Crucial Ballistix Problems

[NAiLs]

So I purchased 4x 1GB modules for my PC that I just built, DDR2 Crucial Ballistix PC8500 memory, and ran into problems already. I noticed that Crysis was crashing constantly and giving me a BSoD, so I checked out my Vista performance monitor. I was seeing memory errors all over the board. My installation of WoW apparently had a problem because it crashes when it loads.

I'm now running MemTest 86+ on my sticks one by one, and the first stick got errors galore right away (first 20% of the test) in several addresses. I decided that was enough data for that stick, so I moved onto a new stick. This one got 4 errors on a single pass... not too bad, but still 4 errors too many. I'm now on my 3rd stick at 80% of a pass, and I've got 17 error counts so far, but only in one address.

This is pretty pathetic considering Crucial has this on their website:

The Ballistix line is specifically built for performance enthusiasts who want to push the performance envelope without worrying about data loss or corruption, mysterious intermittent errors and display problems, or worse — the dreaded BSOD!

I seriously don't know what to do. I've got one more stick that's being used in my system that could or could not be bad. I've got the extra 4 sticks that I bought for my friends computer along with me at my house, and I'm seriously hoping that these are error free. I also hope that when I RMA the sticks, that the new ones aren't full of problems too...


If I decide to tell NewEgg to not bother with sending me new sticks of this RAM, and to just help me out on the purchase of a different brand, what would you guys consider?


I've never had problems w/ Crucial and always thought of them to be good quality, but after having 3/4 of my sticks bad (so far), especially with a line that claims it's high quality, I think differently.

[FZ1]

Crucial makes good stuff and I am honestly considering buying those very same sticks. What is the rest of your setup? Are you OC'ing the CPU or RAM at all? Loosen the timings before running memtest and make sure your vdimm is ok, maybe even drop it. I can see maybe one stick out of four being bad but not 3 or 4. Also, I am hearing some CPU/boards are having issues with Vista and 4GB but honestly I haven't paid much attention since I am running XP still.

[NAiLs]

I've got a P5E motherboard, all running at stock settings. I had to bump the motherboard to say that it was doing 1066MHz because it only says 800 from the factory. This is not an overclock setting for this board. I'm running my test one stick at a time, and my 5th stick is just horrible! I'll upload a picture later.

My timings in the BIOS say Primary Info: 5-5-5-18-3-52-6-3
Secondary Info: 8-3-5-4-6-4-6

Stock settings for this memory are 5-5-5-15.

I verified that the settings are at such in manual mode, plus the RAM's voltage set to 2.2v as advertised. We'll see if that changes anything, but I doubt it.

[NAiLs]

Alright, for the hell of it, I decided to drop the voltage on this one really bad stick of memory. I started at 2.2 volts (advertised voltage), errors galore. 2.1 volts, some errors. 1.9 volts. No errors..................


So, I'm supposed to get less performance out of my RAM and not have the ability to overclock or hell, even set the RAM to stock settings? That's crappy IMO. I'll be writing Newegg or Crucial for sure.

[NAiLs]

2.0 Volts... no errors. WTF Crucial!?

[FZ1]

All the better, less volts = less heat. A lot of people have been able to undervolt some of the better chips. I think a lot of the RMA's you see are those that don't take out the time to work with the product and find it's happy spot.

[NAiLs]

Oh it's a different story w/ 4 sticks. I'm at 1.96 volts and 17 errors on 1 full pass. Not too bad, but still not perfect yet. Now I think I need to reinstall Vista and all my games.

[NAiLs]

What do you guys think of this Mushkin memory?

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6820146677

I know EPP isn't important on a desktop gaming machine, but hey, the price is right! D9 chips too! I've always been a fan of Mushkin and am going to see if Newegg will take back my memory because it works for crap, and let me buy the Mushkin or something else. Granted, I've never read if EPP is even a good thing to have on a gaming machine.


Again, for reference... I have:
Asus P5E
Intel Q6600
eVGA 8800 GTX Superclocked

[FZ1]

I was thinking of getting these...I went with the Ballistix instead (ironic, no?). I think they are a good buy though.

