Mushkin Blues: Tales and Adventures from RMA-land

Well, back a few weeks ago when we were all giving the Blues a shot, I gave it a whirl like a lot of others, because I really wanted to give some cheaper UTT a try.

First set didn't work, but instead of mailing them back to Fry's, I sent them to Mushkin. Got a replacement a little over a week later. Unfortunately, those sticks gave massive errors, too. They said there might be an incompatability problem between the UTT chips and Abit's NF7 board. So they worked me up another RMA, which I'm getting ready to send back.

However, curiosity got the best of me. The first sticks I had would boot at 2-3-3 or 2-2-2 timings and produce no more or less errors at either setting. I also booted them in my system with 3.3vdimm for a couple of minutes just to see if the error in Memtest's Test #2 would still show up on the first pass. It did. So back they went.

So I tried the same thing with the second set of sticks last night. But upon putting the sticks in the system with 3.3vdimm, nothing would happen for a few seconds, and then I would get the two-tone siren. Two sticks together or each separately, same result. This second set of sticks also wouldn't boot at 2-2-2 timings for anything. So my guess is, they aren't UTT, as I've never known Winbond IC's to NOT boot at 3.3vdimm and just give the siren.

Now I know you get what you pay for, and I paid for sticks that will run 2-3-3 at 2.8v (which this second RMA should finally produce, hopefully), but I honestly wouldn't have bought them if I knew they wouldn't have UTT.

Mushkin pre-tested a set of sticks on their NF7 they have for me to very compatability, and they said they'll send them to me when I RMA this current set. They said they have Mosel chips as well, though. And since I've now given it a shot with both UTT and non-UTT blues, apparently, I'm still a little skeptical that they'll work just based on the law of averages, karma, and pure bad luck.

I'd rather just return these to Fry's and get my money back and then snag a set of Mushkin Red's when they hit, or even some Value VX, TMSP or G.skill in the meantime, but Mushkin just changed the part #'s on their sticks and I don't know if that will create a problem when trying to return a product to Fry's, since Mushkin put a new sticker over the old one on the sticks showing the new part number.

Also, I don't know what Fry's return policy is. I'm probably getting close to the 30-day mark, if they have a shorter return policy.

Anyone have any suggestions/thoughts/etc on what would be the best thing to do, and how good my chances are of getting a refund from Fry's with these part numbers being different now on the sticks?

I'm not sure about Fry's return policy. I got two single sticks back from RMA when I bought a dual pack from Fry's. I doubt they would take the different RAM as a return.

I sold my RMAed Mushkins on ebay, accepting the losses and ending the hassle. I find it quite disconcerting that almost every one of us (that posts here) that bought the Blues got at least one dead stick. Living in Canada made the ordeal even worse for me since I had to pay $20 shipping from Fry's $10 more to RMA, and $20 of duty/customs twice! Then when I get the RMA back, the chips had obviously been speed binned or tested somehow since they don't have 1 Mhz of OCing headroom and will do no timing but the stock 2-3-3. This is quite a difference from the 1 good stick I sent in which did 250Mhz at 2-2-2. I know I have no grounds to complain about the RAM itself because the RAM does work and I got what I paid for, but what about the extra $50 that came out of my pocket due to the RMA?

My ebay auction ended for 93USD, netting me a loss of probably close to $100 Canadian. Live and learn I guess.

This is troubling to say the least considering my RMA should be here sometime this week (It will be 3 weeks tomorrow since Mushkin received my bad sticks). I'm hoping my situation ends on a better note.

I hope you guys have more luck than I did too

Wonder if you got Mosel chips as well, Eldonko. I know for a fact that's what they're sending me back when I send in my RMA, because Ian tested them on their NF7 and Diane confirmed the IC's.

Guess I'll just eBay 'em, too. So far I'm out $127 for the product itself and then another $5 to return them the first time. This time, Mushkin was kind enough to give me their FedEx account number so I could ship them on their bill instead of mine, which I really appreciated.

