The story:

I got a new system several months ago. All seemed fine. About 2 months ago, I was having semi-regular crashes and bluescreens. After the initial phase of blaming Microsoft (just kidding, I knew it wasn't their fault, because I'm not a clueness newby that blames them for everything and wants to sue them) I did some poking around and finally ran MemTest.

Turns out one of my sticks was dodgy. The system came with a pair of 512MB sticks of Corsair DDR memory, and one of the sticks was throwing frequent errors (as reported by MemTest). The other was fine. I also ran the Microsoft memory checker to verify, except it would just hang on the bad stick.

After removing the bad stick, all was fine; my system would happily tick over albeit with much more swapping.

However, in the last week, I'm back to where I was - random application crashes. No bluescreens (yet). This being one of the main symptoms I had earlier I thought I'd run MemTest again just to rule out memory, then I could go back to blaming Microsoft (or whatever else caught my fancy at the time).

Much to my surprise, my other stick was now throwing errors as well - in fact, much more than the original stick!

So, I now have 2 x faulty sticks of Corsair memory.

This seems odd - I don't know enough about hardware, but is it possible that it could be a problem with my motherboard? This seems like an unusually high rate of failure for RAM.

But, my big problem is trying to get this replaced. Turns out the store I bought it from won't let me just take it back and swap it over. I have to take it back and wait for a replacement. This will, obviously, leave me without any RAM.

Does anyone know if there are any ways of fast-tracking RAM replacement via Corsair directly?

This isn't what your asking yet it may be your only alternative...

Tedious way of doing it would be to take back one stick of memory at a time. One question: Have you fiddled with the ram voltage settings at all?? Not even sure if this will work or not, perhaps dropping the (ram voltage) back a notch or two and run MemTest again and see if it still errors out.
Do the sticks error out in another board as well??

Tedious way of doing it would be to take back one stick of memory at a time.

Because it came in a 2-pack I can't do this :(

Have you fiddled with the ram voltage settings at all?? Not even sure if this will work or not, perhaps dropping the (ram voltage) back a notch or two and run MemTest again and see if it still errors out.

Nope - again don't know enough about hardware to feel comfortable doing this - I just expect it to _work_!

Do the sticks error out in another board as well??

Don't have another board that can take this memory so can't verify, unfortunately.

1. What are the batch numbers on the 2 sticks, most probably the same with close serial numbers, which would indicate a bad batch for Corsair.

2. Unfortunately RA's have to be done through the supplier, they are required to do a basic check on the hardware before sending it back to the authorised testing centre (probably in Singapore). A long and draw out affair usually, unless their is an Australia QA centre.

3. Very unlikely, but still worth checking (I have no idea how to but I'm sure one of the electronic minded on the forum could tell you), check that the power supplied to the motherboard and the memory is actually what it says it's supplyng as this could/can be a recurring problem if true.

Buy a cheap stick to tide you over.

Usually increasing the voltage will improve stability UNLESS its overheating which is entirely possible in this bloody weather :)

You don't want to back off under standard voltage or bad things are likely to happen, I'm not sure if you can even go lower than standard anyway.

Here is Corsair's warranty policy: http://www.corsairmicro.com/corsair/warranty.html


Also have a look here trog, Corsair Warranty Forums

Post your problems there and I'm sure the Corsair RAM guru dude there will be able to help you out.

Don't have another board that can take this memory so can't verify, unfortunately.

Surely you know someone who does. I'd be making damn sure it's the RAM and not the board before sending anything away, if I was you.

Surely you know someone who does.

I do, but its just a mission to take it over to check it out. I guess I probably should do it; it'd be annoying to go through it all and then find out that its something else.

Stupid computers

AFAIK Altech are the Corsair suppliers for australia. This is bad because altech suck very very much :P

Have a talk to some of the guys from CA that post on here, see if they cant help you out.

Trog... do you remember Jim from Realtime Systems?

He gave out some ram (to me, and others) a year or two ago at QGL.

He used to idle on #ocau (server: client.oz.org) but I'm not sure now...

Realtime Systems doesnt operate anymore, but he still knows a f***load about corsair, and he could probably tell you how your RA will work.

He goes by the name of Jab on irc...

edit: after reading that corsair page... it seems you have the option of getting an rma yourself... i know that doesnt help you with your lack of ram problem but it might save you from troubles with your dealer :D

also, they're in the US

Corsair Memory
Attn: Returns
44141 S. Grimmer Blvd.
Fremont, CA 94538

Does anyone know if there are any ways of fast-tracking RAM replacement via Corsair directly?

send it in via mail.


why aren't you letting the tech support dept at the store you bought your machine from handle this?

did you assemble the parts yourself/have a mate do it?

if not - then they have provided the machinery, and it's their business to see your rig is functioning correctly for you.

id say yor mobo is bad if its eating ram sticks

dont spose it was the same slot that the errors originated from?

id be purchasing some cheap yumcha ram immediately and run it and see if the same thing happens (ie it dies)

did you assemble the parts yourself/have a mate do it?

