Memory upgrade - suffering Not A Happy Bunny syndrome

[fridgefreezer]

It was supposed to be so easy...

I have a PC running an ASRock KS741GX (http://www.asrock.com/manual/K7S41GX.pdf) motherboard which accepts PC2100 or PC2700 RAM (although the BIOS reckons it can handle PC3200 too...).

I have two sticks of 256Mb PC2100 in it already, so planned to buy a 1Gb stick to replace one of the 256's and give me roughly loadsamegs :D

Ordered for fast track collection, went to Novatech counter with card in hand only to be told it's out of stock :shock: with no indication when I bought it, or printed the confirmation slip, that it would not be ready and waiting for me :?

Righty ho, man at counter directs me to sales desk where I attempt to purchase a 1Gb stick of *something*, 'cos you can run 2700 or 3200 at slower speeds and it works. Aparrently this was just tooo **** confusing to him and he would not sell me anything other than two sticks of 512Mb PC2100 (well, he tried to sell me 256Mb which doesn't really help when you ask for 1Gb).

So, home again with my two sticks of 512Mb (aparrently made by different manufacturers), duly instaled and now the PC fails the bootup RAM test. One stick is faulty :evil: Stick the old 256's back in, check Novatech website only to find that they have a nice big stock of 1Gb DDR400 (http://www.novatech.co.uk/novatech/specpage.html?RAM-40/1G) which I specifically asked the bloke at the counter for before he sold me the 2x512's.

Now I have to take the RAM back to try to swap it for some other combination (hopefully a single 1Gb stick of something) which hopefully will work. Either that or money back and off to Refresh instead.

No real point to this post other than highlighting a bit of a drop in customer service and the lodger's not here to whinge to :roll:

[Nox]

refresh...

/shudder.

I will remain silent or i'll probably get taken to court.

Nox

[Coops]

I am rather surprised that if you cam in and asked for something specfically that we would not have sold you what you asked for.

Do you remember who served you??


Be careful when buying 1gb Sticks they can be a but if a nightmare especially on older chipset designs.

[fridgefreezer]

Don't remember who served me, a young lad who was actually very polite but just had trouble grasping that I wanted a 1Gb stick of *something*. At that point I was already a bit annoyed so didn't want to start arguing as it's not his problem really.

Conversation went something like:
"I ordered this (1Gb) but it's not in stock, have you got anything else that will be close, preferably a 1Gb DIMM"
"We have 256's in that speed"
"Don't worry about speed, they are back-compatible, I really want a 1Gb stick"
"How about 2x 512's in that speed?"
"Have you got anything 1Gb in a higher speed?"
"There's these two 512's..."

At that point I decided to take a deep breath and just get the two sticks as I was in a hurry and it's not uber critical in the global scheme of things.

Refresh - never had a problem, you pay peanuts you expect it to be a bit lower quality on some stuff (EG blank CD's/DVD's) but a Maxtor HDD is a Maxtor HDD whoever you buy it from - unless there are fakes out there :shock:

The mobo says it will take up to 2x 1Gb, it's a relatively recent purchase from Novatech after my MSI one developed a quirky personality... OK it's not bleeding edge bling bling gamer spec but it works reliably and was pretty cheap as it saved me buying a new CPU / RAM at the time.

[fridgefreezer]

Well it's finally sorted... after ANOTHER trip to the returns counter :roll: because the 1Gb DIMM I was given was single-sided (no indication on the website/catalogue that there's a difference) and my mobo wants double-sided. Ended up buying a ValueSelect DIMM because the support guy couldn't find any Novatech ones that were DS (aparrently it's blind luck as to what flavour you get given depending on what's in stock).

I now have 1Gb of DDR400 RAM working happily at 333MHz - finally. A little more communication needed at each step if you ask me... :?

[UK_MADMONSTA]

Iv been sent a single sidded 1GIG stick of ram as well and it doesnt work on my new motherboard ASUS P5P800-VM

[djgandy]

refresh...

/shudder.

I will remain silent or i'll probably get taken to court.

Nox

haha Ditto. They were okay for a while, then when things broke...

Also it's not novatech's responsibility to make sure components work in your pc. If you own a novatech built pc they will ask for your product number and ensure they sell you compatible ram.
If have built your own, i'm pretty sure they will help you, but you might find in the mobo manual that there are problems with certain memory modules.
I've had a conversation a few years back like this. It was about PC3200 memory too :p The sales person didnt want to sell me it because it wasnt "supported" on the board. I knew it would work and it did, but he didn't want to sell me something that may not work.

The fast track incident is unfortunate though :(

[UK_MADMONSTA]

Trouble is i orderd a complete system all in bits so i didnt have a mobo book to chech. Iv yet to find a book that mentions novatech ram and as the web site doesnt tell you who their ram is made by how are you meant to know. If it only works in their prebuilt systems then they should state this on the website. Also iv also read that it is pot luck as to witch ram you get single sided or double sided whats that all about :?

[djgandy]

That's why shops offer pre-built systems ;)

You can always check motherboard manufacturer's website and get the manual for ram info.
Also CPU-Z http://www.cpuid.com/cpuz.php may give you information on who made the ram.

Novatech memory is generic though, hence why it's not branded. Motherboard manufactuers only usually guarantee Brand names.

[Nox]

've found you can usually get away with generic cheap ram if you have a very good mobo, or a cheap mobo if you have deccent ram.

Its when you go cheap on both that problems occur - and these days, i'll pay the extra £2 to have less grief with my computer.

Nox

[UK_MADMONSTA]

Novatech should give you the info on who made the ram otherwise how do you make a decision

You cant use cpuz to tell you who made the ram if the ram doesnt work and what good would that do anyway having already bought it

You could check mobo website to check what ram is recomended but as there is no way of knowing who makes the ram whats the point.

Basically it all comes down to money and if you aint got it you have to take the chance with cheap components witch if you were provided with some info wouldnt be such a problem

ah well lesson learnt dont buy components labled Novatech

I AINT BITTER!!!! lol

[djgandy]

've found you can usually get away with generic cheap ram if you have a very good mobo, or a cheap mobo if you have deccent ram.

Its when you go cheap on both that problems occur - and these days, i'll pay the extra £2 to have less grief with my computer.

Nox

I've got 1gig Samsung 512mb Nanya Technology and an ASROCK!!
Guess i'm just lucky.

As for ram not working. There are plenty of cases where Corsair, OCZ, Kingston etc hasn't worked in peoples computers. I've never had a problem with cheap stuff. Even in my old A7N8X which according to other sources, really fussy with ram.

I guess it's just the luck of the draw :p