What stinks is that for all that extra money, you could've just bought some VX's, Donk. =(

Lol yup, instead I got nuthin but a bad taste in my mouth.

Dunno what chips I got, the pcb looked the same as my first ones though, the black Mush Enhanced stuff. I think it was likely the same ICs, just the bottom of the barrel.

Perladdict....to answer your question....Fry's return policy is only 14 days on CPU's, Memory, and hardware components such as those. I have been able to return something to them after that time period, but it takes some arguing with a manager which is not as fun as you may imagine

Honestly, I would keep them if I were you. You got a gig of some cas 2 stuff for a relatively good price. I know it sucks to not have the UTT you wanted, but you win some you lose some. Hopefully your next round will bring you a little more pleasure.

-Collin-

I guess I was pretty lucky. I bought two packs of matched sticks and all four were very good (240 MHz+ at 2-2-2-5).

CJ

Well, I won't be keeping THIS set, cause like I said, the RMA replacements they sent back the first time were bad, too, so they're going back regardless. So this will make set #3 when the RMA's come in.

Only reason I bought these other than another brand was to fiddle around with UTT without breaking the bank, whether it runs only stock or soars. Wasn't concerned about the top speeds I could or could not get ... was interested in giving a particular IC some testing. But I'm not a big fan of Mosel, so these will be hitting eBay when I get them, and I'll pick up a gig of UTT from somewhere else. It's like working on a car ... if I buy a '68 Fairlane so I can enjoy playing with the engine, even if it never does over 80, I'm getting out of it what I intended. If I buy that same car and find out it has a rebuilt engine from a different year that's been thrown into it, I'm not gonna hold onto it.

Yeah, a gig of CAS2 for $127 isn't a bad deal ... but it's not exactly hard to find anymore from a plethora of other companies. If I was buying for the CAS rating and not wanting to play with a new type of chip I haven't gotten to mess with yet, I wouldn't have gone higher than 2-3-2 and just bought some stuff to run stock speeds and timings (and at 2-3-3 with zero plans to play around, you've got plenty of choices around $100 if you just need ram to install and be done with it).

Probably gonna try and get TMSP's this time, but we'll just see. Thanks for the info on Fry's return policy. Knew I shouldn't have bought from them in the first place ... so much for that "gut instinct."

Very strange. Ive had nothing but good service with mushkin's RMA dept Sorry to hear your trouble

CJ4 said:

I guess I was pretty lucky. I bought two packs of matched sticks and all four were very good (240 MHz+ at 2-2-2-5).

CJ

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Well, the first set they sent me was UTT and had some promise, but unfortunately they errored out at stock speeds, even though they could get their timings to 2-2-2 and went up to 225Mhz or so decently at 2.9 volts. Prime actually didn't seem to have any real issues. But I didn't want sticks that were giving off thousands of errors in an 8 hour run because I knew I'd never be able to sell them to someone else later when I decided to change out ram if they were bad sticks.

Sadly, both my first RMA and the batch on its way contain Mosel, which really isn't any fun at all. Hopefully I'll only lose $20 - $30 on eBay transactions. I hate seller and Paypal fees.

just be glad you didnt buy from gskill - you wouldnt even have got any replacement sticks outa those cowboys

Sentential said:

Very strange. Ive had nothing but good service with mushkin's RMA dept Sorry to hear your trouble

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I should clarify - though my first RMA set was a bum pair of sticks, too, Mushkin's RMA department itself has been splendid. Diane is wonderful and her support alone would keep me buying from the company. And I really appreciate Ian taking the extra time to test the sticks they're going to send this time in the NF7 there to make sure it's not a compatability problem between the sticks and the mobo.

And I was very happy they let me put the return shipping on their FedEx account this time, too. I didn't even ask, they just offered. =)

PerlAddict said:

Well, the first set they sent me was UTT and had some promise, but unfortunately they errored out at stock speeds, even though they could get their timings to 2-2-2 and went up to 225Mhz or so decently at 2.9 volts. Prime actually didn't seem to have any real issues. But I didn't want sticks that were giving off thousands of errors in an 8 hour run because I knew I'd never be able to sell them to someone else later when I decided to change out ram if they were bad sticks.

