I thought PNY was a reputable memory brand? WTF?

[acemcmac]

I just bought 2 512mb pc3200 sticks from Best Buy at $52 each. I figured after shuffling some ram around, I'd be able to get to 256+256 in my media pc (2-slot VIA KM266Pro) and 512+512+256 on my VMware server (3-slot NForce2).

Last night, I came home, pulled the 256 from the Via box and the 2x256's from the nforce box and swapped them. Then I added the two 512's to the nforce box.

Not only does windows now take 4-5x as long to start up (hangs at a black screen for several minutes before the login box pops up), but once I get in, I am subject to CONSTANT memory errors. I know the 256 is good because I used that forever in my media pc. I clearly have either one or two bad, $52 DIMMS. Even stranger is the fact that that the motherboard insists on running in dual channel, even though the memory amounts on each channel are asymetrical (512+256 vs 512). I pray that none of these memory errors affected the resyncing of the mirrors

WTF?!??! :| :| :| :| :|

 

[pontifex]

just because a company is supposed to be reputable, doesn't mean they can't make mistakes or make an occasional bad product.

 

[Tobolo]

Not my favorite brand of ram to use, but I have never had a problem with PNY before.

 

[acemcmac]

Originally posted by: pontifex
just because a company is supposed to be reputable, doesn't mean they can't make mistakes or make an occasional bad product.

but two of them?

I really really hope memtest will be able to isolate which sticks are bad. There's really no excuse for a memory manufacturer not to test their ram to make sure they don't have flaws like this. They have to test them anyway to make sure they have complete traces. Why wouldn't they stress test them while they're there?

 

[acemcmac]

Oh, and I think Bestbuy will blacklist me if I take these back. I've fried several Linksys wireless bridges, had a window airconditioner with a fan that ground into the shroud out of the box and at least two or three other returns, just in the last 4 months.

 

[pontifex]

Originally posted by: acemcmac
Oh, and I think Bestbuy will blacklist me if I take these back. I've fried several Linksys wireless bridges, had a window airconditioner with a fan that ground into the shroud out of the box and at least two or three other returns, just in the last 4 months.

maybe it isn't the company's fault after hearing that?
damn, wtf are you doing?

 

[acemcmac]

Originally posted by: pontifex

Originally posted by: acemcmac
Oh, and I think Bestbuy will blacklist me if I take these back. I've fried several Linksys wireless bridges, had a window airconditioner with a fan that ground into the shroud out of the box and at least two or three other returns, just in the last 4 months.

maybe it isn't the company's fault after hearing that?
damn, wtf are you doing?

My linksys wireless bridges just get really hot and stop working after a while <shrug> I don't think they like being torrented with. I bought a pair of window airconditioners and one had a bent drive shaft so that the fan rubbed on the shroud. It sounded like a lawnmower in my master bedroom. I've bought some other junk from them in the last few months that I've had problems with too. I've bought some other junk that I haven't had problems with as well...

I'm just tired of taking stuff back because it doesen't work right.

 

[ForumMaster]

even then, it is no excuse. run memtest and try booting windows with either one of the sticks to see which one is bad. i've never heard of bad things with PNY. maybe contact PNY and RMA it to them?

 

[isekii]

maybe it just isn't compatible with your setup.

 

[neutralizer]

I consider PNY brands to cheap and crappable, comparable to generic.

 

[BurnItDwn]

I haven't purchased any PNY products in a while, but I do remember buying some PNY 64mb SDRAM DIMMs back in the 90s and having an issue with one. PNY RMA'd it without any hastle. At that time they had a lifetime warranty on all their RAM, I don't know if they still do.