RAM type reliability

[pcamen]

Is RAM a peripheral?  Had a hard time finding the right place for this question.

I have RAM testers now for 30 pin all the way up to DDR ram, and have tested probably more than 200 sticks in the last few weeks.  When testing 30 pin SIMMs, I had a few failures out of perhaps 150 or 200 sticks.  When I got to 168 pin DDR DIMMS, I had quite a few failures, probably 12-15 out of perhaps 50 sticks.  This seems an unusually high failure rate to me. 

Does anyone know any reason why DDR type memory would be more prone to failure, perhaps due to static electricity / handling (all I can think of) issues? 

 

[cruff]

Do you know if your tester is really reliable at DDR speeds?  If its PCB layout isn't right you could have issues.  Also it might be good to verify its power supply is in spec.

 

[pcamen]

I would think so.  It is a RAMCHECK unit specifically made for DDR memory types. But I will check the power supply specs on your suggestion.  For years I've been using a thermal label printer that just printed horrible faded labels.  I thought perhaps it needed a new thermal head.  But turns out it was the fact that the eBay seller I bought it from paired it with a 16V power supply instead of the proper 20V one.  It worked, but didn't have enough voltage to make a good image.  As soon as I got the proper power supply the labels looked perfect.  Never new incorrect (low) voltage could affect something like that; I just assumed it would work or not. 

 

[cruff]

Make sure the voltage being used to drive the memory under test is within spec for that specific memory type.  I've seen some DDR memory that really wanted a few extra tenths of a volt to run reliably on certain motherboards.