I assembled it.

I've just got some new memory and it tests out fine. Hopefully it won't destroy it as well. Is there anything in particular that can cause RAM to just 'go bad'?

Is there anything in particular that can cause RAM to just 'go bad'?

Revision1 Asus P4C800 motherboards. not all of them surely... just the ones that land on my workbench :(


btw - did you get around to updating the bios on your mobo?

depending on the board trog as suggested by koopz it may just be a matter of updating your BIOS.... oh and corsair ain't what they used to be...

all i can say is asus sux and is overpriced k thx :)

gigabyte is where its at for performance and quality!

all i can say is asus sux and is overpriced k thx :)

your nickname wouldn't be Salty would it :P That call is usually reserved for their AMD boards

gigabyte is where its at for performance and quality!

agreed! the Gigabyte GA-8KNXP Ultra Pentium 4 Mobos are damn fine performers, easy to understand instruction manuals, easy to follow color-coding for all onboard devices, SATA IDE and SATA RAID that *isn't* a mission to install an OS onto, AGP that's backward compatible with older vid cards, awsome onboard audio and a quick bios update fixes a few niggling issues with Intel's new Extreme Edition CPU's.


$660+ for a motherboard is just a bit rich for my blood though.

btw - did you get around to updating the bios on your mobo?

Nope - will try and do tomorrow because I want to test the firewire again.

reminds me, i need to get my arse into gear and get my kingmax sent away :( found the receipt again finally.. such a pain having to fill in an rma form and mail it away; why can't the retailers manage this bs :(

agreed! the Gigabyte GA-8KNXP Ultra Pentium 4 Mobos are damn fine performers,

I went for the standard 8KNXP and absolutly love it.

The lower spec gigabyte boards leave a bit to be desired however...

My bro went through 2 of the lower AMD boards and they were both complete s*** put me off gigabyte for life! Moved to Epox 8KHA+ and couldn't be happier!


That's not to say their new stuff hasn't improved as Epox did start off in a very similar fashion and once they had things sorted they had some quality boards happening!

sounds like your having a *great* time with your asus mobo doesnt it trog?

My P4C800 Deluxe Has never skipped a beat... even overclocked to ~3.6ghz

Crazy

where the heck are you people shopping?? Your retailer should be able to swap RAM from stock in MOST cases, also trog if your have a P4C800 these things most definitely ARE NOT stable without the latest BIOS revision!!

I've just flashed to the latest bios - this new memory I have is reporting errors as well though. Is this motherboard eating memory (ie, damaging it) or is it just completely f***ed?!

Googling seems to reveal heaps of people having problems with it as well. If it wasn't such a pain in the ass I'd just take it back, but it is a complete and utter major pain in the ass.

This is when you hate computers :(

Buy one particular system configuration & never have a problem, upgrade and get dragged screaming backwards through hell :(

-> Have you tried memtest mate?

memtest and Windows Memory Diagnostic both report errors (only in one DIMM at the moment). I'm wondering if I just wait if the other DIMM will start reporting problems.

I decided long ago to never, ever buy computers in parts ever again (unfortuantely I didn't get to put this in practice for this system) - I have no patience for this sort of bulls*** any more; I just want to be able to buy a PC and take it back and have it fixed when it screws up.

Perhaps the only way to confirm the source of the problem is to beg/borrow/swap some RAM from a working source and install it in your machine?

If any problems arise, obviously the mobo has issues. I must state however that in my ~15 years of computers I've never seen 2 sticks of RAM bite the dust at the same time (from the one machine). Statistically, it should never occur, but hey - anything is (im)possible with computers. :(

I've returned faulty RAM on several occasions both with GameDude (yeah yeah - this was 5+ years ago) and UMART. In each case, I received a replacement stick in ~ 2 weeks (this was with yum-cha & KingMAX brands).

Perhaps the only way to confirm the source of the problem is to beg/borrow/swap some RAM from a working source and install it in your machine?

That's what I did - I got term's RAM and stuck it in here. That's this lot of RAM that I'm now having problems with.

Just spent the last 20 mins reading the Corsair forums - there are heaps and heaps of people having problems with this RAM (Corsair TwinX1024-3200LL) and this motherboard (Asus P4C4800 Deluxe). I'm going to try and get some more information from there.

As I use this PC for work, I can't (easily) wait to get it replaced - I'd have to buy replacement RAM immediately or get a loaner or something.

Anyway, will see how we go with the Corsair guys.

As much as I hate pc hardware for reliability...

there is no way on earth you would have 3 faulty ram sticks in a row...

