Dead Ballistix, I want your info :)

Batch #: CL1115L.37

Memtest stable at 3-4-4-8 1T @ 250MHz
Had them OC'ed to 278Mhz at 3-4-4-8 1T and they were stable
 
digitalx0 said:
Batch #: CL1115L.37

Memtest stable at 3-4-4-8 1T @ 250MHz
Had them OC'ed to 278Mhz at 3-4-4-8 1T and they were stable
Click to expand...


ive never been able to get 1t out of Crucial ballistix ram... however my tempory ADATA cheap crap does it fine.. :rolleyes:


Crucial agreed to RMA my 2gig of PC4000, however they wont RMA my PC3200 1gig again :( :mad:
 
Overlag said:
ive never been able to get 1t out of Crucial ballistix ram... however my tempory ADATA cheap crap does it fine.. :rolleyes:
Click to expand...
curiously, i only get 3-5mhz highe at 2T than 1T with all of my crucial/micron ram. you've gotta have a pretty damn good memory controller to play with 2x1gb at higher speeds, and you need to have a board that can deal with the load the ram induces, and lastly, you must know how to tweak for it ;)
 
(cf)Eclipse said:
*shrug*
lance, i share your sentiments.. but it's also the reason i've been telling almost everyone who gets ballistix that i know of that they MUST actively cool it unless they have superb airflow
Click to expand...

hehe... I must have caught you just before you started saying that part about the cooling, it was you and a few others that talked me into the Ballistix. :p

I do have superb airflow btw - as good as you could have short of a no case setup or fans just blowing directly on the RAM. There is a breeze blowing past/on/around the memory and a 120mm exhaust fan right above it. I can stick my hand in my case and feel the cool air moving through. I took great care with the cables and airflow - I even used a little duct tape to isolate the bottom zone of the P180 as much as possible!

If the memory issue is the only problem I run into, having done all that I've done in the last month (last AMD I built was a 1600 3 years ago or so, never OC'd with much success) then I'm still extremely happy. Great info on here from you and many others and I will be keeping an eye on this and the other Ballistix threads because I am quite curious what up with the situation.
 
thanks man.. i'm thinking it'll just pass, but we'll see. if not, there's gonna be quite a few RMA's on my end, as i've got two new sticks of ballistix here :p
 
Just rigged a 120mm fan over my ballistix(lower section of fan is blowign ont he ram, no big deadzone) and I still cant run stable at stock speeds.
Getting really sick of playing games with this. Pretyt much ready to yell at someone from newegg to take these sticjks back without the restockign fee so I can get a pair of OCZ =/
 
So i take it that running these sticks @ 3 - 3.1v is just hopeless? Sounds like they get hot enough @ 2.7-2.8... I also got my 2x1gb ballistix before you started warning people about the heat...

I had issues with my sticks in my evga board (random bluescreens, etc.) after testing the living crap out of it for 30+hours of dual prime, memtest, etc. in the last week, and thought, oh it couldn't be my ballistix! It must be the evga. So i got a DFI board and have been playing with it. It wouldn't even boot at first but once i got into the bios with a stick of my friends ram and set the voltage to 3v and manually set the timings, i'm now stable about 6hours of prime95 @ 3-4-4-8-1T, 1:1 @ 271FSB. Wish i was home so i could touch the chips and see how hot they are; i think i've got it @ 3.1v ATM. I've got a 120mm blowing on them...
 
you probably could, but i wouldn't for too long, seeing as 5b D is a 110nm chip. if you need 3-3.1v for your oc... well, i dunno. i guess you can tell us how long they last :p
 
i'm at work right now and ordered a 1 stick of 1gig ballistix last week for my current rig (see sig)..

CL1115N.2N

i'm kind of worried now since most of you that had this ram had a bad experience :( well gotta check it as soon as i get home :) i will running at 250Mhz since my CPU is locked to x13 mulitiplier >.<
 
DermicSavage said:
Just rigged a 120mm fan over my ballistix(lower section of fan is blowign ont he ram, no big deadzone) and I still cant run stable at stock speeds.
Getting really sick of playing games with this. Pretyt much ready to yell at someone from newegg to take these sticjks back without the restockign fee so I can get a pair of OCZ =/
Click to expand...

Newegg didn't even mention a restock fee to take my Ballistix back for full refund at about 3 weeks. So if you're under 30 days, call em. If not, call em and yell at someone. :)
 
(cf)Eclipse said:
you probably could, but i wouldn't for too long, seeing as 5b D is a 110nm chip. if you need 3-3.1v for your oc... well, i dunno. i guess you can tell us how long they last :p
Click to expand...

Haha. I needed 3-3.1v to get them to post AT ALL in this board. I got a DFI to replace my old evga board thinking it was the evga board fucking around...but had the same issues on the dfi board. Had to boot with some of my friends corsair to set voltages up to 3v just to get it to post.

