Gah, one of my Mushkin 2gig 6400 sticks randomly died!

[Speederlander]

Well, this sucks. I've had them running at 2.2 vDIMM with no isssues and then today I first start getting errors with explorer then BSODs in Vista. I had previously memtested all 8 gig with no issues. Now I memtest and get 20,000 errors in less than 1:30 seconds. :eek: I narrowed it down to 1 stick, but I am somewhat paranoid. I spent $1K on this RAM with the idea that I would not be changing anything out for a year and half to 2 years. Did the RAM die on its own? Was the mobo responsible? Why would it work fine for a month then suddenly develop error city when it was getting voltage within spec? I have 1 day left to return it to Newegg. Usually this stuff happens the AFTER that warranty ends, so I'm a little lucky, but I really don't know the best route now. Replace the single 4 GB kit and hope for the best (i.e. the P5K Dlx didn't kill the stick) or shoot back all 8 gig, go back to my Mushkin 4 gig (4x 1 gig DIMMs) and possibly just wait to spend large sums of cash on RAM until X38 comes out and get DDR3 (in case this P5K killed the RAM).

What is the most likely source of RAM death if it tested fine initially, it wasn't overvolted and a month later it dies a horrible death? I haven't had any power surges or anything else. I have a 100 CFM fan over the RAM area, so it shouldn't be heat that whacked it.

All advice appreciated!!

[ozzimark]

there's a lot of things that could have happened.

did you check to see if 2.2v was actually 2.2v? do you know for a fact that temps were under control on all the sticks?

my experience with those mushkin is that the chips they used are really really warm, which makes sense, double the density of what we're used to. combine that with the small spaces between sticks when you have 8gb...

did you test each stick individually, and one fails? what happens when it fails? describe more.

[Speederlander]

there's a lot of things that could have happened.

did you check to see if 2.2v was actually 2.2v? do you know for a fact that temps were under control on all the sticks?

my experience with those mushkin is that the chips they used are really really warm, which makes sense, double the density of what we're used to. combine that with the small spaces between sticks when you have 8gb...

did you test each stick individually, and one fails? what happens when it fails? describe more.

Well, I don't have a DMM so if it was off significantly I wouldn't know. I would consider that a board issue, if it was the case.

Yes, they run hot. But I had a 100 CFM fan pointed right over them. If that's not enough I don't know what is, unless I just shouldn't use 4 slots of RAM with those 2 gig sticks. :shrug:

Tested each stick individually. The bad stick fails instantly. Wracks up 20,000 errors in less than 2 minutes in memtest (test 2 and test 3 before I pulled the plug). The other three sticks appear to be ok.

[Yukon Trooper]

Send that RAM back. Why do you need 8 gigs? Save your money and put it somewhere logical. 2GB is the most you should need unless your doing HARDCORE video editing, compiling, conversions etc. And even then 2GB or 4GB is enough.

Waste of money. Period. Unless of course you have the cash to spend.

[Speederlander]

Send that RAM back. Why do you need 8 gigs? Save your money and put it somewhere logical. 2GB is the most you should need unless your doing HARDCORE video editing, compiling, conversions etc. And even then 2GB or 4GB is enough.

Waste of money. Period. Unless of course you have the cash to spend.

No, Vista itself can take up a gig. Plus I run VMWare Workstation which takes a LOAD of RAM. Have a few other apps running in the background with Vista 64 going along with Server 2003 on a VM and then tell me about how 2 gig is the most I should ever need. Either way, this thread doesn't exist to justify whether I need 8 gig or 2 gig or whatever.

[Yukon Trooper]

Just offering a suggestion for the latter part of your post. You said you've already nailed it down to 1 stick so now that you know the problem you have to decide what to do.

2gb OR 4gb like I said should be enough but I guess with all you have going on 4gb is more sufficient. 8gb would be good for another 2 years like you said but why spend that much money on it now if you don't need it? Do you notice any performance improvements over your 4GB Mushkin kit? Thats the question I would ask myself but thats me.

If you need the 8gb then you need it and you should get it replaced. But if you notice no improvement from 4gb to 8gb then save the money and wait for some faster DDR3 modules.

[ozzimark]

Tested each stick individually. The bad stick fails instantly. Wracks up 20,000 errors in less than 2 minutes in memtest (test 2 and test 3 before I pulled the plug). The other three sticks appear to be ok.

very interesting that only one stick failed. my guess is either something was wrong with that one stick, or was wrong with the memory slot it was in. are all the errors in one spot, or everywhere?

[Eldonko]

Just rma the stick that died, mushkin rma is quick.

[Yukon Trooper]

Just rma the stick that died, mushkin rma is quick.
Yes, kudos to Mushkin for excellent support and product. But if he has RMA ability still available with Newegg then it is probably just as fast and effective. Unless of course Mushkin offers free return shipping. Not that shipping memory is expensive or anything lol.

[[XC] Aerosupra]

was the faulty stick in the 3rd DIMM slot on your board?

[Bootsy]

hmmm.......SpeedLander I had the same thing happen to me with this kit!

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820146691

I am also running a P5k deluxe, however I was running 4x1gb Mushkin redlines on it with no problem for almost 2 months. I dont know if its the board. I only had mine for less than a week before I figured out it was a bad stick which did the same thing you described thousands of errors in memtest. Mine might have been DOA. I already RMA'ed them to NewEgg.


Side note - Also seems like the price went up like $50 on these babies since I bought them.