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Toshiba Recalls Notebook RAM
TheSync writes "The Register is reporting that Toshiba is recalling notebook RAM blaiming third-party DIMMs. This follows on HP's bad notebook RAM in June. Which raises the question, is there a vast sea of bad DIMMs out there?"
is there a vast sea of bad DIMMs out there?
Maybe so, the HP Compaq laptop I'm typing on had 1G of RAM replaced several months back.
As for slashdot editting, though, the memory isn't the only thing DIMM.
A feeling of having made the same mistake before: Deja Foobar
Yes, and it's found using Pricewatch, Google, and other product search engines. Not all cheap RAM is bad, but you're a lot more likely to get something crappy if you go with the lowest bidder. Those prices are low for a lot of reasons, including support, warranty, and quality. I've bought my share of low-priced memory through Pricewatch, and I've also had to return several of them. Never buy memory that doesn't have a lifetime warranty.
I'm sure Toshiba and Dell didn't buy their memory through Pricewatch (that'd be a hell of an order) but they probably sacrifice in the same way to get their internal costs down. Note that you'll pay a nice premium for ordering memory upgrades through the notebook manufacturer.
It's the distant, and not-so-shiny cousin of 'bling.' Blaim was discovered by a scientist that accidentally blew up his lab by mixing certain combustible chemicals. As the smoke cleared, the lab supervisor came running to find out what happened. Luckily, nobody was hurt. When he asked the scientist how the explosion happened, he was told that one of the janitors must have knocked over a beaker...or something...
And blaim, or 'blame' as we call it in English, was born.
Been seeing a lot of this recently. Why not just have a redirect to The Reg.
Engineering is the art of compromise.
I think that's the kind of laptop I've got but I can't seem to remember.
like a lot of slashdot readers I build my own computers.
my #1 problem has always been RAM.
I remember an interview with Larry Augustin of VALinux (remember them ?) when they were still building Linux PC's.
And he said the number one thing they had problems with was RAM.
I've had RAM which could pass all day long on a so-called memory tester, put it into a PC and the thing couldn't even finish POST.
Absolute statements are never true
I'm clueless on DIMM, so here's the definition, it's good to know: "Short for dual in-line memory module, a small circuit board that holds memory chips. A single in-line memory module (SIMM) has a 32-bit path to the memory chips whereas a DIMM has 64-bit path. Because the Pentium processor requires a 64-bit path to memory, you need to install SIMMs two at a time. With DIMMs, you can install memory one DIMM at a time." -- GamerCentric.com
Except for a bad 32mb SIMM I had in 1997, I've never ever had ram go bad on me, but then again I always use Crucial - I've seen some of the prices for ram you can find on Pricewatch and all, but remember 'if it sounds to good to be a deal, it probably isnt'.
Besides, with everything else then can go wrong with PCs these days, I like to be reasonably assured my ram is fine.
Looking for hardware (Currently need: Large Etch-a-Sketch) Have one? See my journal!
"...on Dell's bad notebook RAM..."
i've had problems with it too. It dumps all over the carpet, scratches up my costly italian-made OS, it bitches at users it doesn't know, it whines when it needs to be flushed, etc.
*rolls up newspaper* bad memory indeed.
This sig contains repetition and redundancy.
An easily repeatable, predictable applicatoin behavoir problem like that doesn't sound much like a RAM problem. RAM issues tend to give you more sporadic errors, either memmory errors themselves or wierd bugs caused by the wrong values being pulled from memory for all sorts of things.
... seems to me like there's better explanations.
You sure its not a conflict between winamp and some resorce on your computer? Maybe it doesn't like your sound card drivers, or the visualizations engine hicups with your graphics card driver, or its expecting a different version of some library, or i dunno
HP, which discovered the defect during routine notebook testing, said the flaw could result in blue screens, which indicate a computer crash; intermittent lock-ups or memory corruption.
Gosh, I've seen a lot of that out there. They won't give you your money back, but free replacements which are easy to install have been getting rave reviews. After hundreds of similar replacements, I can say for sure that the RAM was not the problem. Every now and then there really is a hardware problem, like a dead back up battery ($3.00 at Walmart), but mostly it's bad software. So spin a CD before you pop the cover.
Friends don't help friends install M$ junk.
