Dead Ballistix, I want your info :)

digitalx0 said:
You dare not go higher? These sticks are rated at 2.8v :)

yes and people also report dead sticks with 2.8v @ stock speeds! which is why im trying to keep them on a low as possible voltage. plus they are in my working rig (which is a shuttle SN25P ...its very crammed in there, probably bad air flow so dont wanna cook em).

i havn't found anyone with the same batch as me ...? (CL1115T.8B) are my sticks 'special' hehe :D
 
i don't think we've seen any with the same batch number, i think they vary on a stick to stick basis (or set to set when applicable)
 
I just got a new stick because one of my others died. The batch is CL1115Y.HX, let's hope it lasts a while. Anyone else familiar with this batch number?

What I want to know is whether these problems are affecting PC4000 more than PC3200, because that's the way it seems to me. Almost everyone I see who's having problems is using PC4000 1GB sticks, many less are using PC3200 Ballistix. On the plus side, Crucial's RMA process is top notch! No quibble, 48 hour turnaround, which is very impressive.

Thankfully I still have one awesome stick from the early days when Ballistix was released, CL1113x.xx I only wish I could get another from that batch.
 
hmm, this worries me

what voltage should i be running my pc4000 2gb ballistix tracer set at?

i'm hearing 2.6v, but will i be able to get to 500MHz at that voltage? rig is in my sig
 
Well there doesn't seem to be a batch pattern at least in this thread, and in fact the batches may simply be different runs using the same exact micron ic batch. I think for an accurate measure, everyone would have to rip the spreaders off for chip codes which obviosuly isn't going to heppen. Nontheless, I'm sticking with the balistix unless something clock/timing comparable comes along, which I have yet to see, and like someone mentioned, they have a lifetime warranty, so worst case, you have to send them back for replacement every once in a while.
 
what do u guys think about this ram compared to the mushkin redline or the ocz?

is the ballistix really that much better?

from what i'm reading, the ballistix runs a lot hotter, but what about actual speed?

my ultimate goal is to at least be able to get to 500Mhz at less than 3v, i currently am at 490 at 3v and can't get 500Mhz to be stable in prime 95

here are the timings i found for all 3:

ballistix: 3-4-4-8
ocz: 3-4-3-8
redline: 3-3-2-8
 
Something definately isn't right about Ballistix these days. All this talk of active cooling, I agree, it makes sense and I wouldn't run mine any other way, but it didn't used to be like that, I'm sure. Put it this way, I ran a stick of PC3200 at 2.8V and over for a long time, and it never needed cooling. BAllistix available nowadays seems to run hotter than the original stuff. The stick I'm talking about is CL1113x.xx, and it was purchased about mid 2004. Still going strong, doesn't require active cooling, it's only this newer CL1115x.xx that's causing problems. My last stick died, and today I rercieved a new one in return, of course, it's CL1115, but so far it's holding up with my usual OC (256 x 9 = DDR512). Only thing I don't understand is the info I'm getting from CPU-Z and Everest. I'll post a few screen shots. What do you make of these?

34016053314.gif


34016061049.gif
 
ninjastyle said:
Something definately isn't right about Ballistix these days. All this talk of active cooling, I agree, it makes sense and I wouldn't run mine any other way, but it didn't used to be like that, I'm sure. Put it this way, I ran a stick of PC3200 at 2.8V and over for a long time, and it never needed cooling. BAllistix available nowadays seems to run hotter than the original stuff. The stick I'm talking about is CL1113x.xx, and it was purchased about mid 2004. Still going strong, doesn't require active cooling, it's only this newer CL1115x.xx that's causing problems. My last stick died, and today I rercieved a new one in return, of course, it's CL1115, but so far it's holding up with my usual OC (256 x 9 = DDR512). Only thing I don't understand is the info I'm getting from CPU-Z and Everest. I'll post a few screen shots. What do you make of these?

