed modules had different behavior too. Thats why they think it is just bad memory.
Module 1. Posted, but XP wouldn't boot. Blue Screen failure every time.
Module 2. Posted only registered 128mb of a 256mb stick. The 128 mb that did register worked perfect. I didn't notice it only showed 128mb until 10 minutes into a memory tester program.
Module 3. No post, nothing.

I am not overclocking the FSB and have not touched the voltages.

Mark

 

[TunaBoo]

Uh, your motherboard is a piece. Try a new motherboard, I bet you it will work fine. Or possibly, you have a lot of static and fried your ram.


In any case, the failure rate of crucial ram seems to be (very high, but by crucial standards) 1 in 100 sticks. They are generally more compatible than any other brand of ram. In any case, each ram failure has a 1 in 100 chance. So 1/100 * 1/100 * 100 is 1/1,000,000. So if there TRUELY was a problem, this would happen to 1 in a million people. I would have to say that the failure rate would be more like 1 in 500, so 3 in a row would happen to 1 in 125 million. I do not think you are that (un)lucky. Maybe take your computer to a professional to install the ram, they have equipment to test the ram and the motherboard.


See what buying cheap motherboards gets you

 

[BeauJangles]

I would have to agree that a POS mobo is probably the cause of your ram not working. Just to test it out, why don't ya ship it to me? I can check if it works on my system

(it was worth a shot! )

 

[Double Trouble]

The odds of actually getting three defective modules like that under normal circumstances is so remote that you'd have a better chance of winning the state lottery. I'm guessing there's something else going wrong, the modules are getting fried, or the mobo has issues. Do you have another mobo perhaps that you could test some of these on?

 

[markrb]

I have been building systems for 15 years professionally.
I am a certified tech for Sun, SGI, Compaq and HP.
The Soltek motherboards are very highly regarded in most of the world outside of the US.
This motherboard has been nothing, but fast, stable and very reliable.
I have used Asus, Abit, Gigabyte, Biostar, Intel and Aopen boards and the Solteks I have used rank near the top as far as what I have actually seen.
I don't do nearly as many builds these days as I used to, but at one time I would build 10-15 systems a day, 5 days a week.
I do not have equipment to test DDR memory and I have actually come across entire batches that have been bad even from very highly reputable manufacturers.

Tuna Boo do you have actual experience with this board or are you just repeating what someone else has said?

I have seen with my very own eyes entire shipments of CPU's and memory come in bad. It is very rare, but it does happen.

One thing I neglected to state was that the code on all the bad modules was the same and the good one was different. I told this to the tech at Crucial and she said that this particular code was a manufacture date code. The good module had a code of 4-2 on all the chips, all the bad modules had 2-2. I really don't know if that is even meaningful.



Mark

 

[thomsbrain]

someone mentioned static, and i think that sounds likely. are you grounding yourself when you install the memory?

 

[markrb]

I have made literally hundreds of computers and follow very stringent static control techniques.

If it was my motherboard why then is the first module running 100% perfect?
Why also would all three have completley different types of failure?
If it was the motherboard I would expect the failure to be the same with each.

I really should have called one of my suppliers and asked them to put a module in a system and see if it fails, but I didn't think about it until it was too late. I already shipped them back. If the new one fails I will defiantely do that. I have a good relationship with them so they shouldn't have an issue testing it for me.

I am not saying that Crucial sucks or anything they are probably fantastic and I have used them in the past with no issues. It was just a little venting.

I am really starting to think that maybe the date code does have something to do with it. Maybe it's just that that code doesn't want to work in my system or maybe it was a bad run. Anyone else have Crucial memory with a code on the chips in the upper right hand corner of 2-2?

Bad runs happen, just like good runs happen. Just look at all the OC'ers looking for specific date codes for CPU's, not just steppings.

Mark

 

[DefRef]

<< The Soltek motherboards are very highly regarded in most of the world outside of the US. >>

Oh, there's your problem right there: You're in America. Try the mobo in Canada. It should work fine.

 

[Gunbuster]

"I have been building systems for 15 years professionally."

Do you know you loose a good 95%+ credibility when you say that.