Its your motherboard I would guess... maybe the memory controller? I dunno... But check the corsair in someone else's pc.

there is no way on earth you would have 3 faulty ram sticks in a row...

I wouldn't have thought so either until I read the Corsair forums - either there's just a bad batch around or these things simply don't work in these motherboards.

Interestingly, I made some changes to the CAS timing thingy and now Memtest doesn't report any errors, but Windows Memory Diagnostic still does!

Interestingly, I made some changes to the CAS timing thingy and now Memtest doesn't report any errors, but Windows Memory Diagnostic still does!

Prepare the goat sacrifice#@! :P

Still - your above findings wouldn't instill any great confidence in me :(

My next PC is going to be a Dell or something that comes in one box

My next PC is going to be a Dell or something that comes in one box

Thats not as silly as it might sound...I had uber Dell systema few years back when the first 800 MHZ cpus came out and it was having probs with the bus mastering of the nic and the Hercules GF2 that I had installed. Within 12 hours of reporting it, Dell sent a tech to my house armed with new mobo, new ram and new nic card. He was here like 3 hours till he sorted the problem, upgraded the ram from PC600 to PC800 Rdram, then the next day the customer care people rang me and apologised for the screw up and offered me and extended three year warranty for free. And this was with a system that was playing up due to a vid card that I had installed. No questions asked, no bill...just superb support.

That piece of mind is very attractive when you hear some of the computer/hardware horror stories.

I think when I get a whole new system next time I would have no problems at all in returning to Dell due to this experience.

p.s trog they (Dell) have recently released a pretty kick arse gaming rig as well.

Trog was your Corsair purchased in brisbane? If so the retailer that sold it to you prolly brought it from altech...(where i work).
Yes, you will have to wait for a replacement thow Corsair (pan ram) are pretty good with replcing their ram. I'm saying you be without it up to a month at the max, depending on your retailer and how long it takes them to do a RA request) by the time it makes its way to us you prolly get a straight swap.

best of luck
by the way Altech aren't open till the 5th of Janurary =(

EDIT.
Trog don't by all means think your problem is a one off.

What most people dont check when they purchase their stuff is to actually check if ram is compatable with their mobo's.
Particularly gamers!!(showing off what mummy and daddy spent on them) :P -Sorry Kids-
I've seen s*** loads of pc's come back from dealers with this same problem (ABIT VI7's and Corsair as well).
Some times it pays to go generic :P

like i said Corsair ain't what it used to be... Geil and the latest BIOS revision of the P4C800 is most definitely a winnar

hahah
i told use all the intel was dodgy

u wouldnt get these sort of problems with an AMD system


:)

almost anyone with an a7n8x would disagree

hahaha

/backs away slowly

What most people dont check when they purchase their stuff is to actually check if ram is compatable with their mobo's.

I guess people like me believe you shouldn't have to!#@!$#! Thanks for the rest of the info though, very handy.

p.s trog they (Dell) have recently released a pretty kick arse gaming rig as well.

rockin - I remember your Dell and the fact that you had problems and they got fixed basically straight away. The last two PCs I've bought have both had stupid problems - the first one simply wouldn't give me any decent FPS in games if I had the sound on (can't remember how I ended up fixing it but I spent almost 20 hours straight reinstalling OS/drivers/hardware). This one had some other problem with the RAID, and now this. I'd rather pay an extra few hundred dollars to avoid that sort of crap in the future - I just have no patience for tinkering with hardware these days. It was fun like, ten years ago, but now I just want these stupid things to WORK!

trog i had identical problem with RAID.

When i transfered files between raid drives i had a very loud static noise going through my sound when i had music or similar going.

I bought a new motherboard cpu and ram to fix it.

It still has the same problem but only 2% of the old motherboard.

Think it may be caused by creative sound cards.

CaPt0, I know for sure some SBlive cards do have major issues with other hardware, thow im not aware of any Audigy cards having the same probs.

i always hear this about lives, *kicks sblive* yeah mine still works =p

yup capt0 I know how u feel, I've got an sblive value and every now and then I get static when I play games or am just listening to music.

Worse still, it seems to be causing my fps to drop in games (i.e whenever I get the static my fps drops) its a progressive problem though, frames get worse and more noticable when they drop.

Generally a soundcard driver reinstall fixes it. I really should get an audigy.

I really should get an audigy.

Maybe you should steer clear & buy a Hercules equivalent (ie GTXP 7.1 ?). I did & I've never regretted it in the ~ 2 years I've been running it. :)

Have not read all this thread but there is none issues with ur board Trog and Corsair Ram. Change ur Cas Latency to 3 and u should be ok.

Trog sounds like you need 2 systems, 1 for work possibly a laptop and 1 performance beast for gaming. All the work PC's here are single board intel intergrated Vid/Sound/Nic just add memory and HDD type cards, if there is a hardware malfunction it usually results in a MB replacement.