this post was submitted on 25 Jun 2026
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Failing RAM? In this economy?

Now to go beg to the RMA gods

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[–] Zen_Shinobi@lemmy.world 56 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Fffuuuuuu

Check the used market first

[–] deepfriedchril@lemmy.world 38 points 1 month ago (2 children)

If it's still under warranty, why wouldn't you try to RMA it first?

[–] halcyoncmdr@piefed.social 23 points 1 month ago (1 children)

If it's still under warranty, why wouldn't you try to RMA it first?

You can try... but several manufacturers are opting to refund you what you paid for the product, instead of replacing it, per their warranty terms. Terms that never were an issue before. And obviously what you paid years ago won't get you anywhere near a similar product now.

[–] NateNate60@lemmy.world 8 points 1 month ago (1 children)

But OP would still get something.

worth asking anyway... but if they demand the pair back and only offer a refund, you're losing money over keeping a single stick probably.

[–] Zen_Shinobi@lemmy.world 3 points 1 month ago (4 children)

Sure? I don't know what RMA stands for lol

[–] zdanger@lemmy.world 31 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Return Merchandise Authorization. Return it to the manufacturer for a replacement

[–] adarza@piefed.ca 9 points 1 month ago

to add...

most ram, purchased new at retail from a legit or 'authorized' merchant or store should be covered by a manufacturers warranty. those sellers on amazon marketplace with random 'kdfguuugggu' names probably not selling warranty-eligible products. you would more than likely need a proof of purchase receipt to show when and from where you purchased the ram.

if it was in a prebuilt or major oem (dell, hp, lenovo, etc) system you're usually at the mercy of the builder and its system warranty. if purchased direct, the seller should have record of the system purchase. if purchased at retail, same deal as above--need the receipt.

if the ram was acquired as used product, you're probably out'a luck.

[–] Natanael@slrpnk.net 7 points 1 month ago

Warranty claim

[–] bdonvr@thelemmy.club 5 points 1 month ago

Warranty exchange basically

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[–] dosse91@lemmy.trippy.pizza 48 points 1 month ago (2 children)

They're very few addresses, you can tell the OS not to use them. Take a look at this: https://www.memtest86.com/blacklist-ram-badram-badmemorylist.html

[–] 87Six@lemmy.zip 11 points 1 month ago

Dawg you're the GOAT with that link

[–] T4V0@lemmy.pt 4 points 1 month ago

It didn't even occur to me it could be done, makes sense.

[–] Life_inst_bad@lemmy.world 25 points 1 month ago (5 children)
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[–] digilec@lemmy.world 23 points 1 month ago

You can edit the grub config (assuming you're using Linux) and add reserved ranges for the affected physical address.

find the linux boot command and add a memmap=$ argument This tells the kernel to avoid the bad parts.

In your case it looks like a relatively small chunk of bad memory so.. memmap=64K$0x130FEF000

I've used this trick to stabilise systems with faulty RAM and it works.

[–] Zonefive@sh.itjust.works 17 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Don’t know what brand you’ve got but I had two 16GB sticks of G.Skill DDR4 go bad a few months back and their RMA process worked a treat.

Wishing you success as well.

[–] bdonvr@thelemmy.club 13 points 1 month ago (1 children)

GSkill yep. Should be good. I originally built in 2020 with 2x8gb and then in October 2024 I got another 2x8gb because it was only $35USD why not lol

The exact same set is currently $135...

And go figure the new sticks were the ones that failed.

[–] call_me_xale@lemmy.zip 5 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) (2 children)

Just to be clear: are you trying to add the new set of two to the existing set? I.e., 4x8GB?

That can sometimes cause problems due to timing variations between batches. Make sure to memtest each stick individually, to make sure that isn't the issue.

Edit: just realized that you implied that this setup has been working since 2024, so you can probably ignore my advice here

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[–] wonderingwanderer@sopuli.xyz 14 points 1 month ago (2 children)

Just buy a bunch of NAND gates and make your own registers

[–] BodilessGaze@sh.itjust.works 9 points 1 month ago (3 children)

Sure, you can do that....if you're a casual. Real PC users build their own NAND gates out of MOSFETs.

[–] wonderingwanderer@sopuli.xyz 12 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Sorry, I can't hear you over the sound of my relays

[–] neidu3@sh.itjust.works 6 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) (1 children)

Relays are for kids and cowards who are too soft to use mercury delay-line memory

[–] wonderingwanderer@sopuli.xyz 4 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Oh, the relays are just a side project that I'm toying with. My daily driver is a hamster-wheel-powered marble-run abacus running floating point arithmetic

[–] Orygin@sh.itjust.works 3 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago)

Excuse me, but real programmers use butterflies

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[–] bdonvr@thelemmy.club 2 points 1 month ago (1 children)

I prefer to do the old fashioned way like granny taught me, by weaving my own damn memory.