[NAiLs]

I hope you have better luck than I do. Vista is seeing memory errors all over the board at 1.8 volts and 5-5-5-15 timings. I can't even boot on 1.9 volts and something like 5-5-5-13 or 5-5-4-14. It just won't do it. The memory is junk. I hope you have better luck w/ the Crucial than what I did. I'll be returning all of my sticks after I get the OK from Newegg.


Is EPP even anything I want to see on a gaming system? Will it lag me behind at all, or no?

[FZ1]

Well, one of my sticks died I came home to a locked up PC. When I tried rebooting I got hung on DET DRAM. Pulled out one stick and no problems. Swapped them out, I can get to the BIOS but can even begin to load Windows I guess that 4GB of OCZ RAM PC6400 RAM I happened into is going to come in handy.

[Zertz]

That sucks

My 2x 1GB Ballistix 8500 have been working fine for quite a while!

[DJL]

Intrestingly I've experienced similar problems with my four 1GB Ballistix modules I bought just over a year ago.

Originally I had two ballistix dimms in an Intel DG965WH board (aim was to move them to my Intel XBX2 and get 8GB for the DG965 later on). Initially they ran fine at 800, but after a couple of weeks the computer would randomly freeze. Down clocking to 667 solved the problem. At the time I put it down to running the modules are 1.8v instead of the rated 2.2v, although I was running the timings at 5-5-5-15 rather than 4-4-4-12.

Several months later, as planned, I move them into my XBX2 (975X) system, which already had two 1GB ballistix dimms in. They ran fine at 800, 4-4-4-12, 2.2v for a year but then the computer started randomly freezing, just like the 965 board. MemText+ 1.7 came back with loads and loads of errors, and would even crash randomly.

Swapping out the XBX2 with a Intel DP35DP fixed the crashing, although MemTest+ still comes back will erros. I'm in the process of getting new RAM and will then RMA the Ballistix and then put it on eBay.

How old are your modules? - I think there was a general problem with the Ballistix line at sone stage.

[FZ1]

I just got them less than 30 days ago.

[maj0r_pawnage]

the ram isnt actually dead lol, i thought that too when i saw det dram, i was about to return my ram when i noticed it still works

[maj0r_pawnage]

Well, one of my sticks died I came home to a locked up PC. When I tried rebooting I got hung on DET DRAM. Pulled out one stick and no problems. Swapped them out, I can get to the BIOS but can even begin to load Windows I guess that 4GB of OCZ RAM PC6400 RAM I happened into is going to come in handy.

same exact thing happened to me , you just have to try different combos until it works, man i tried so many different combinations i dont even remember how i got it to work lol, but it will work its not dead, try putting one stick in the 2nd slot, and then boot up, go into windows, stay in windows for about 10min, then shut down( not restart shutdown) and insert 2nd stick into 4th slot and reboot,im not sure how that worked but it worked everytime for me. (guess i remembered how i got it to work lol)

but im 99.99% certain they are not dead because im telling you the EXACT same thing happened to me

lol well happened to you 1month ago, happened to me almost the same time.. but i guess u fixed it by now so nvm

[FZ1]

Nope, I RMA'd them. I did try all the slots...the one was assuredly dead.

[maj0r_pawnage]

i seriously doubt it, even though you may think it was... because i was about to rma mine too, and only one of the sticks would work, the 2nd stick wouldnt work in any of the slots in any config, but i tried the one stick then log into windows then shut down and install 2nd one and it worked, i seriously thought it was dead 100% and had gotten all the stuff together to rma and it seemed dead and everyone on the forum told me it was most likely dead. i tried different configs for 3days and somehow it "came back to life" and even overclocked and is rock solid to this day

[FZ1]

Oh well...they are long gone now.

[maj0r_pawnage]

the same exact thing just happened to me yesterday, took me 24h of trying random configs and different ways of clearing cmos and putting one ram stick in this slot then restarting 15sec after ect lol it worked, but I'm sick and tired of doing that so I bought some mushkins and they work beautifully.