Well, here's your answer -- not too fucking long
:) One of my 1gb sticks is dead -- i get the memory not detected 3 long beeps of doom on my DFI board if both sticks are in. I took out one and now am able to boot and am dual prime stable (and ran memtest for a few hours) with only one stick. Put the other stick in instead (or in addition to) -- no boot.

Unlike some other reports i've read, my sticks never got 'very' hot... just warm, even under full memtest load @ 3v. The stick i've got in there now is testing @ 3-4-4-8-1T @ 268mhz 1:1 and appears stable.

I'll get the batch #/serial#/whatever for you when i get home tonight
 
Same results as others have posted. My Ballistix were memtest/prime95/SuperPI stable for about 3 weeks, then random BSODs and reboots, and finally nothing... would not boot at all. I don't have the batch number from that set since I RMA'd them with Newegg early last month.

Replacement set is batch CL1115N.2N. Have had the replacements for almost 3 weeks and can only get them to run at 245MHz. It's too late to get a refund from Newegg, and I don't want to exchange these for more of the same.
 
Malignant Kid said:
Did you use active cooling?
Click to expand...
Yes, my Thermalright SI-120 hangs over and completely covers the first RAM slot. The 120mm fan blows down onto the RAM on the board.
 
2x1gb sticks batch CL1115L.36.. running 250 @ 3-3-3-8 1T.. ive had it for about a month now and im starting to worry.. is my ram a part of the bad batch??
 
Oh shitty. My batch is CL1115L.37

Nothing has died yet, but I definately have had some problems in the past... right now they are underclocked at 200mhz 3-4-4-8 1T... running stable, if I ever decide to OC my cpu again, and they break, I'll just RMA :)
 
CL1115N.P1

This is my 2nd set and just last night they started BSOD and reboots.

Pulled one stick out (can't even get past BIOS with it in) and the one that's left in runs ok but not near the speed it was before. 250 3-3-3-8 at 2.75 1t
 
I have the Ballistix Tracer CL1115Q.P7 2 x 1GB sticks. Been running them at 225MHz on a DFI Ultra-D. Haven't had a chance to get to some serious overclocking yet. I have just recently been getting random lockups in Windows and games. I raised the voltage to 2.7V now from 2.6V where it has been stable for the past few weeks, and things seem to have stabilized again.

I also have a set of the Corsair 2GB TwinX 3500LL sticks sitting here. :D Might put those in this AMD X2 box and run the Crucial in my P4 Linux box. Are people having similar problems with the Ballistix ram in P4 machines (i865 chipset) as they seem to have with AMD systems?
 
This is my first post here. I bought a pair of 1GB Ballistix a little over three months ago (end of August), and last night one of them died.

The batch number for the stick is: CL1115K.BH

Basically, over the past couple of weeks, I've been experiencing hardlocks and BSODs, after a few hours of use. Also, I would have to hit the reset button several times, or turn the power off and then back on, to get my machine to reboot. Sometimes, instead of a lock or a BSOD, the app I was running at the time was nice enough to report a memory error and CTD.

Last night, the shit hit the fan, as I got a memory error as soon as I went to load a map in BF2. I went to reboot, but the machine refused to, even after doing a complete power cycle several times. I had to clear to the CMOS to get the thing to boot Windows (and the first attempt, instead of giving me a POST screen, it gave me random ASCII characters of various colors). Windows failed to finish booting, crashed, and auto restarted. A couple more tries later, and Windows gives me a BSOD. I figured Windows might had been corrupted, so I put in the install CD, and it fails to load as well.

Then I pulled one stick (the one not covered by my heatsink), and boom, everything works right. Windows boots beautifully, restarts work like a charm, and my programs are running fine (so far).

I didn't overclock with these sticks; in fact, I had them running at 400 MHz, and for the past month, I was using 3-8-8-10 timings, at 2.8 volts. Before that, I had 2-2-2-6 timings, but that started to cause some instability a month ago.

And then today I found this thread. I'm guess my second stick, which didn't have the CPU fan moving air over it, cooked itself. It would explain the behavior. Since a lot of people seem to have troubled with replacement sticks, I'm going to see Crucial will just give me a refund and I get some Corsair XMS PC3200 (which I had my old machine and never gave me trouble). I did order this sticks from Crucial, so hopefully they'll play ball.
 
I bought a 1gb ballistix for my a8n premium about 3 weeks ago. No problems here :D

Sorry, figured eclipse heard so many complaints he hasnt heard from anyone who got them working. :p
 
Crucial is going to replace the one dead stick. Hopefully the new one will last.
 
This is a serious problem. My Ballistix have just crapped out. For $310 this should just not happen.
 
