Legacy RAM question - 512Mx64 "AMD-only" RAM

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buzzbomb

Gawd
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Sep 29, 2009
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I'm trying to upgrade my garage PC to 8GB of memory, so I decided to give this a shot. The PC is an ASUS M3A79-T Deluxe motherboard with a Phenom II X6 1035T CPU and a Gigabyte 7970. ASUS says the board's four DIMM slots can take up to 16GB of RAM so it has to support 4GB individual sticks, and 4GB individual sticks are 512Mx64. I cleared the CMOS and took my 2GBx2 Dominators out, tossed in the new RAM, and the PC wouldn't boot to BIOS. I knew going into this that it was still a gamble whether it would work or not but I figured that for $21 shipped (versus $240 shipped for a 4GBx2 kit from Crucial) it was a gamble worth taking. Did I waste my money or am I missing something?
 
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try clearing the bios/cmos. you old ram settings might be throwing it off. if not that maybe your board does not like single sided ram(all chips on one side). there used to be issue with this. also are these supposed to be new? the pics look like theyre old. one of them even looks to have spill damage...
 
I cleared the CMOS several times. They are double-sided sticks. The sticks I received are new (were, anyway, until I installed/removed them several times), the gold contacts looked completely untouched when I unwrapped them. It has crossed my mind that they could actually be defective as well, and that it's not a compatibility issue.
 
Have you tried running on 1 stick? Are you using the right DIMM slots? Is it possible the memory is bad? Although it says new and unopened in the link, it is sometimes hard to say on ebay.
 
I have tried single sticks and I'm using the same DIMM slots that are functioning at this very moment (typing from the garage PC now). The other two slots are blocked by the Noctua CPU cooler. By every indication they were new sticks, the gold contacts were not scratched at all. It is quite possible that the RAM is defective, I'm going to try them in another AMD board that I have floating around just to see what happens with that one.
 
Do you have the latest BIOS for your motherboard?

Also, here is another eBay seller from the US that is selling a set of the Chinese RAM and says it works:
8GB(2x4GB) Sochox DDR2-800 PC2-6400U 240-Pin D22G1403

I would also not even try to buy new DDR2 anymore. The new stuff.. such as the stupidly overpriced stuff from Crucial is just laughable.

I would find a good used set.
 
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cyclone3d said:
Do you have the latest BIOS for your motherboard?
Click to expand...

I do have the latest BIOS, "latest" being April 2011.

cyclone3d said:
Also, here is another eBay seller from the US that is selling a set of the Chinese RAM and says it works:
8GB(2x4GB) Sochox DDR2-800 PC2-6400U 240-Pin D22G1403
Click to expand...

I may have to get another set and decide if I want to eat the return shipping on these sticks or just find a use for them.

cyclone3d said:
I would also not even try to buy new DDR2 anymore. The new stuff.. such as the stupidly overpriced stuff from Crucial is just laughable.

I would find a good used set.
Click to expand...

I know why the prices are so high - they have lifetime warranties to worry about and probably dwindling stock, so up go the prices. I would love to get another set of 2GBx2 Dominators so I have 8GB matching but the heatsinks on them are huge and will interfere with my CPU cooler.
 
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Don't try it, I bought from the exact same seller and I am setting here looking at 4 x 4gb sticks that they assured me would work in my Gigabyte 790X-DS4.

I put them in a fully working system, big mistake, it totally hosed my OS to the point a re-install was required. 4 sticks would not post, 2 would post but blue screened at windows startup.

They did offer a refund if returned but the freight back was 90% the cost.
 
mstaab said:
Don't try it, I bought from the exact same seller and I am setting here looking at 4 x 4gb sticks that they assured me would work in my Gigabyte 790X-DS4.

I put them in a fully working system, big mistake, it totally hosed my OS to the point a re-install was required. 4 sticks would not post, 2 would post but blue screened at windows startup.

They did offer a refund if returned but the freight back was 90% the cost.
Click to expand...

Isn't eBay's new policy that the seller has to pay return shipping for faulty/not as described items?

I know that it has been for the last few things I have had to return.

You start a return, it gets approved, and then you print the shipping label directly from eBay.
 
cyclone3d said:
Isn't eBay's new policy that the seller has to pay return shipping for faulty/not as described items?

I know that it has been for the last few things I have had to return.

You start a return, it gets approved, and then you print the shipping label directly from eBay.
Click to expand...

Really? I will go back and check into it, thx for the info
 
Then I got lucky and it didn't mess anything else up, OS or otherwise. I'll look into the return policy as well, thanks!
 
buzzbomb - Here are some used sticks off of eBay that should do the trick.

(I would stay away from the stuff marked Samsung or AMD only as I am pretty sure that that is the cheap chinese junk you are having issues with). Real Samsung stuff should not have this issue.

Super Talent 4GB (4 available) $25 each
Super Talent 4GB PC2-6400 DDR2-800MHz Unbuffered 240-Pin Memory - T800UB4GHY

Super Talent 2x4GB - $85
8GB (2X4GB)DDR2 NON-ECC Desktop Memory RAM

Visiontek 2x4GB $95 - 2 sets available
Used 2 x VisionTek 4GB (2x4G) DDR2 800 MHz (PC2-6400) CL5 DIMM - (900559) PC RAM
http://www.ebay.com/itm/Used-2-x-Vi...535292?hash=item4d42671b7c:g:WJsAAOSwjMJXCBqw
G.Skill 2x4GB - auction
G.Skill 8GB (2 x 4GB) F2-6400CL6D-8GBMQ PC2-6400 DDR2 800 non-ECC PC Memory Kit

This ebay search should give you a pretty good idea of what is available. Can't trim it down much more or it will take out relevant parts
ddr2 8gb -2gb -1gb -sodimm -fb -fully -laptop -server -apple -amd -notebook -3200 -400 -4200 -5300 -533 -667 | eBay
 
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Initiated a return through eBay, I'm going a different route...thanks for the help and advice guys.
 
Got the money returned via eBay and bought some more Corsair (a 2x2GB set) that would fit under my heatsink...and all is well! I even forgot to reset my CMOS and it booted instantly at the settings I was running before.

Lesson learned (well, lesson reinforced) - Chinese usually means garbage.
 
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