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[–] loric@piefed.social 13 points 1 month ago (3 children)

Remove the sticks, blow out your sockets with some compressed air and re-test. I had something similar recently and a full memtest pass ran clean after that.

[–] Shayeta@feddit.org 6 points 1 month ago

Also, disable any OC. I had my ram fail tests because it is not supported by my mobo. After reducing speed to factory stock it would pass flawlessly.

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[–] dangrousperson@feddit.org 6 points 1 month ago

Seems like its always the same core that is creating the error. Could be a bad overclock. Try reseting the bios to default. Also try reseating the RAM (and clean out the slots with compressed air) and rerunning the test. I've had similar issues in the past that were fixed by this.

Once stable overclocks can fail after many years as it slowly wears out some transistors.

[–] TheEighthDoctor@lemmy.zip 5 points 1 month ago (3 children)

Try blowing on it and inserting again

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[–] odd@scribe.disroot.org 5 points 1 month ago (1 children)
[–] Treczoks@lemmy.world 4 points 1 month ago

Not good. The pattern is not consistent.

Take the RAM out and carefully clean the contacts with e.g. alcohol and a piece of lint-free cloth.

[–] chronicledmonocle@lemmy.world 4 points 1 month ago

RAM has lifetime warranties, typically. Send in an RMA request, after you isolate which sticks are bad, and get new ones.

[–] christov@lemmy.world 4 points 1 month ago

F. Godspeed.

[–] DonGirses@lemmy.world 3 points 1 month ago (1 children)

had a 2x8 kit fail as well, thankfully I clocked it down from 3600 to 3200 and it passed the ~2 hour test.

perhaps relax the timings and/or increase voltage?

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[–] wrfbird@lemmy.world 3 points 1 month ago

If it’s not a large amount of bad RAM, there are tools to patch around it via EFI or kernel for many operating systems. It might get you by until you get new

[–] adarza@piefed.ca 3 points 1 month ago (1 children)

i had to pronounce some ddr5 dead this morning. at least it was 'only' one 8gb stick, but it's in an omen prebuilt, out of warranty.

user's just a high school kid. gonna have to limp along with the remaining 8gb (not much for gaming then) or random crashes with 16gb until he or the parents can afford to replace it.

[–] bdonvr@thelemmy.club 5 points 1 month ago (2 children)

Linux? I've heard if you can identify the bad blocks (assuming it's just one group of bad blocks) you can tell the kernel to not use those. If you're technically inclined.

[–] justlemmyin@lemmy.world 5 points 1 month ago

I ran this too on mine, I had the mode set to memmap. Badram is old, grub these days expects memmap.

There were a few areas but they were close enough, so this is what I ended with.

Blocks of 64K were enough to fix this.

GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT="quiet splash memmap=64K\\\$0x3c8f0000,64K\\\$0x49068000,96K\\\$0xa24660000"

[–] adarza@piefed.ca 2 points 1 month ago (1 children)

he has windows, but i'll mention the option to him next chance i get.

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[–] Captain_Stupid@lemmy.world 3 points 1 month ago (2 children)

Dude you are running DDR 4 Ram at 2134MHz and with 15 timings. The Timings are good but the frequenzy is shit. You want atleast 3000 MHz with modern Ryzen CPUs for their Virtual Memory Fabric. You can probably get equally good Ram for a few bucks because these sticks suck.

Unless you already lowerd the Frequenzy in that case RIP.

[–] JiveTurkey@lemmy.world 4 points 1 month ago

I'm not sure what you're talking about. DDR4 without XMP typically runs at 2133 or 2400mhz. It's probably best to run a mem test at the stock frequency.

[–] bdonvr@thelemmy.club 3 points 1 month ago

Yeah I lowered it to make sure that wasn't the problem

[–] mufkin@lemmy.zip 3 points 1 month ago

F! That sucks. Time to mortgage your house.

[–] juipeltje@lemmy.world 3 points 1 month ago

Dang, i'm a bit worried for my own RAM as well. I keep getting random reboots on my pc every now and then. I initially suspected my distro to be the problem since it started happening after i hopped, but after feeling like i checked everything on the software side, i'm checking hardware now just to be safe anyway. Started with removing the OC from my RAM. I also have my 5800X3D undervolted though since i saw it recommended at the time. Now that it's a few years old i might just not be stable anymore at that voltage.

[–] dreadbeef@lemmy.dbzer0.com 2 points 1 month ago

I've got two 16GB sticks that I bought in 2020 pullin me through—I'm praying they last long enough til prices go back down haha

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