Spyke
sh.itjust.works

Sure, you can do that....if you're a casual. Real PC users build their own NAND gates out of MOSFETs.

7

My laptop has some serious RAM reading errors. Sometimes the bad block gets mapped to VRAM and there is garbled 64x64 RGBA overlay on screen, otherwise programs or the kernel just crash. It is probably not actually the RAM, which I since upgraded, but a soldered-in chipset... It is rare enough (about 1x/day) to be usable though.

1

What motherboard is it? I had problems with a 4-stick ddr4 configuration recently and found out the mono didn't have the same specs on all 4 slots 😅

1
piefed.social

Remove the sticks, blow out your sockets with some compressed air and re-test. I had something similar recently and a full memtest pass ran clean after that.

4

Also, disable any OC. I had my ram fail tests because it is not supported by my mobo. After reducing speed to factory stock it would pass flawlessly.

1
piefed.social

If it's still under warranty, why wouldn't you try to RMA it first?

You can try... but several manufacturers are opting to refund you what you paid for the product, instead of replacing it, per their warranty terms. Terms that never were an issue before. And obviously what you paid years ago won't get you anywhere near a similar product now.

12

worth asking anyway... but if they demand the pair back and only offer a refund, you're losing money over keeping a single stick probably.

3
zdangerreply
lemmy.world

Return Merchandise Authorization. Return it to the manufacturer for a replacement

29

to add... (mainly for the benefit of others who may come across this)

most ram, purchased new at retail from a legit or 'authorized' merchant or store should be covered by a manufacturers warranty. those sellers on amazon marketplace with random 'kdfguuugggu' names probably not selling warranty-eligible products. you would more than likely need a proof of purchase receipt to show when and from where you purchased the ram.

if it was in a prebuilt or major oem (dell, hp, lenovo, etc) system you're usually at the mercy of the builder and its system warranty. if purchased direct, the seller should have record of the system purchase. if purchased at retail, same deal as above--need the receipt.

if the ram was acquired as used product, you're probably out'a luck.

7

Return Merchandise Authorisation. It means to return a product to the seller or to the manufacturer because it is defective, and ask for a replacement.

1
sh.itjust.works

Don’t know what brand you’ve got but I had two 16GB sticks of G.Skill DDR4 go bad a few months back and their RMA process worked a treat.

Wishing you success as well.

20
bdonvrreply
thelemmy.club

GSkill yep. Should be good. I originally built in 2020 with 2x8gb and then in October 2024 I got another 2x8gb because it was only $35USD why not lol

The exact same set is currently $135...

And go figure the new sticks were the ones that failed.

14
lemmy.zip

Just to be clear: are you trying to add the new set of two to the existing set? I.e., 4x8GB?

That can sometimes cause problems due to timing variations between batches. Make sure to do a memtest each stick individually, to make sure that isn't the issue.

3

maximum memory speed is also often slower with 4 modules vs 2.

2

RAM has lifetime warranties, typically. Send in an RMA request, after you isolate which sticks are bad, and get new ones.

4

If it’s not a large amount of bad RAM, there are tools to patch around it via EFI or kernel for many operating systems. It might get you by until you get new

3
piefed.ca

i had to pronounce some ddr5 dead this morning. at least it was 'only' one 8gb stick, but it's in an omen prebuilt, out of warranty.

user's just a high school kid. gonna have to limp along with the remaining 8gb (not much for gaming then) or random crashes with 16gb until he or the parents can afford to replace it.

3
bdonvrreply
thelemmy.club

Linux? I've heard if you can identify the bad blocks (assuming it's just one group of bad blocks) you can tell the kernel to not use those. If you're technically inclined.

3

I ran this too on mine, I had the mode set to memmap. Badram is old, grub these days expects memmap.

There were a few areas but they were close enough, so this is what I ended with.

Blocks of 64K were enough to fix this.

GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT="quiet splash memmap=64K\\\$0x3c8f0000,64K\\\$0x49068000,96K\\\$0xa24660000"

5

he has windows, but i'll mention the option to him next chance i get.

1
lemmy.world

had a 2x8 kit fail as well, thankfully I clocked it down from 3600 to 3200 and it passed the ~2 hour test.

perhaps relax the timings and/or increase voltage?

3

Timings are already base unfortunately as you can see 2134mhz

Gonna RMA them

2
lemmy.world

Dude you are running DDR 4 Ram at 2134MHz and with 15 timings. The Timings are good but the frequenzy is shit. You want atleast 3000 MHz with modern Ryzen CPUs for their Virtual Memory Fabric. You can probably get equally good Ram for a few bucks because these sticks suck.

Unless you already lowerd the Frequenzy in that case RIP.

2

I'm not sure what you're talking about. DDR4 without XMP typically runs at 2133 or 2400mhz. It's probably best to run a mem test at the stock frequency.

1
lemmy.world

Just mark those blocks as bad RAM and then the kernel will route around them.

4

I recently learned g. Skill had lifetime warranty. Not sure about others but worth a check

1
feddit.org

Yeah. One of my sticks also failed, doesn't boot with it in. Only 16GB is just not enough. And because I bought from a random ebay shop, I don't have the original receipt.

3

Mine booted but would cause system instability.

I can get by with 16gb but hopefully I can RMA. GSkill is pretty good on RMA I've heard

2

Thankfully it's DDR4 so no. I originally bought 2x8gb in Oct 2024 for $35, now they are $135

Gonna try warranty tho

1

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