Crucial Ballistix Memory

[ATINUT]

I'm totally disgusted with this junk. I tried some on my Intel SLI rig, and all I had was nothing but reboots and freezes and in the end my Intel SLI rig wouldn't even post with this junk installed.

Now I have to take the junk back and get standard DDR2 800 memory.

Translation I'm disgusted with high performance memory in general, as my ASUS P5N32-E SLI board will not post with high performance memory such as Crucial Ballistix.

[wonderwrench]

Not to sound mean but bashing a product without posting the facts just makes it sound like you have no clue as to what went wrong.

Most DDR2 800 memory needs the voltage set to higher than 1.8v. Crucial Ballistix needs 2.2 volts. The memory timings also may need to be manually set.

If you get a no post try it with one stick if it posts get into the bios and bump the voltage then install the second stick. If this does not work use a 1.8v rated stick to post and bump the voltage then install the ballistix.

Maybe you tried this already? If so you got a bad batch, need a bios update etc. If not try the above before you bash the hardware.

BTW this is a problem that has been known about for a long time. IMO people that do not want to work around the problem should not be overclocking or using parts that need tweaking to get them to work.

My 2cents

[ATINUT]

For your information I tried that, it doesn't work. The junk simply doesn't work. I know somebody else who tried the stuff and it didn't work in his machine either.

I've also tried clearing the CMOS which helps get the motherboard working, but did nothing for the memory. Running the latest bios for your information has nothing to do with memory that won't work with a motherboard.

[Wry1]

Originally Posted by ATINUT

For your information I tried that, it doesn't work. The junk simply doesn't work. I know somebody else who tried the stuff and it didn't work in his machine either.

I've also tried clearing the CMOS which helps get the motherboard working, but did nothing for the memory. Running the latest bios for your information has nothing to do with memory that won't work with a motherboard.

Thats funny..............that memory seems to work for alot of other people.

[Sir Skully]

My memory doesn't work in Intel mobos. It works great in Asus and other brands of motherboards. Now the question is, is it junk??

[ATINUT]

I finally found out what the trouble is, 1 or more sticks is bad. I have no way of testing the stuff, as the rig won't stay up long enough, as a result of the bad memory so I can run a program like Memtest and find out which 1 or more is bad. Got a blue screen of death after booting in to Windows Safe mode, that alerted me 1 or more sticks was bad. The memory dump happened so fast, I wasn't able to note what BSOD it was, but I do know it was memory related.

This stuff is going back to the store I bought it from, and I'm giving them if they don't already have the standard Crucial DDR2 800 memory I ordered originally in the store, to get it for me with in 3 days, and I'll personally pay the store for 3day shipping.

I do plan on putting my system specs in my rig, once I get the standard Crucial DDR2 800 memory, and have my Intel SLI rig, which has a Core 2 Duo E6600 in it up and running.

[Sir Skully]

Good ya found out what the problem was.

[ATINUT]

I don't need overclocking memory as I don't overclock. I'm going to get the standard Crucial DDR2 800 memory.

I gotta learn not to jump to conclusions right away, and do troubleshooting until I find the problem.

I certainly will be glad to be back with Intel, once I'm finally up and running. AMD for me towards last was a royal pain in the backside with that ABIT motherboard.

[ATINUT]

I did get the Ballistix memory working, but I'm not gonna keep it, as it is overclocking memory, and as I said I don't overclock at all. Ballistix memory is a royal pain in the backside like a hemmrhoid to get working on an ASUS P5N32-E SLI motherboard.

[ATINUT]

I got to thinking, to be fair, I'm going to run the Ballistix memory for a few days after replacing my boot drive which died over the weekend, to see how it performs in games, and in general before I decide whether or not to keep it or replace it.

[SpeedDMN]

I understand ATINUT. Sometimes you just get so frustrated with these infernal machines you just have to vent somewhere. I swear I have been so fed up before I had to refrain myself from picking up the whole box and throwing it against the wall. I have been lucky with matching mainboards and memory I guess. My current has never given me a problem ( no mem problems in the DFI Lanparty either that the sticks used to reside in). Something about the "mission critical" rating was alluring enough to me to shell out the extra cash. (below specs)

[ATINUT]

I've been tempted over the past couple of months, to toss the whole machine out the window and in to a garbage dumpster. I had trouble with an ABIT AT8 32X motherboard during this time, and that sucker used an ATI Northbridge paired with a ULI M1575 southbridge, and the ULI southbridge was nothing more nothing less than a lot of trouble, and the drivers for the ULI SATA controller on the ULI southbridge, were so bad, that when used if the controller was in IDE, AHCI, or Raid Mode, the drivers produced sound stuttering and skipping.

Worse was the ULI USB 2 driver.

Soon as I get backup and running, I'll have two 640MB 8800GTS cards in SLI.

[ATINUT]

Yahoo!!!!!!!!!!!, I actually got the Crucial Ballistix memory working. It took flashing to the 1102 bios for my P5N32-E SLI board which was posted today on the ASUS FTP site, which improved memory compatibility and setting timing and voltage detection on in the new bios to auto detect, and I am installing WindowsXP now on a remanufactured 120GB Western Digital SATA harddrive, that I got swapped under warranty at the computer shop I deal with.

[Sir Skully]

Congrats, all's well that ends well!

[ATINUT]

Not quite, I got the Ballistix memory working, but it is unstable on my P5N32-E SLI board. I tried adjusting the voltage manually, and timings manually, but couldn't get the memory stable enough where I could attempt to get games reinstalled and give the memory, my videocards and cpu a work out.

Sadly this Ballistix memory is so unstable with my board, ie freezes and reboots, I pulled it out.

I ordered some standard Crucial DDR2 800 memory, which should hopefully be in Friday. It sucks, that it turned out that this Ballistix memory was unstable once I got it up and running, but that's the way the ball bounces.