Another failed set of Crucial Ballistix

[TechLarry]

Well, hell. For the second time now my 2GB set of Ballistix has failed.

Same pattern as before. Installed, and worked fine for about a month. Now it's constant blue-screens and reboots.

Reinstalled the original PNY 2X512MB and all is well again.

This is definitely not a heat issue. Modules were cool and my Lian-Li 60-Plus case has more than ample cooling.

I do not overclock. Everything runs at factory speeds.

I can't get a refund because I purchased through NewEgg instead of Crucial directly. They will replace the RAM, but what's the point?

-Larry

[(cf)Eclipse]

it's when i kill two of the same thing in a row that i start pointing my finger elsewhere ;)

got a dfi nf4?

[DermicSavage]

on a side note, I also am having stability issues with my ballistix.

I do not have any active cooling on it, but am only running stock speeds i'll get crashes twice a week(tried lowering voltage and runnign at 2T and no good). It seems ot be stable at DDR500 3-5-5-10 2T 2.8v(2x1GB sticks). I had RMA'd the ram before and this new pair does the same thing.

Does this ram NEED active cooling or does it also have probs on MSI K8N Neo 2 Plats?
(also what is the deal with it not working on DFI boards?)

[(cf)Eclipse]

well, it seems that most of the dead ballistix are on the dfi, but that might just be because that's what board most people use.

also... 3-5-5? it's generally found that the ships in the ballistix like 3-3-3 the most, and don't always need the rated voltage. sometimes they do best at 2.6 or 2.7v, and 2.8v gives errors.

as for cooling.. you really should have a fan on it. have you felt the sticks to see how warm they are? ;)

i'm beginning to think that crucial may have made a boo-boo and shipped out a bad batch of 5b D... just RMA and get a new stick if it can't do stock speeds

[Soul.Survivor]

Mine did the same thing, RMAing them this week. I ran them at 2.6v, never more.

[(cf)Eclipse]

:(

i really wonder what happened then..

[Soul.Survivor]

Me too, I'm all for blaming DFI because I don't trust the voltage regulation on their boards but who knows really. I'd like to read about someone with another manufacturer's board, even a non-Nvidia board having the same problem.

[(cf)Eclipse]

well, i know the VTT on the dfi's.. is pretty bad, but that shouldn't be causing all these sticks of ballistix to die, esp when i've had a stick of 5b D in value ram that i've abused pretty hard, gave 3.2v for a while at one point, kept on ticking.. either way, i'll have two sticks of ballistix with 5b D in it to play with when i get back from thanksgiving break, and if they fail after a while... yeah :(

[CRaZYMoFo]

well, i know the VTT on the dfi's.. is pretty bad, but that shouldn't be causing all these sticks of ballistix to die, esp when i've had a stick of 5b D in value ram that i've abused pretty hard, gave 3.2v for a while at one point, kept on ticking.. either way, i'll have two sticks of ballistix with 5b D in it to play with when i get back from thanksgiving break, and if they fail after a while... yeah :(

Need to get a review on these if you can. Im running the system in my sig and you all have me a bit worried now. Havent OCed anything yet besides x2 3800 @ 4200+ just upped the fsb for now, college work is taking all my time atm :)

[NebulaD]

im also thinking of picking this up for my intel system and youve got me a bit worried as well.

[Dillusion]

I say nay to ballistix

[(cf)Eclipse]

Need to get a review on these if you can.
i would, but i can't afford them, and crucial isn't being real excited to give me a set of 2x1gb :(

dill, i know you love disagreeing with me, but list your reasons why. you know i hate people who say something without giving good reason ;)

[Dillusion]

i would, but i can't afford them, and crucial isn't being real excited to give me a set of 2x1gb :(

dill, i know you love disagreeing with me, but list your reasons why. you know i hate people who say something without giving good reason ;)

you also hate everything i buy, but thats a different story :D

I dont like ballistix 'cause it didnt scale well, didnt hold up 2-2-2 timings past 218fsb, and would budge over 270fsb. Are those reasons practical? Probably not. Are OC's guaranteed? No way jose!

Thats just why i dont like 'em...

[CRaZYMoFo]

i would, but i can't afford them, and crucial isn't being real excited to give me a set of 2x1gb :(

dill, i know you love disagreeing with me, but list your reasons why. you know i hate people who say something without giving good reason ;)

I dont get it
U said you were getting some ram to play with next week.... would like to get a review on those

[(cf)Eclipse]

i have 512mb sticks.. i guess if the 5b D is the chips is the problem, i should have the same issues.

guys, for those of you with ballistix that died, what's the batch number?

my 512mb stick is:
CL1115J.Z5


I dont like ballistix 'cause it didnt scale well, didnt hold up 2-2-2 timings past 218fsb, and would budge over 270fsb. Are those reasons practical? Probably not. Are OC's guaranteed? No way jose!
better than some tccd i've seen.. plus, you don't see much ram doing ~240-260mhz at 2.5-2-2 with moderate amount of voltage. i think the ballistix is perfect for the low latency crowd who's afraid of high voltage :D

[TechLarry]

This is the only RAM that has ever had a problem in this machine.

ASUS A8V.

