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Toshiba Recalls Notebook RAM

Posted by samzenpus on from the bad-memory dept.

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?"

17 of 135 comments (clear)

  1. DIMMness by ackthpt · · Score: 5, Funny
    blaiming [sic]

    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
  2. A Vast Sea by lukewarmfusion · · Score: 4, Interesting

    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.

    1. Re:A Vast Sea by ackthpt · · Score: 4, Interesting
      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.

      There was a story a year or two back with a disconcerting phrase 'Acceptable Rate of Failure'. The context was CD ROM drives, IIRC, which are manufactured at such a volume that 15% failure is acceptable ... which should worry you a bit about how good, really, are the drives that actually passed Q/A.

      The profit goes out of doing business this way when you (as a manufacturer) have to foot the bill for replacement parts, manuals, shipping and logistics.

      --

      A feeling of having made the same mistake before: Deja Foobar
    2. Re:A Vast Sea by mordors9 · · Score: 4, Interesting

      Let's face it, as long as consumers keep looking for and buying strictly based upon price, the situation is going to continue. The company I work for has to replace hard drives in large numbers every year. But they bought cheap PCs to start with (lowest bid). So they got what they paid for.

    3. Re:A Vast Sea by trip23 · · Score: 3, Insightful

      That's quite true. Over the years I bought dozens of different RAM-types, quite often rather cheap. About 10% of the RAM was defective in one or another way, often I noticed it only months laters, when the machine starts to behave peculiar. But having been through a lot trouble I just run memtest for two or three days after purchasing new RAM. Good thing i have a couple of spare machines. Troubleshootingwise i tend to blame RAM a lot more then some years ago.

    4. Re:A Vast Sea by lukewarmfusion · · Score: 4, Interesting

      That is a fairly common practice. It's difficult to guarantee 100%, so you accept a certain threshhold of failing parts or units. They do it in cars, electronics, etc. You save money by manufacturing an engine in Mexico, but you accept that there will be a higher rate of failure. If you do the math and it's still cheaper, you go with it.

      Outside of the manufacturing world, we all accept failure as a reasonable part of our lives. It's usually not a calculated, profit/pleasure-maximizing decision, but it's certainly part of life. You learn from mistakes, you grow from them, and you're better for it. If we're lucky, Toshiba will learn from its mistakes and we won't have these problems in the future. From what I've seen, they've got some great notebooks at some decent prices. If it weren't for stories like this (oh, and my lack of disposable income) I'd probably buy one.

  3. Re:blaiming by lukewarmfusion · · Score: 4, Funny

    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.

  4. bad ram a common problem by cats-paw · · Score: 4, Informative

    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
    1. Re:bad ram a common problem by ch-chuck · · Score: 5, Interesting

      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.

      I used to use gcc linux kernel compile to thrash-test memory - start enough of 'em so it just starts to swap and let it run in a loop overnight. If no signal-11's in the morning it'll probably survive anything else.

      --
      try { do() || do_not(); } catch (JediException err) { yoda(err); }
    2. Re:bad ram a common problem by skt · · Score: 4, Informative

      There are some good, free memory testing utilities out there like memtest86. They probably still have an ISO image on their website that can be used to create a bootable CD-ROM with the utility configured to start automatically.

  5. For those who don't know, like myself by IGTeRR0r · · Score: 3, Informative

    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

  6. As for me by Judg3 · · Score: 4, Interesting

    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!
  7. the ram does suck... by LiquidMind · · Score: 3, Funny

    "...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.
  8. Another recall and a quick fix. by twitter · · Score: 3, Funny
    From the HP site:

    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.

  9. Like war, DDR is hard by LOTHAR,+of+the+Hill · · Score: 4, Interesting

    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.

  10. Patched DRAM by Dielectric · · Score: 3, Interesting

    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!

  11. The notification email looks like phishing by baxissimo · · Score: 3, Insightful
    I have a toshiba laptop and I got an email notifying me about this. The thing that annoyed me was that they aparently chose to hire a 3rd party to send out the emails to all their customers. So I got this email claiming to be from Toshiba, but the email headers weren't from a toshiba domain (rather from "toshiba.toshsvcs.com"), and even the link I was supposed to click on in the email didn't match the domain it was supposedly taking me to. The link was like: www.toshibadirect.com/CEP. It says it's going to take me to toshibadirect.com, but upon closer inspection is actually taking me to toshsvcs.com.

    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???