34016053314.gif


34016061049.gif

everest says 1 is micron and the other not?

my cpu-z screenie look the same as yours though... (only mine is pc4000)
 
my new 512mb sticks are the same way.. and yeah, i think micron has been tweaking for better yeilds, but at the same time, that's driving the power consumption up. however, at the same voltage, my newer and hotter ballistix has ~16mhz on my older ballistix at 2.5-2-2, so i can run the new one at the same speeds of the old one with only 2.6v, which brings down overall heat :p
 
I bought 2 a while ago thanks to Eclipse and just sold 1them. Not for any bad reason just want gig sticks.

They should both be from same batch. cl1115n.mb
I bought both from the egg and funny thing is i ordered one for someone else and they sent me a 16td. Whatever. I can't complain at all bout the ballistix. Great ram.
 
So, the power went out at my house and i shut my box down (i've got a UPS so no big deal). I turned her back on and got the memory not detected 3 long beeps. Just like i did on my old evga board, and on my DFI board when i FIRST tried to boot with my 2x1gb ballistix chips (i had to boot w/ some old corsair and set ram voltage and timings to 3v/3-4-4-8 to get the board to POST with my ballistix for the first time) I took out the chip that was in the box that i had marked 'known good' (my box would not boot with the other ram chip no matter what slot it was in) and put in the 'known bad' chip (which i hadn't yet sent off for RMA). What happened? It booted fine, first try. I ran dual prime95's with blend + small FFT's for 8 hours @ 260mhz, 3-4-4-8 @ 3v without a single error. WHAT THE HELL. 2 motherboards displaying the exact same symptoms from 2 different manufacturers. If the RAM is bad, shouldn't it fail memtest or dual prime's? I don't want to send this stuff back if it's not broken but the only other item(s) in my rig that i think would have this type of no-boot 'cant detect RAM' are my CPU and my mobo -- mobo has been replaced, and if the CPU was fried, wouldn't i get memtest errors or dual-prime95 errors? ugh.
 
headless said:
and put in the 'known bad' chip (which i hadn't yet sent off for RMA). What happened?
almost makes you wonder if all these sticks are really dying
 
I only went through one pair before I said feck it and went to Tracers. I don't care if they are more expensive I've heard of less problems with them
 
oC|-TiTaN said:
I only went through one pair before I said feck it and went to Tracers. I don't care if they are more expensive I've heard of less problems with them
they are the same as normal ballistix ...just have blinky lights :eek:
 
a5h said:
they are the same as normal ballistix ...just have blinky lights :eek:
Different batch, different chips, supposedly better chips as well. Haven't had any problems yet and as I've said haven't heard of any either.

And boy do the blinky lights look cool on my wall! And don't forget the blue underbodies to match the blue fans and blue neons and headlight leds on my car! haha
 
i'm pretty sure the chips are binned exactly the same, but yes, they are from a different batch, there's a chance you can avoid all this death stuff


also, i had a thought. you guys with fans say your ram is running cool, but what you're feeling is the heatspreaders.. i'm thinking there might be contact issue between the spreader and the chips? just check for me real quick ;)
 
(cf)Eclipse said:
i'm pretty sure the chips are binned exactly the same, but yes, they are from a different batch, there's a chance you can avoid all this death stuff


also, i had a thought. you guys with fans say your ram is running cool, but what you're feeling is the heatspreaders.. i'm thinking there might be contact issue between the spreader and the chips? just check for me real quick ;)
I had taken my heatspreaders off and put them back on and they made great contact but they still died so bad contact wasn't my problem. Look at the reviews on newegg...5 of the last 10 at the time I last checked had had to rma them, maybe even more by now. It's not our problem, it's theirs (Crucial's).
 
when you take em off and put em back on, the contact goes from ok to not as ok ;)
also, if the spreaders have bad contact, who's court does that fall in? not ours last i checked :p
 
Has anyone else had the same boot issue I'm having: If the power supply is turned off, and the cable is removed, when powering back on at the PSU switch my RAM isn't detected. Keeping it switched on but pressing the reset switch once will get it to fully POST. Otherwise it just sits there failing to detect anything other than the processor. Now, this only happens when I have a stick of RAM in slot 2. If only the first DIMM is populated, there's no issues at all. Could this be the RAM, the motherboard, PSU... any ideas?

