How does one stick just die?

[Jayws]

So I've been having problems with a certain setup. At first the mobo was bad, so I replaced it with a different one. Then the CPU wasn't compatible with the bios revision but for some reason installed and ran windows (until it recently killed the installation), so I find the newest bios that supports 45nm procs.

Then, I can't install windows. I run a memtest to find that one stick tests just fine while the other stick fails every single test no matter what slot I put it in.

How does 1 stick of ram just die like this? I've memtested them both before and they were fine, I've never subjected them to higher than rated voltages, just kinda wondering wth?

[David]

Different sticks of RAM are... well.. different. It's entirely possible that one stick was not as robust/stable/whatever as the other and hence died first.

I've had one 512MB stick of PC2100 die a few years ago, the other 512MB stick (bought at the same time I think) was just fine. <3 Crucials warranty.

[Jayws]

bah... it's just infuriating because it's been one problem after the other with this one computer.

[ou_phidelt]

I had a single stick of Tracers die on me. Unless it is an electrical surge or something similiar event it would seem more strange to have both sticks die at the same time. It would be like saying its odd that one GPU died and not the other in an SLI/Crossfire system. No two components are going to be exactly the same, some will just be better than others.

[Jayws]

idk... I guess I just see lifetime warranties on things and assume that if they tested OK at one point and there are no damage causing factors that they should be ok