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Salvaging Defective DRAM

Posted by michael on from the every-part-except-the-squeal dept.

An anonymous reader writes "Ever wonder what happens to DRAM that fails quality assurance testing during manufacturing? Turns out a lot of it ends up as 'downgrade' memory and ends up in OEM memory modules. Last resort: use it in an answering machine, where the sampled audio can be very tolerant of bit errors."

3 of 211 comments (clear)

  1. Oh well by JWyner · · Score: 0, Redundant

    At least now I know why my answering machine sucks so hard.

    --
    "Owning a computer is like having your very own TV -- with a built in radio!" - Ed Helms
  2. I swear to god.. by Bush_man10 · · Score: 0, Redundant

    Either all the ram that is bad ends up in answering machines or in my computer. I'm aftering going through my fair share of ram in my days.

    --
    "I believe in everything in moderation. Including moderation." -Dean DeLeo, Stone Temple Pilots
  3. Using broken RAM with Linux - BadRAM, memtest86 by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0, Redundant

    BadRAM is a Linux kernel patch for defective RAM modules support. With defective RAM, I mean RAM which has some bits wrong at some (known) addresses.

    Normally, such RAM is considered useless and thrown away; the larger RAMs get, the higher the chances of failing addresses. With ever growing RAM sizes, it would therefore be pleasant to have an alternative to discarding of defective RAM chips.

    By the way, memtest86 is a free x86 memory diagnostic, which can be configured to produce BadRAM patterns