Sadly, both my first RMA and the batch on its way contain Mosel, which really isn't any fun at all. Hopefully I'll only lose $20 - $30 on eBay transactions. I hate seller and Paypal fees.

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Did you add more voltage? Most UTT likes voltage and some burn it. I sorry about your experience. We are trying our best to accomodate and get you a set that performs with the NF7.

Duonger

It's okay, Dounger ... Diane has a nice phone voice. lol. Once I knew the first set was defective and already had an RMA number, I admit I stuck it in my system with 3.3vdimm and let it run overnight at stock timings. Memtest errors were pretty much the same, though it didn't error out on the first pass. Still up in the low thousands, though. Diane said the sticks tested out as one good, one defective when they received them back at Mushkin.

I tried the same with the second set, but at 3.3vdimm, the system just gives a two-tone siren and won't start. I'm assuming that's due to the Mosel chips and their lack of tolerance for voltage.

I'll take this time to give my words of wisdom: Mushkin Blues are a fatastic value for cas2 ram and some have been able to overclock to insane frequency with these modules. However, nothing besides 200mhz @ 2-3-3 w/ ~2.8vdimm is guaranteed. If you are someone who has time to tinker with these modules, they're a decent buy. However, if you are the kind of person who wants guaranteed OC's off the bat, I suggest you try the OCZ VX or wait for the Mushkin Redlines to hit retail. That said, Mushkin's Tech/Warranty support is top notch. I've dealt with Ian, Diane and Kristi several times and each was a pleasurable experience.

Obviously ... and like I said, would've been perfectly happy to tinker regardless of 0Mhz or 80Mhz overclock - with UTT IC's. Which the Blues, along with a handful of other value lines, were sporting for a bit (and which I got before having to RMA because one of my two sticks was faulty).

With Mosel chips at 2-3-3 and 200Mhz, $120 isn't any better deal for a "tinkerer" than you'll find from a number of other companies at the moment, whether you are hoping for a great OC or like a teenage boy persuing a girl out of his league, are just in it for the thrill of the chase, because it isn't going to tinker. It's still a perfectly legit deal for a non-enthusiast who wants to plug and play. But you CAN find "tinkering" ram out there for under $130 right now. If one of my sticks hadn't been faulty, I'd probably be playing as we speak instead of sharing my "mushkin blues" (a name whose irony just hit me. ) And if all you want is the speed, then you can pony up the bucks, too, of course.

Obviously nothing is guaranteed overclocking, but sometimes the components themselves can guarantee that you won't be able to find that out for yourself regardless.

Like I said, it's like a car motor. If I get a 351 and can make the right adjustments to get her raceworthy, it's gonna be fun whether she runs 5 or 250, because I got to put in the effort and see my result. But if I put a briggs and straton lawnmower motor in her, they're aren't going to be any suprises or trials, and that's nothing anyone here buys in for. Otherwise we wouldn't be members on this site.

Which is why I'll be eating the loses and tossing them to eBay rather than complaining about not getting my money's worth. I got (or will be getting) the speeds and stability I paid for ... they just changed my engine mid-race, so now Daddy needs a brand new bag.

Quite a few of us are running a DFI NF4 board. Wonder if this is the cause of any of the problems:
http://www.dfi-street.com/forum/showthread.php?t=10785

I'm guessing most of the people here also have a pretty nice PSU, but it makes interesting reading anyway.

CJ

CJ4 said:

Quite a few of us are running a DFI NF4 board. Wonder if this is the cause of any of the problems:
http://www.dfi-street.com/forum/showthread.php?t=10785

I'm guessing most of the people here also have a pretty nice PSU, but it makes interesting reading anyway.

CJ

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That wasn't the problem with my first pair of blues...... I just had a bad stick and for some reason there seems to be quite a few reports of people getting bad sticks with the matched pairs. I've had bad matched pairs of sticks before but never with any brand of UTT.

Wasn't my problem either, I have a 24 pin PS.