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Micron selling DIMMs with used memory chips?

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larrymoencurly

Member
Joined
Jul 14, 2002
I bought some K-Byte brand PC2100 memory recently because a rebate and coupon made it slightly cheaper than free. In the past, my K-Byte DIMMs always had famous brand RAM chips on them, but this time the chips were either Spectec or Elixir. I thought that Spectec would be OK because they're owned by Micron, but then I learned that Spectec was specifically set up to sell refurbished/used memory. Elixir seems to be owned by Nanya, but I don't know if their chips are brand new or
"refurbished."

I've been testing with MemTest86 and the most aggressive BIOS settings allowed (no automatic settings but only 133 MHz), and so far no errors, but I always worry.
 
I dont think it would be too cost effective to remove a chip from the PCB test then reset on another PCB.

I do have some Spektec RAM and its OK. I wouldnt pay much money for this stuff but it would do the job for most users. And it did throw some Memtest errors on me in my MSI MB but has faired well in my 8k3a+ @ 183fsb 2.9v with turbo timings, only one error.
 
Here's a CNet about article about it. Notice the fourth paragraph:

The company will also sell its SpecTec division, which sells refurbished random access memory, to parent company Micron Technology.

I don't think they repair the individual chips when they refurbish the memory. :(

Isn't it risky to accept memory that shows even a single error with MemTest86, unless the cause was something else, like timing setttings that are too fast or bad power? I toss any memory that fails at all.
 
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