I dont care how good you are or how many puters you have put together, that phrase sets off alarm bells in the heads of Tech. Sup/RMA CSR's/anyone in the retail biz

Just warning you

 

[markrb]

Ok so I worded that badly and opened myself up to that.

I should have said that:
Soltek boards are highly regarded outside the US, because they are not well known here.

I did get the board from a Canadian vendor. Do you think it only speaks French and thats my problem?

I will ask my Step Dad to swear at it in French when I put the newest module in. Put a little scare into it.

Seriously though for the most part I am very happy with this board. I was originally going to get the Epox, but all the posts about problems with it
scared me off a little. I was then thinking about the Asus, but it was more then I was willing to spend on my home system, same with Abit.
I then saw the article at Tom's Hardware guide and remembered a few years ago I had used a couple of their boards when I was in a pinch and needed
something fast. They were better then I thought. Certainly better the the Biostar boards I used before.
I decided to give this board a shot and other then the memory problem that I don't think is the boards fault anyway, I could be wrong, I am very happy
with it. It's as stable if not more so then many other boards I have used.

If it turns out it is the motherboard I will admit it. What bugs me is that people calling things POS based on nothing but third hand knowlege. Before you
call anything a POS try it yourself. Until you have actually used it yourself you have no basis for your own opinion.

Mark

 

[Bozo Galora]

Yes, I agree (from experience), Soltek is one of the best. Crucial is also one of the best.
I'm sure you already know about the double sided memory prob with some mobo.

But I am confused why you took the trouble to post this here. You are an experienced builder, one stick
works well, the other three don't, Crucial sent you 3 bad from the same lot, they admit it, they are pleasant,
they are sending out replacements. Whats the problem??? What does this have to do with people here?
A $45 stick of RAM is hurting your credit card??? You must not be a very highly paid Sun tech.
Perhaps if you posted the bad lot numbers and said watch out for these, I might understand your effort.

Since you have many systems available to you, the simple thing to do is try the RAM in another mobo. Right?

 

[markrb]

Gunbuster I have found that to be quite the opposite. If the person you are speaking to understands you have a high level of competance they tend to forgo the the more obvious questions like is your monitor plugged in etc... I deal with many tech support people and once they understand where I am coming from I often get bumped to level 2 support. It's not that I am any better than anyone else it's just that most companies set their level 1 support up for end users and unlike most of the people that visit forums like this the average technical knowledge is very low. It is also company dependent as well. If you call Sun or SGI the 1st level support is very technical and as good as most companies level 2 support, but the average person calling them is most likely from the support team of the company that is having a problem.
In this particular case with Crucial I talked to both level 1 and level 2 support and both were very good.

I did 2nd level support for EMC for a year and I know that just saying you have blah, blah years is crap, but you learn quickly who actually knows their poop.

Mark

 

[markrb]

Bozo Galora you are right. I shouldn't have posted when I was a bit peed off.
I broke my own never post mad rule. It often leads to stupid posts that are ill timed and tempered.

Part of my reason for posting, although I never stated it, was that this was my first DDR build and wanted to get some feedback on if others have had issues.
I mostly have done Intel in the past.
I became defensive after a post and shouldn't have.

I will not post on this topic anymore until I know more and will try to make it more constructive.

Mark

 

[Byte]

I had similar problems and exchanged my mobo and voa la, it worked. Chances of memory breaking or pretty rare, i mean how else can they offer lifetime warranty?

 

[Kingofcomputer]

did you put in the good module in dimm1 and try the bad modules everytime in dimm2?
did you try the bad modules alone in dimm1?
if you did, so there must be an incompatibility problem of those "2-2" Crucial modules on this particular mb.



<< Soltek boards are highly regarded outside the US, because they are not well known here. >>


I don't agree on this. Soltek is not tier 1 mb manufacturer, it's not highly regarded in Asia too.

 

[NaughtyusMaximus]

I've had one stick of RAM go bad. It worked fine for 3 months, and then died. I don't see the likelyhood of ever getting three bad sticks in a row as being very high at all - I'd go to a local computer shop and see if they can test your ram or motherboard for you.

