Does Ballistix PC3200 Memory die?

[walkman]

I originally had 4x512 which worked fine for 6 months. But then my computer started acting flaky until I took out 2 of the sticks.

Again my computer ran fine for a couple of months. Except Acronis Workstation backup software wouldn't work properly - which they diagnose as a memory problem. I thought they were crazy until I started getting flaky crashes again.

I tried different combinations of sticks and slots but my computer was crashing right and left. I finally went down to one 512 stick and every thing is working stable again (just slow).

The memory is 16TG and I'm running 2.5-3-3-8 2T which is what was originally working for the memory.


Does it sound plausible that this memory would be dying on me? I don't overclock and I have a P180 case with the fans turned up to keep everything cool.

 

[Bobthelost]

Yes. IIRC The Crucial stuff had a reputation for death in the past.

 

[myocardia]

Why are you running that RAM 2½-3-3-8-2T, if you aren't overclocking? It's supposed to run at 2-2-2-6-1T. You do know that it requires 2.8v vdimm, no matter what frequency it's run at, don't you?

 

[walkman]

I'm using those timings because that's what it took to get the 4 sticks running in the first place after conversations with Crucial phone support.


I could probably change settings now since I'm not using all 4 slots, but I was trying to find out if memory cards can go bad over time.

 

[imported_nunya]

Seems really weird to me for you to have so many bad sticks. Try running MEMTEST overnight and see if you're getting any errors.

 

[walkman]

After swapping around a lot of combinations of sticks and slots, it looks like 2 of the sticks are bad.

It is weird. Memtest will run without errors, but winrar and acronis workstation generate errors messages that state there are memory problems.

With the sticks in, the system crashes several times a day. With the sticks out, the system runs flawlessly.

 

[Ultralight]

Yes, absolutely, Crucial had fits with their Ballistix PC 4000 in particular but their PC 3200 8TG had the same problems; it would suddenly go bad after 6 months and they yanked it off the market. Their PC 3200 16TG was supposed to be okay. Now you've got me worried because I, too, am running 2 gigs of their Ballistix 3200 16TG in a 4x512 set-up. My fingers are crossed.

A shame, too, because Crucial usually has high quality.

 

[IdaGno]

Originally posted by: Bobthelost
Yes. IIRC The Crucial stuff had a reputation for death in the past.

made for a lengthy discussion here nearly ten months ago now

 

[Bozo Galora]

there was also a very lengthy thread about this on Hardforum, about 5 months ago, with specific chip numbers, but I think crucial has pretty much fixed this with current stock?