-Larry

it's when i kill two of the same thing in a row that i start pointing my finger elsewhere ;)

got a dfi nf4?

[TechLarry]

Cooling is not an issue.

I use standard timings. No overclocking. Bone stock.

The sticks are not hot. Barely warm.

-Larry

well, it seems that most of the dead ballistix are on the dfi, but that might just be because that's what board most people use.

also... 3-5-5? it's generally found that the ships in the ballistix like 3-3-3 the most, and don't always need the rated voltage. sometimes they do best at 2.6 or 2.7v, and 2.8v gives errors.

as for cooling.. you really should have a fan on it. have you felt the sticks to see how warm they are? ;)

i'm beginning to think that crucial may have made a boo-boo and shipped out a bad batch of 5b D... just RMA and get a new stick if it can't do stock speeds

[TechLarry]

CL1115N.2R

2X1GB

BL12864Z503.16TD

-Larry

i have 512mb sticks.. i guess if the 5b D is the chips is the problem, i should have the same issues.

guys, for those of you with ballistix that died, what's the batch number?

my 512mb stick is:
CL1115J.Z5



better than some tccd i've seen.. plus, you don't see much ram doing ~240-260mhz at 2.5-2-2 with moderate amount of voltage. i think the ballistix is perfect for the low latency crowd who's afraid of high voltage :D

[DermicSavage]

eclipse, I tired doing lower voltages on my ram and it just caused worse instability(asame thign for the previous sticks I said too). This is the second set of RAM I've gotten from an RMA. :(

[(cf)Eclipse]

This is the only RAM that has ever had a problem in this machine.

ASUS A8V.
any other 1gb sticks work? i've seen a lot of asus's have issues with 1gb sticks.. the ballistix having issues isn't helping


also interesting that you have the same CL1115 batch, but N.2R instead. i'm gonna make a thread about this now.

DS.. sorry bro :(
bitch to crucial and ask why so many sticks of ballistix are dropping out left and right

[unixadm]

My SN25P system started acting up a few days ago with a BSOD. It had been up for about 35 days with no issues at all, running with an AMD X2 3800+ overclocked to 2.4ghz. Memory at DDR480.

Over the past couple of days, things got worse. BSOD, hard locks, non-responsive system, etc. Today it got to the point where I could barely get into Windows.

The problems seemed to be memory related, so I removed the Ballistix 2gb PC4000 kit and installed my old Gskill 1gb PC4400 TCCD kit. No problems now - so it looks like I'll have to RMA the memory.

It really came about all of the sudden. Voltage was set to 2.8V. Memory was underclocked at 3-3-3-7. ID on one of the memory modules is BL12864Z503.16TD / CL1115P.1Z 56278. Pretty shitty - I've always had good luck with Crucial/Micron memory from a reliability standpoint.

[magnuspah]

Well count one more in...Funny thing is that when i was testing these before, it could scale up to 290Mhz...gradually, it has gotten worse. Well, the modules at 2.9V has been working flawlessless at 276Mhz at 3-3-3-5. Passed prime stable for 24hours. Well about 2-3 days ago, it start going south...It would randomly crashes...I had to lower the FSB to 265 to get it stable. No help. Lower the timings to 3-4-4-8, still no help. The system would crash when I start running something. Well, last night, i decide to test each individual module. Well, one works flawlessly while the other one gives memtest errors like crazy. I am going to try to run both at 2.7V and loose timing at 3-4-4-8 with the divider (276Mhz at 9/10 divider = 250). It that fails, I am rmaing this, getting an OCZ (never had problems with those) and never going back to crucial...

[robberbaron]

you also hate everything i buy, but thats a different story :D

I dont like ballistix 'cause it didnt scale well, didnt hold up 2-2-2 timings past 218fsb, and would budge over 270fsb. Are those reasons practical? Probably not. Are OC's guaranteed? No way jose!

Thats just why i dont like 'em...


There isn't a better performing 1 gig stick than one with a micron -5B D or -5B F chipset.

[TechLarry]

Yep, same exact pattern.

It seems like these modules have a life span of about 5 weeks.

-Larry

My SN25P system started acting up a few days ago with a BSOD. It had been up for about 35 days with no issues at all, running with an AMD X2 3800+ overclocked to 2.4ghz. Memory at DDR480.

Over the past couple of days, things got worse. BSOD, hard locks, non-responsive system, etc. Today it got to the point where I could barely get into Windows.

The problems seemed to be memory related, so I removed the Ballistix 2gb PC4000 kit and installed my old Gskill 1gb PC4400 TCCD kit. No problems now - so it looks like I'll have to RMA the memory.

It really came about all of the sudden. Voltage was set to 2.8V. Memory was underclocked at 3-3-3-7. ID on one of the memory modules is BL12864Z503.16TD / CL1115P.1Z 56278. Pretty shitty - I've always had good luck with Crucial/Micron memory from a reliability standpoint.

[(cf)Eclipse]

There isn't a better performing 1 gig stick than one with a micron -5B D or -5B F chipset.
this is true, we've just gotta make em last longer :(
i do wonder if we'll start seeing some .16TF ballistix soon.. though the thought of a 95nm ram chip being used for oc'ing is scary.. i bet ~2.6-2.7v may be optimal for some