 

[markrb]

Every stick was tested in the first slot alone. I also tried a couple of them in the second slot with nothing in the first slot.
Like I said i should have asked someone to try it in another board for me. I only have PC133 motherboards around.
I will wait and see on the next module.

I guess it could be the motherboard, but I just can't see why this module works perfect if it was the motherboard.

We shall see. The techs at Crucial seem to think it's bad memory and not a motherboard issue, but I guess they could be taking the hit rather then cause a potential argument, I wouldn't, but how would they know that.

I know that Soltek is probably not the best motherboard in the world, but it's not complete junk either. It was a bit of a risk going with this board when they have so little presence in the US, but I chose to take it knowing this.

Sorry if I sounded like a jerk earlier.

Mark

 

[Kingofcomputer]

<< The techs at Crucial seem to think it's bad memory and not a motherboard issue, >>

That's the Crucial way of doing business.

For example, when I upgrade to KT133 mb, I used existing Crucial pc133 memory bought about half year, it can't run at cpu100/mem133 properly, I called Crucial, they just said it's bad memory, asked me to send back to get replacement. I didn't believe that, later the mb had bios update released, then it can run at 100/133 properly.

So Crucial don't care if the memory is good or bad or your mb has imcompatibility issue, they just give you a replacement.

 

[Thor_Sevan]

Just for fun, try replacing your current working ram in all the memory slots 3 times and see if it works that way.
If it stops working.... then... something is really wrong ! If not, maybe the mobo has a specific problem with many simms.

Thor

 

[TunaBoo]

I have spent years in the biz, but find it too simplistic for my tastes (anyone with an IQ of 50 can build and troubleshoot any PC out there without a problem). I am finishing up a CS degree from a rather difficult school and tend to work real jobs (not tech support at a crappy company - bwaa haa). I could give a rats ass if you have made 500 billion computers. You are the kind of cocky-know-nothings I deal with on a daily basis. For gods sake, go to one of your 5000 other computers and put the ram in. I have found motherboards where 1 stick of ram worked, but no others. Move to a different motherboard and it is fine. I know people at IVY-Tech who have better troubleshooting skills than you - and I will not get into your rants in this thread.





<< Ok so I worded that badly and opened myself up to that.

I should have said that:
Soltek boards are highly regarded outside the US, because they are not well known here.

I did get the board from a Canadian vendor. Do you think it only speaks French and thats my problem?

I will ask my Step Dad to swear at it in French when I put the newest module in. Put a little scare into it.

Seriously though for the most part I am very happy with this board. I was originally going to get the Epox, but all the posts about problems with it
scared me off a little. I was then thinking about the Asus, but it was more then I was willing to spend on my home system, same with Abit.
I then saw the article at Tom's Hardware guide and remembered a few years ago I had used a couple of their boards when I was in a pinch and needed
something fast. They were better then I thought. Certainly better the the Biostar boards I used before.
I decided to give this board a shot and other then the memory problem that I don't think is the boards fault anyway, I could be wrong, I am very happy
with it. It's as stable if not more so then many other boards I have used.

If it turns out it is the motherboard I will admit it. What bugs me is that people calling things POS based on nothing but third hand knowlege. Before you
call anything a POS try it yourself. Until you have actually used it yourself you have no basis for your own opinion.

Mark >>

 

[Uclagamer_99]

So Crucial don't care if the memory is good or bad or your mb has imcompatibility issue, they just give you a replacement.

ummm...that's all they can really do for you...either it's the mobo or the memory...and they have nothing to do with the mobo so all they can do is send you a new stick...at least they are doing THAT for you...some companies won't even care and would put you at fault after multiple failures

most likely it is your mobo, try a different one, i'm sure you can find a friend to test your mem for you

 

[Doomguy]

TunaBoo: With an IQ of 50 you would have trouble talking, much less building/trouble shooting PCs. From what you've said Tuna, if seems like you've got a huge ego. Instead of insulting him like the mature person you are, why don't you help him?


markrb: Ignore the morons with their lack of morals. Here's what I recommend you do. Try another brand of memory in your motherboard. Doesn't work? Replace the motherboard.