Are Bad RAM Chips Common?

A semi-Anonymous Coward asks: "I recently built myself a new system using a mainboard which required using registered DDR SDRAM -- the motherboard will not work with unbuffered / unregistered memory, and I wanted the extra integrity provided by registered memory anyway. To my amazement, both the memory I purchased with the board and one of two other sticks I purchased were either defective or simply incapable of working with the board (which is the Chaintech 7KDD, BTW). About how often do people run into defective memory, and do they see them from the 'reputable' manufacturers as often as they do the 'no-name' ones? Now that I've spent a ridiculous amount of money on this, I'm a lot more wary."

Comments

Avoid risk - use less memory.

[zulux]

For a lot of the FreeBSD / Samba server that I use, I simply remove most of the memory. Less memory - less risk that the the system will run in to a bad batch. Don't remove so much that you end up trashing (trashing could expose errors in the bus or potentially over-strss your hard-drive) - but for normal (not high performance) file serving, nothing is gained by having huge quantities of memory.

My experiences

[FueledByRamen]

I've used all sorts of different RAM in many systems:

My SGI Indy is using old 72-pin SIMMs that I found on my (carpeted, read: static-inducing) floor under my desk.
My SparcStation 20 uses RAM that was shipped to me rattling about in a cardboard box without any packaging material whatsoever.
My K6-2/400 used crappy no-name (not even a brand to be found on the chips themselves) 256mb PC100 DIMMS
My Athlon TBird-1.4 used the cheapest no-name crap DDR RAM I could find on Pricewatch - 512mb of it - but at least Infineon's name was printed on the chips.
My Athlon XP1800+ used just about the cheapest RAM possible (I bought it from NewEgg instead of some other vendor for about $2 more) with no names on the modules or chips.
A Dual Athlon MP2000+ server I built uses no-name Reg. DDR266 / 512mb from a Pricewatch low-baller.
My current P4/2.4 uses 256mb DDR266 by OCZ Systems, and not because of the brand recognition (who the hell are they?) - it was super-cheap. I bet if I removed the RAMsink on it, the chips would be nameless.

None of these systems have ever had memory problems. They rarely, if ever, crash (or at least they didn't crash when I had them - some have passed on into the hands of friends). Maybe I'm just one really lucky bastard when it comes to RAM, but I've never had any problems buying the cheapest shit memory so that I could save a few bucks.

Also, somehow, I have managed never to kill a component with static electricity. The worst that's happened is that I rebooted my Atari 800 by zapping it right on the motherboard while it was running. In fact, the only component that I've ever bought or installed that didn't work was a Sun Creator3d framebuffer - the only component I've ever used an anti-static wristband to install (because there was a free one in the box) and it was DOA with big vertical lines running through the picture at regular intervals (4 pixels). Well, that and two Fibre Channel drives that exploded, but that's because I was hot-swapping them and shoved the power connector into the (worn-down, self-installed) receptacle backwards.

ESD strips are not required

[xtal]

You can take precautions without a ESD strip. Unless I'm working on raw chips, or very, very expensive pieces of equipment, it's not worth the hassle. Nobody is going to bother, so here are some much easier to follow words of wisdom:

ESD advice for system self installers:

- Ground yourself to the metal chassis or something comparable on your system before you start assembling things. Do this frequently.

- Leave things in the anti-static bags until you're ready to put them together.

- Don't handle ram chips by the pins. Handle the modules by the edges of the package. If you can't get them into the system like this, then move the system so you can. This advice is good for motherboards, hard drives, system cards - handle them by their edges only, not on the pins or where the socket connector is.

- Never handle a cpu by the pins. Ever.

Taking those basic precautions will get you a long life and few problems without the hassle of wondering where a ESD strap is. Memtest is your friend, and use a good power supply. If you need to ask, odds are you don't have one.