EDIT: A brief description of my setup:

DFI LP UT nF3 250GB
2 x 512 MB Ballistix PC3200
Clawhammer 3200+
Tagan TG480-U01
Arctic Cooling F64

256 x 9 (2.3 Ghz)
2.5-2-3-5-1T, 2.8V
Active cooling on RAM (80mm fan)
 
ninja, i used to use a setup almost exactly like the one you have there. what bios you running?
also, try swapping ram stick order. i found my sticks like certain slots.
 
Eclipse, what are we to do? I just opened an RMA with Newegg yesterday and will ship mine out tomorrow (today) when I get back home.
 
oh, yours actually died? :(

i guess RMA em. did you check the contact between the heatspreader and chips?
 
It didnt die, this is what happened.
I put in another HDD to get files from it and turned my comp on...BSODs. Took out the drive, another BSODs. Took out my soundcard and unplugged my secondary drive, BSOD. Safe mode wouldnt finish loading. Poped in the windows xp disk trying to format and during the blue sceeen setup loading the stuff into memory, it kept either giving me errors or hung. Swaped out ram with anotehr cheap ram and everything works. Did memtest and within 10 min I got errors. Running RAM @ 200MHz (obviously stock is 250)
 
Yeah Eclipse, my RAM works better in slots 1 and 3.

In 1 & 2 = errors galore, but the boot issue happens whenever two sticks are inserted, period. Doesn't matter which slots are being used. If only one stick is installed = no errors at all.

It's a weird one, but no major hassle.
 
im just wondering if anyones ballistix 2gb kits here have lasted longer than 3 months? pls post if you have a set that have lasted longer than this... thx
 
ninjastyle said:
It's a weird one, but no major hassle.
blame DFI for that one ;)

danger, nothing useful :(

a5h, yes.. there's been a bunch, though it's usually the earlier sticks that haven't died yet.
 
Here the info as requested:

BLZ864Z503.16TD
CL1115K.BC
56278

Died when using them with 3-4-4-8 @ 2.6v. No voltage (up to 2.8) could get them to pass memtest86.
 
A brief update for you guys. I spoke with the head of the customer service department, Alan, and explained the situation to him regarding the bad batches that you guys described here. He promised that he would point the technical support people to this forum. They should post be posting here in the next couple of days with updates. BTW, I am getting my CL1115's replaced with Z505's. I'll post impressions with the memory as soon as I get it.

edit: scratch that, the Z505's come in a max capacity of 512MB. I'm getting same Z503's, but apparently it is a new batch. If you guys have any questions, contact Alan Swanson @ extension: 35693, I'm sure he would be happy to help you out. He has been very helpful thus far. Crucial is, apparently, keen on keeping this community as a customer base.

edit2: My ballistix, batch CL1115 lasted ~3 weeks. Worked great for 1-2 before I experienced my first issues. Within 4 weeks no settings, down to 235 1:1 2.79v would be stable. Popped in my ever-reliable Mushkin Redline PC4000 512*2's, and stable as hell @ 265 1:1 3.5v 2226.
 
And so it should! We have some serious Ballistix lovers here, it'd be a shame to see Crucial lose so much respect. But hey, thanks. Is he in the UK or USA? May I add, thanks to Crucial for keeping an eye on us -- the RMA service is like no other company, and this is really helping to keep people's faith up.
 
He is in the Idaho office. A nice guy. I spoke with him again today. He has already got the boys at tech support reading through the thread. Yeah, Crucial has been one of the best brands around for both mainstream and high-end use. It would be a shame for them to lose their eminance in the market. I am prepared to dump them if the issue is not resolved though. As everyone should be. The maket is way too competitive for us to stay with subpar brands.
 
pakotlar said:
He is in the Idaho office. A nice guy. I spoke with him again today. He has already got the boys at tech support reading through the thread. Yeah, Crucial has been one of the best brands around for both mainstream and high-end use. It would be a shame for them to lose their eminance in the market. I am prepared to dump them if the issue is not resolved though. As everyone should be. The maket is way too competitive for us to stay with subpar brands.

