How good is Crucial Ballstix

[EvilSponge]

Hello all,

I am running the following system:
Abit IP35-E
e2160 @ 3.2ghz 400Mhz
I have 4 1 gig sticks of crucial ballistix DDR2 PC6400
@ 2.2V
Timings of
4-4-4-12-24
5-5-5-15-30
I have tried the above timings it seems lately my system has been going unstable
It blue screens out is the memory losing it? If so what do folks recomend as a replacement?

Thanks,
-Eric

 

[manimal]

Run memtest. Isolate and restest. Back your OC off to stock and retest at rated speeds. Open up the side of the case or put a spot cool on it to see if your overheating. So many different things can cause a BSOD you need to isolate.

 

[EvilSponge]

Thanks for the advise ok I'll mem test though when I removed two of the mem sticks they were very warm
Only happens during viedo game play never surfing or encoding video ect I suspect that the memory is heating up and causing my BSOD
I have allot of 120mm fans in the case so I'm surprised does memory degrade over time they are about two years old now

-Eric

 

[n7]

Yup, run some Memtest86+ or HCI Memtest in Windows.

Hate to say, but those Ballistix are likely among the most common ones i've seen to fail based on reading of tons of issue in forums.

Keep in mind that 4 dimms puts a beating on the motherboard, so slightly higher voltage to the NB/MCH might be necessary, especially if you test them individually & find all test okay separately, but error when all four are installed.

 

[EvilSponge]

Thanks N7 I ran test 3 5 passes on mem test with three sticks and it passed fine. Tomorrow I'm going to run the full mem test for awhile and see if I can get them to error.
How many full passes would you say thumbs up to the memory? If the memory passes I'll try raising the NB/MCH to see if it improves my stability. Yes I have heard some stuff about ballistix as well. If they fail I suppose I'll try gskill I hear people have good luck with them. I'm running three sticks to see if the 4th stick is causing issues. If it works 3gigs is fine for what I do. I can put the spare 1 gig stick in my HTPC or server

-Eric

 

[n7]

Well, if three dimms pass that's great i suppose.

Test that fourth one separately, & then test it with all four & see what happens.

I don't think you need to run more than a pass or few.

If you have 6-8 GB then you'll want to start testing with HCI Memtest in Windows more, since quite frankly, Memtest86+ just doesn't cut it. (HCI shows NB instability as well; Memtest86+ doesn't really. And it find errors WAY faster than Memtest86+)

But for 4 GB it's fine.

 

[Quiksilver]

Although your blue screening at the moment, when you get the problem figured out you should lower the vDIMM just to where it is stable. I was also seem the latest rash of problematic crucial sticks coming into play have all been of those running them at 2.2v. (which you shouldn't be doing unless you have active ram cooling). Instead, set it to 1.8v and see if it is stable at that, if not 1.9v, test again, 2.0, etc. all the way up to 2.2v until your stable and if you happen to need 2.2v to be stable spend a bit of money some active cooling.

Also, sames your using 4x 1GB modules; did you increase your northbridge voltage by .01 or .02, you usually need to when using 4 sticks.v

 

[EvilSponge]

Hi guys ok I have some back ground and results to report for whatever reason my pc will not boot with this ram unless it is running 2.2V. I usually have to put in a spare stick of DDR2 667 that's native 1.8V for it to boot. If the cmos has been cleared and running the ram at 1.8v default. So on to the testing running sticks individually. So far they pass individually but fail in a group I will try and increasing the NB voltage and report back.

-Eric R
PS The crucial website says the normal voltage for these is 2.2V? why active cooling?

 

[EvilSponge]

Update stick #4 failed badly and it happens to be the stick that I received as a replacement for a failed stick last year. It seem sticks 1-3 test out fine individually but when combined fail I'll try increasing the NB voltage and see if I pass I'll report back

-Eric

 

[EvilSponge]

Running three good sticks with increased NB voltage how many full passes of mem test says I'm good?

-Eric

 

[EvilSponge]

Update with three supposed good sticks mem test seems to be running slower than a single stick test?

-Eric

 

[LOUISSSSS]

i say 24 hours of memtest is good, that should come out to about 20-30 passes? i did 39 passes on my last memtest run haha

 

[EvilSponge]

Ok thanks if I decide to dump the crucial sticks I'm thinking og going gskill any thought about them?

-Eric

 

[LOUISSSSS]

gskill is good

 

[LOUISSSSS]

wait why would u dump the crucials? as in throw them out?

 

[EvilSponge]

Naw just sell them and try out the gskill want to buy them? So far all three under test have passed 1 pass will run for 24 hours as you suggested to be sure they work well.
It's clear bad stick #4 caused my issues need to RMA for a new one as they are lifetime warranty. After raising the MCH slightly things are moving along. Thanks guys for the NB voltage suggestion.

-Eric

 

[EvilSponge]

Ok results are in ran mem test 12 hours for 11 passes so I'd call three of four good thanks for all the help guys.

-Eric

 

[Quiksilver]

Originally posted by: EvilSponge
The crucial website says the normal voltage for these is 2.2V? why active cooling?

I'm pretty sure crucial lists the maximum supported voltage for the sticks and not the required voltage, yes its confusing. Also 2.2V is causes a lot of heat and crucials heatspreaders aren't very good at all which is why you need active cooling if you need to use 2.2V.

 

[EvilSponge]

Hey Quicksilver your right I'm running my three good sticks at 2.0v and they are fine

-Eric

 

[EvilSponge]

Ok I'm embarrassed now granted I did find one bad stick but my real problem was not with the memory I upped my vcore another notch now everything is rock solid I have a bigger vdrop than I expected

-Eric

 

[LOUISSSSS]

yea i'm running my 3 x 1gb crucial ddr2 800's @ 2.15 in bios (+0.35vRam)
and i use a NExus 120x25 1000rpm fan to cool them. so far so good

 

[markreflex]

crap memory pass it buy.

 

[Midnight Rambler]

Yeah, right, Micron D9's on board and they're crap. LMAO. Sorry, no offense intended, but they are pretty much the defacto IC on most high performance DDR-2 memory, incl. the G.Skill peeps recommend in this thread. Might wanna take a look here.

Sure you can get a bad stick, even two, sh!t happens. Call Crucial and they will replace it/them.

 

[Quiksilver]

Originally posted by: Midnight Rambler
Yeah, right, Micron D9's on board and they're crap. LMAO. Sorry, no offense intended, but they are pretty much the defacto IC on most high performance DDR-2 memory, incl. the G.Skill peeps recommend in this thread. Might wanna take a look here.

Sure you can get a bad stick, even two, sh!t happens. Call Crucial and they will replace it/them.

QFT, their's only a small handful of manufactures that don't use micron IC's now.

Edit:

Hey, didn't say this before in another thread and said the same thing xD

 

[nyker96]

Using 4 stick of it OCed to DDR1000 5-5-5-15-24@2.2v no problem. yes they pretty hot. I do need to put a fan to cool it.