The Crucial Ballistix Saga continues.

[notdrugged]

I was using the RMAed stick of Ballistix PC4000 until I could get around to selling it and replacing the RAM, and some other RAM of theirs with a different manufacturer. I was even feeling bad about my harsh words in a thread in the staff forums here. I was trying to keep a lid on myself.

Not anymore. The RAM died dead as a doornail today running at a cool temperature, possibily through a newer advancement of some type in the replacement module. The voltage was 2.8v, which is recommended, and it was running somewhat shy of PC4000 speed in single-channel mode with extensively researched timings values. The part number still exists on store pages at their website, but it is not available for sale again yet. I no longer wonder why.

I believe they still haven't gotten it right, and they did so at my, and I suspect many other people's expense. The only regret I have is obvious.

[Niner]

I have seen a drop off in Crucial the last couple of years at least it seems that way. I know alot of people looked to that brand for top of the line memory, but I see more and more people going to Corsair and Kingston among others.

[notdrugged]

Well, I mean I have one dead stick and two sticks I can downclock and relax timings so I can run Mepis live linux, which is the only reason I can even post to these boards. Both sticks are bad individually, but I figure I have more available RAM running them in dual channel. Both are completely incapable of running any operating system off the hard drive, because of their intensive startup routines.

The one that's fried appears to have a completely dead circuit on one side of the module according to the LEDs, so POST basically stops with an infinite blackscreen, and will with either stop the monitor at it's startup test, or send it into sleep mode. This particular module, I don't know, a couple months old at most? It was a product replacement from Crucial itself. That's four bad sticks out of four from Crucial.

As I was saying, I think my only regret is obvious. Maybe other Crucial products are fine. I'm not trying to blackball Crucial, but you know, when you have something like this happen to you, it's just about impossible with good conscience to keep giving them another chance. This isn't even the first time I've replaced a Crucial product, but to their credit, the replacement that time is perefect. Still going.

And I've seen people who have had just as bad if not worse luck with other computer products from other companies, where few people seemed to be experiencing remotely the same. I can't explain it. It's like a switch in the brain that gets thrown, like running away from danger. I just can't in good conscience be a loyal Crucial customer any longer.

I'm totally open to people willing to defend Crucial. I think they need it now more than ever. I believe those people work their butts off, yet still have outstanding service as much as their corporate office allows, I'm sure. Their intentions are good, I believe.

As for me, I'm moving to G.Skill, only because I can't afford Mushkin, and I know when I get rid of these Crucial modules, I'm not going to get anywhere near their retail value.

[brothergc]

yea I have seen this in crucial , they used to be the only people I would buy memory from , but after 2 bad sets of ballistix , and a crappy set of standard DDR-1 memory that also falied , I would not buy from them anymore .

[chubbyfatazn]

I was using the RMAed stick of Ballistix PC4000 until I could get around to selling it and replacing the RAM, and some other RAM of theirs with a different manufacturer. I was even feeling bad about my harsh words in a thread in the staff forums here. I was trying to keep a lid on myself.

Not anymore. The RAM died dead as a doornail today running at a cool temperature, possibily through a newer advancement of some type in the replacement module. The voltage was 2.8v, which is recommended, and it was running somewhat shy of PC4000 speed in single-channel mode with extensively researched timings values. The part number still exists on store pages at their website, but it is not available for sale again yet. I no longer wonder why.

I believe they still haven't gotten it right, and they did so at my, and I suspect many other people's expense. The only regret I have is obvious.

So you had the 5B-F sticks? Odd..

I'm supposed to get my new sticks this Wednesday. *crosses fingers*

It's a good thing that these GSkill sticks are 'sposed to come in stock today: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16820231021

I would get them, but I have no reason to...

[kingmountain]

I just picked up a pair of the pc4000 ballistix (2X512mb) and they won't go a hair over pc3200 on 2 different systems. Last time I bought crucial...a few years back...they were the best. They won't even post at 225mhz! Thinking of complaining to crucial, but may not be worth the postage on returns. They do just fine at 200mhz with the 3200 timings.

John