If you speak to the guy again, you might want to point him also to this thread http://www.dfi-street.com/forum/showthread.php?t=29743. Apparently there is a crucial representative already in the thread but he stopped responding over a month ago. :rolleyes:
 
smellyfatchick said:
Apparently there is a crucial representative already in the thread but he stopped responding over a month ago. :rolleyes:
who votes i replace him? :cool:

ninja, you got that right. i got yet another stick of ballistix today, from ccu (we traded sticks). it really is a shame that so many people seem to be turning their backs on what i think is one of the most reliable companies around. yes, the sticks are failing abnormally frequently, but i have yet to see one time where crucial has given anyone grief for a replacement, despite a lot of us pushing these sticks pretty far out of spec ;)

however.. i think crucial has some room to make the ballistix better.. something exciting may happen soon :D
 
well, I've been reading this sad thread for a while and never added my info. Ordered 2 1gb ballistix Batch Number CL1115K.BF around the end of August. One of the sticks acted funny from the start. Thought I just needed to tweak my system. Never ran out of spec. Eventually one of the sticks would not even run the SPD of 3-4-4-8 at 250. I rma'd to newegg and got a new one at the end of september, same batch was sent. Things ran fine for a little bit but then my system started to have random reboots again and irql_not_less blah blah, page fault in non paged area, so I said, no way, there must be something else wrong with my computer. Bought a new OCZ Powerstream 520w to replace an Enermax 465w (still a pretty good power supply, but thought my 7800gtx may be doing some heavy juicing). Got everything squared away and setup, and I still got random reboots irql not less blah blah. The funny thing is memtest shows no errors but prime95 and superpi freeze or crash my computer as well as any games. Well this is the same process that happened with the first stick that went bad. Memtest would be fine and I would get random crashes but eventually the ram stick would then start to have memtest errors. Same damn problem on this second stick from the first time I ordered. So right now I have one good stick that I'm using from the first RMA and am just going to wait till this craps out. and then rma both hopefully when they do something about this debacle. Dammit. What to do. Oh by the way the ram has been cooled with an 80mm fan directly on it from the start.

Total system in sig...
 
smellyfatchick said:
well, I've been reading this sad thread for a while and never added my info. Ordered 2 1gb ballistix Batch Number CL1115K.BF around the end of August. One of the sticks acted funny from the start. Thought I just needed to tweak my system. Never ran out of spec. Eventually one of the sticks would not even run the SPD of 3-4-4-8 at 250. I rma'd to newegg and got a new one at the end of september, same batch was sent. Things ran fine for a little bit but then my system started to have random reboots again and irql_not_less blah blah, page fault in non paged area, so I said, no way, there must be something else wrong with my computer. Bought a new OCZ Powerstream 520w to replace an Enermax 465w (still a pretty good power supply, but thought my 7800gtx may be doing some heavy juicing). Got everything squared away and setup, and I still got random reboots irql not less blah blah. The funny thing is memtest shows no errors but prime95 and superpi freeze or crash my computer as well as any games. Well this is the same process that happened with the first stick that went bad. Memtest would be fine and I would get random crashes but eventually the ram stick would then start to have memtest errors. Same damn problem on this second stick from the first time I ordered. So right now I have one good stick that I'm using from the first RMA and am just going to wait till this craps out. and then rma both hopefully when they do something about this debacle. Dammit. What to do. Oh by the way the ram has been cooled with an 80mm fan directly on it from the start.

that sucks man, seems to echo the sentiment around here. when I spend extra buck on a premium product, I expect performance, quality, above all performance. these sticks so far seem to be addled by failure. there's no excuse for this. crucial released a bad product.
 
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