Gold leads on crucial ram is chipping and bubbling away!

Ok, I purchased some "Crucial PC2700 256MB" ram from BuyAIB.com (when I first built this rig). They are known for selling OEM elcheapo components as name brand.

My ram is covered by a "FREE HEATSPREADER!", so I can't see if it truely is Crucial ram or not. My OC'ing has not been impressive though.

Anyway- about an hour ago my computer froze and I got a memory failure POST beep when I restarted. After pulling the ram (to reseat it), I noticed that the gold leads on the bottom of the ram were actually chipping and bubbling off! Yikes!

I'm fearing that this is related (duhh). So what's your estimate on how much longer it will hold out? Any jerry-rigging that might fix this? I really don't wanna pay any money for some ram. Grrr...

BTW- I blew away some of the dust and reseated the ram, and it's working now. I'm performing a folding burn in as I type, and will do some other burn in tests later , and am currently using my backup folding rig until I know it's stable.

Get it out of there before you kill any other components in your computer. Seriously.

Yeah, i'm gonna have to agree with the caffinehog up there.... Aint no use in having to spend any more money than you already do...

I seriously doubt it's corsair. In fact i'm almost certain. Get that crap out of your system, or at least take off the heatspreaders and find out what it really is!

Although, I don't know why it would chip and bubble, i've never seen ram leads do that. Even the really crappy leads just get bad scrape marks that don't really affect contact enough to matter.

same story here....same exact story (only no bubbling)...i hate that place, and need to figure out how to get my money's worth from them now - - think it is possible to send it back after 2months? it is cr@ptastic, so...lol

The bubbling sounds like it's from too much heat or something. Are you OC'ing this memory? I'd also recommend you get it out of your system before it burns up something else with it, most likely the memory socket it's in. If it is Crucial then don't they have a lifetime warranty?

Most PCB's can withstand temps close to 100C (boilingpoint of water) and when something has gone wrong, like a shortout, often you see completely burned off components while the traces on the PCB around it are still intact. If your traces are chipping and bubbling off, this is really some POS PCB those RAM chips are on! It's a good chance these were rejected PCB's that were bought up, yet still got finished and around somehow...

k1114 said:

I seriously doubt it's corsair. In fact i'm almost certain. Get that crap out of your system, or at least take off the heatspreaders and find out what it really is!
.

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He said CRUCIAL........ PLEASE don't confuse one of the best memory companies with that crucial. seriously, don't disrespect a sweet company like corsair by calling them that.

I tried and tried and tried to pull off the heatspreader, but I think buyaib.com glued it on there because I can't get it off to verify anything.

I know that company was caught sending out cheap ram, and I think I'm one of them. Overclocking- I have only been able to FSB my rig to 146ish. This was after I found the problem.

So far, I'm getting frequent BSODs and restarts. I reseat the ram, and it works for a few hours. God, I hate being ripped off.

Suprisingly, no damage to my system yet. But the problem is getting worse. I guess I'm lucky. I'll be ordering 512MB of PC3000 hyperx from newegg.com tomorrow. I know I can trust them. Until then, I think I might swap this ram with my folding rig... or maybe shut down my folding rig for a while and steal its' PNY ram for a little bit.

I have emailed buyaib.com regarding the ram. No response. I tried again just about an hour ago, and I have a feeling it's going to be the same story. No contact. I think I payed $65 for that ram when I first built this rig. It claimed to be crucial micron PC2700 with a full 100% lifetime warranty.

I have no info on hand that proves I made the purchase from them... so I think I'm screwed.... hehe anyone want some faulty no-name "crucial" ram. I learned my lesson. NEVER BUY FROM BUYAIB.COM!

ARGH!! Stoopid vendor trolls. **** you!

dreammmatt said:

same story here....same exact story (only no bubbling)...i hate that place, and need to figure out how to get my money's worth from them now - - think it is possible to send it back after 2months? it is cr@ptastic, so...lol

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Yeah... lawsuit! Class action! EVERYONE RIPPED OFF FROM THESE GUYS- JOIN IN! lol.

I ordered once from buyaib, a 8500 vid card over a year and a half ago. They fkng shipped it in the box it came in, Just stuck a USPS label on it. Not fedex or UPS, regular mail!!!!!!!!

Got 2 sticks of 128 mb ddr at the same time, they put them in the vid box. Their generic stuff that says. Neither stick would boot, I called them, they said i should of bought their guaranteed compatable. I said i would call them back in an hour,

I tried the memory in a VIA, SIS,INTEL,Nforce,Nforce2, and AMD Chipsets non of them would boot either stick. Called them back and asked what sticks does this work in and told them I tried every board i have. No refund, 25% restocking, and i pay shipping!!!!

Didnt take the time for resellerratings. But i take the time to trash them whenever im on there!!!! Everyone please do the same

Yeah, I got my ram in an envelope in regular USPS mail.

Of course it had a heatspreader on it, which probably saved it from breaking into tiny pieces while being processed with all the other bills, letters, post cards... Ugh.

Well, if you bought it with a credit card, you can do a chargeback. Just look out... they have a thing in their terms that if you do a chargeback, they charge a 30-something dollar fee. Well, at least you can get SOME of your money back.

Sorry to say buyaib.com has a terrible reseller rating (3.47) .
HERE .
(I almost purchased a 9700 NP from them myself till I checked the reseller rating )

I do not mean to crap on your bad experiance but shame on you guys , you KNOW better .

I hope things get better for you in the lines of a refund or replacement .

Thanks for pointing out just how bad a retailer saybuyaib.com really is . Probably will save many others from making a bad buy from them .

I wish you the BEST of luck in your endeavor for justice .


stereo555

zabomb4163 said:

He said CRUCIAL........ PLEASE don't confuse one of the best memory companies with that crucial. seriously, don't disrespect a sweet company like corsair by calling them that.

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Crucial makes top of the line RAM. Corsair quite often uses RAM chips made by Micron (Crucial's parent company). Corsair doesn't make the chips themselves, they just put them on PCB's, add heat spreaders, test and then sell them. There was no disrespect in his post. Most likely the RAM is niether Crucial, or Corsair.