ArrowMk84 said:
I'm guess my second stick, which didn't have the CPU fan moving air over it, cooked itself. It would explain the behavior. Since a lot of people seem to have troubled with replacement sticks, I'm going to see Crucial will just give me a refund and I get some Corsair XMS PC3200
Click to expand...
that would explain it.. though i do have to wonder why you bought some of the best clocking 1gb sticks to run em at 200mhz ;)

thanks paintb.. i've actually used a few sticks of ballistix myself, and haven't had a single stick die, aside from one that i killed by accident :(
 
Yeah I'm trying to figure out whether or not my ballistix(2X1GB) is going bad or not. As of a week or so ago i've started to get BSODs like crazy, IRQ_NOT_LESS_OR_EQUAL errors. Figured it might be the RAM however memtest is error free for 11.5 hours before i pressed Esc. Didn't happen until I OCed, never went above 250 for my PC4000, had a 120mm fan blowing over it. So my other guess would be the board if the RAM isn't bad, I'm going to play around with it some more tomorrow or just get another board since I've been experiencing other issues. I'll check the batch number then.

Edit: Found the box w/bag still not sure if the memory is my problem or not, but here is the batch number just in case I come to the conclusion by tomorrow. CL1115K.4G. Going to run some more memtest during the night. Then do some playing around tomorrow.
 
I promised I would report back on my 2x 1GB PC4000 Ballistix: Batch CL1115W.VY

Pretty damn sweet! After fighting a bad overclock (crashes, stupid tweeks etc) I read Eclipse's guide (cheers dude!) and started at the begining.

The Ballistix are now running, all 3DMarks (01,03,05), Prime, SuperPi and Memtest86 (all tests) error free at : 3-2-2-2-7-16 1:1 @ 240Mhz !! Lovely. The cpu is a X2 4400+ running @ 2.64Ghz

They're being fed 2.9V (although Smartguadian says 2.81V).

Here's hoping they last...

Edit: Forgot to add that the ram is actively cooled by a coolermaster crossflow fan blowing right between them - this ram needs it for sure.
 
Mysterae said:
The Ballistix are now running, all 3DMarks (01,03,05), Prime, SuperPi and Memtest86 (all tests) error free at : 3-2-2-2-7-16 1:1 @ 240Mhz !! Lovely. The cpu is a X2 4400+ running @ 2.64Ghz
Click to expand...
if 3-2-2 works, i'm almost certain 2.5-2-2 will too ;)


good to hear you're having fun with them though, too many people getting bad sticks and saying things like they'll never go back to crucial. every company has had a bad time.. i'm sure everyone has heard about OCZ's dark past.. look at where they are now ;)
 
(cf)Eclipse said:
if 3-2-2 works, i'm almost certain 2.5-2-2 will too ;)


good to hear you're having fun with them though, too many people getting bad sticks and saying things like they'll never go back to crucial. every company has had a bad time.. i'm sure everyone has heard about OCZ's dark past.. look at where they are now ;)
Click to expand...

Yeah, exactly. People expect a company to be absolutely perfect and that is just not the case in reality. LONG LIVE CRUCIAL!! RAHH
 
heh, i'm actually a fan of micron IC's, it just so happens that ballistix gets the best of the best chips because crucial = micron :D
 
Well it looks like one of my sticks(2x1GB PC4000, batch number listed a post or so above) went bad. It's funny they never left the [Auto] voltage setting and never exceeded 250. Tested it out, with one stick the system is totally stable, with only the other stick won't even post, or beep. That would explain the intermittent functionality of the board, and posting, etc. Well it looks like I'll have to RMA mine as well, hopefully it won't be too painful, heh. Funny they were memtest stable not too long ago, :p . Anyway that's my input for ya. ;)
 
I have 2x 1gb sticks - actually, after recommendation of Eclipse. I think mine have died. (I don't hold it against you Eclipse ;))

I just posted the problems I was having on the Memory forum - but I'm 85% sure its my RAM that causing the problems.

Batch# CL1115P.1Z

I'll get the batch number on the other when I finish running it solo on my machine to see if it also is crapping out.
 
(cf)Eclipse said:
if 3-2-2 works, i'm almost certain 2.5-2-2 will too ;)
Click to expand...

Funnily enough, they don't! That's what one of my problems was initially when I first overclocked the cpu and ram (on a DFI RDX200 Crossfire mobo).

Running Memtest86 with the board set up overclocked, the ram always fails at the same address (test 4) - 887.6MB - when running 2.5 . Change it back to 3 and no problems.

I don't know if giving them more volts will help, I'm already giving it 2.8 - 2.9 and they get hot when bit crunching!