I have stuck with Kingston and Viking over the years and have not had a bad module yet. I have heard that PNY is pretty good but when I worked for resellers we generally had a fair amount of bad PNY memory modules. Kingston can be found on sale and then you can apply coupons and rebates to get their memory down to a pretty good price.
http://www.busyweather.com/
Toshiba recalls RAM.
Sources say the reason behind this move is that the faulty memory can accessed randomly.
Toshiba unavailable for comment.
I have built a number of desktops in the past few years for myself and others, and have returned a lot of RAM. Premium RAM seems to have lower failure rates, but I have returned some damn expensive RAM too. I never had problems with older RAM. Are the quality control issues different now?
DDR is a very high speed multipoint parallel interface with very little tolerance in the drivers and recievers. Designing DDR motherboards and DIMM modules is difficult. The capacitive load of the DDR bus varies depending on how many DIMMs are loaded and the DIMM architeture (#chips on DIMM). DDR drivers dont vary the buffer strength based on loading so you will have too much overshoot with one DIMM with 5 chips (x16) and too overdamped with 4 DIMMS with 36 chips (stacked x4) on each DIMM. This is why most motherboards are more relable when all DDR slots are full.
Motherboard manufactures must qualify each DIMM combination separately. You should always use the DIMM modules recommended by the motherboard manufacturer. This is a problem that will only get worse.
Excellent. One day, when I'm good and drunk, I'll tell that story and it will be hilarious. At least, to me..because I'll be drunk...
I bought a batch of corsair to upgrade a couple of machines, as they're supposed to be a 'quality' brand.
Every single one of them failed memtest86 (8 sticks in total).
I sent them back, went out and got some cheap unbranded (what I normally used) which worked perfectly.
So branded memory isn't always better.
I learned something interesting just yesterday about making DIMMs. There are companies out there that specialize in recovering failed DRAM chips. They buy them as factory rejects for pennies, and use some trickery to mask off the bad bits and re-use the recovered DRAM as a smaller density. I know Micron buys lots of this stuff for their value line. Maybe the patching isn't as good as we'd hope?
Eh, blame it on alpha particles. Those buggers are causing all sorts of problems with bit-flips in memory cells. Buy ECC!
I did whois on this toshsvcs.com domain and it just points to some dude in Arizona. So I'm thinking, wow, this is one of the best phishing scams I've seen... or is it?
Well apparently it's not, but it sure could have been. It kind of ticks me off that they're doing it this way. How am I supposed to explain to my grandma how to recognize a phishing scam when companies like Toshiba are hiring people to send out legitimate emails that are virtually indistinguishable from scams? In fact, this would still be a great one for the phishers to jump on. Just copy that toshiba recall email, and replace the already suspicious links with new ones that don't redirect to toshiba's website, or which do after asking you to enter your computer's password.
What's the world coming to? Oh, well at least we're getting rid of that oaf in the White House. Oh crap, you mean we're not???
RAMBUS is a point to point buffered interface. Each signal only sees one load with dedicated TX and RX signals. The interface is actually a daisy-chained loop, rather than multipoint bus. That is why you need you need the blank DIMM to pass the TX to the RX signals. Since the loading is always the same, it's much more consistent and you will se less vendor to vendor variance.
Bad ram like that is used in things non-crucial applications like digital answering machines, where the memory error will just cause a harmless blip during playback. But who knows what "big brand name memory company" had in mind.
Maybe two years ago, the german C't computer magazine did a major test to determine the quality of RAM available in the end-user market.
They bought lots of different RAM, ranging from no-name discount RAM sticks to "premium brands", then tested them in a number of boards. Further tests were done in cooperation with a company that specializes in testing of semiconductors. Here a special analyzer was used that could test the RAM under well-defined electrical conditions.
The results were disillusioning:
While most of the "premium brand" modules were of reasonable quality (but not perfect), many of the cheap parts were definitely sub-standard.
Sometimes they did simply not meet their specifications, running reliably only at lower clock speeds and higher latencies.
But more frequently, the information in the on-module ROM was wrong and misleading those mainboards that relied on it for setting the timing parameters of the RAM. In these cases, the RAM timings had to be set manually to ensure reliable operation.
C - the footgun of programming languages