Something I noticed, the memory speed change according to Memtest86 is:

2.5 - 2,356MB/s
3.0 - 1,983MB/s

Oh well!
 
wow, now that's odd! i guess if it helps you run stable... :D:D
though, the difference in bandwidth between the cas latencies is interesting, because i've found that cas does almost nothing to bandwidth.. are you holding your secondary timings constant, or are you using auto?
 
i got my Ballistix yesterday and they are currently runnign at 267mhz 3-3-3-8 @ 2.7v (the lowest voltage my shuttle will go, i dare not go higher).

Batch: CL1115T.8B

is this a good/bad batch? (as in will it die? ...lol :rolleyes: )
 
a5h said:
i got my Ballistix yesterday and they are currently runnign at 267mhz 3-3-3-8 @ 2.7v (the lowest voltage my shuttle will go, i dare not go higher).

Batch: CL1115T.8B

is this a good/bad batch? (as in will it die? ...lol :rolleyes: )
Click to expand...

You dare not go higher? These sticks are rated at 2.8v :)
 
there have been a lot of cases where the ballistix work better at lower voltages ;)
 
(cf)Eclipse said:
there have been a lot of cases where the ballistix work better at lower voltages ;)
Click to expand...

Mine won't even post @ less than 2.9v, in my eVGA board or in my new DFI board. Rock solid memtest + dual prime95's for 30+ hours at 3v though. Gotta RMA at least one, i think ill send them both back (newegg will probably force me to anyway)
 
(cf)Eclipse said:
wow, now that's odd! i guess if it helps you run stable... :D:D
though, the difference in bandwidth between the cas latencies is interesting, because i've found that cas does almost nothing to bandwidth.. are you holding your secondary timings constant, or are you using auto?
Click to expand...

Definetly set to 2.5 in the bios, not auto. The bios splash screen confirms the setting.

I reran memtest to make sure, here's what it says on the top left of the screen:
Running CAS3.0:
AMD Athlon 64 2640Mhz (overclocked X2 4400+ ;) )
L1 Cache : 128, 21637MB/s
L2 Cache : 1024K, 5376MB/s
Memory : 2047M, 1983MB/s

Switch to CAS2.5:
AMD Athlon 64 2640Mhz
L1 Cache : 128, 21637MB/s
L2 Cache : 1024K, 5376MB/s
Memory : 2047M, 2645MB/s

Switch to CAS2.0:
No booty!

Now wierdly, CAS2.5 is windows stable, and benched in Sandra:

CAS2.5:
RAM Bandwidth Integer: 6665MB/s
RAM Bandwidth Floating Point: 6587MB/s

Switch back down to CAS3.0:
RAM Bandwidth Integer: 5569MB/s
RAM Bandwidth Floating Point: 5549MB/s

CAS2.5 is even 3DMark05 stable:
The only thing changed is the CAS:
CAS3.0 : 9589
CAS2.5 : 9644

That's some big jumps above there, and a huge jump from the speed memtest86 reports, cannily like the speed of the L2 cache of the cpu. Understand that I'm no benchmark junkie, I use them to see if my system is stable and that a change I have made has had a positive effect!

Just to let you know how this board acts, the maximum HTT(FSB) was a whopping 375Mhz, the maximum CPU speed was 2.64Ghz, and the max RAM was 243Mhz @CAS2.5. Blending them together made an unstable overclock (memtest86 again), and had to bring down the Crucial Ballistix to 240Mhz @ CAS3.

What I might do later tonight is swap the ram in the slots, to see if the 887.6MB failure is in a particular stick of ram.

This is sweet ram, because of the overclocking options available to you.
 
i have been getting some weird random reboots with my 2x512 PC4000 Ballistix Tracer. then again there are a number of other things that it could be.
 
Mysterae said:
CAS2.5:
RAM Bandwidth Integer: 6665MB/s
RAM Bandwidth Floating Point: 6587MB/s

Switch back down to CAS3.0:
RAM Bandwidth Integer: 5569MB/s
RAM Bandwidth Floating Point: 5549MB/s
Click to expand...
jeez, that's similar to the difference i see between 1T and 2T, not cas2.5 and cas3.. i've gotta go have a look at this again now :p


edit: testing in sandra with both single and dual, with 2x512mb pc3200 ballistix. this is at 250mhz, with the cpu at 2250, i held all other settings constant, i'll provide an a64tweaker shot if you wanna know em

single channel
cas2.5
3863mb/s
3872mb/s

cas3
3854mb/s
3851mb/s

hmm, seems about what i'm used to. let's see if dual channel makes a bigger difference ;)

dual channel
cas2.5
6293mb/s
6209mb/s

cas3
6259mb/s
6185mb/s

i'm gonna venture that cas does nothing to bandwidth, as always ;)
i'd check your settings again, something is seriously wrong if you're dropping below 6k with cas3 when you get 6.6k with 2.5
 
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