Anyone ever oven baked RAM modules?

[Beertintedgoggles]

So I tried to put a little bit more life into an old Core2Duo system and add some RAM I bought off ebay. Turns out they both arrived DOA (the seller just threw both sticks together, wrapped them in a small amount of bubble wrap and no static bag, and placed it all in a cardboard box which allowed the bundle to slide all over the place). I'm currently looking into returning them but the price really wasn't all that much so if I have to pay anything for shipping I'm just going to hold on to them. So.... on to the point: has anyone ever tried baking a dead stick of RAM? I know if they were killed by static there is nothing I can do besides replacing the bad I/C but maybe it's just a bad solder joint issue. I do have access to a reflow station so if I'm stick with these I will try and post back, I was just hoping to hear if anyone else has ever given it a try.

 

[Toothless]

Depends if double sided ram or single, and uh... Yeah never heard of ram baking to be honest.

 

[RejZoR]

I don't think it'll help. Baking is for when traces inside a chip lose connection. Baking it reconnects them. I've to date only heard baking of CPU's and GPU's, not RAM modules. Because it's unlikely that broken traces inside RAM are the issue.

 

[FR@NK]

Are you sure the sticks are even compatible? Socket 775 used a large range of chipsets which had different memory support.

What are the specs of this system and can you link the ram you bought?

 

[Flaky]

Check this memory on a modern platform (intel 2nd gen or newer / any AMD)
What are those sticks exactly?

 

[Beertintedgoggles]

Sorry everyone, should have stated at first that I'm not exactly looking for advice but only interested in if people have tried backing their RAM. I have resurrected the main board in my LCD TV, a handful of graphics cards, and a laptop motherboard using the oven and heat gun. I am 100% sure that this RAM (Patriot Viper DDR2 800MHz 4-4-4-12... the green sticks) should work on this board (GA-P43-DS3L). I did try throwing the pair in with my existing pair (same timings and size but different brand), trying them by themselves, trying one stick at a time (both failed to POST) and then verifying that one stick of my old pair worked in the same slot (so not the slot and verified the board would boot with one module) then cleared the CMOS and tried one stick at a time again. I know these are double sided so I'll have to use the heat gun to flow one side then the other instead of the oven to avoid components from falling off on the "bottom" side. I was simply curious to see if people have been trying to oven bake RAM. (Again, I have baked video cards which I know also reflows the memory but I haven't heard of anyone trying it on a stick of RAM).

 

[R-T-B]

Check this memory on a modern platform (intel 2nd gen or newer / any AMD)
What are those sticks exactly?

This. They may not even be DOA. Socket 775 systems can be very picky about their ram in my experience (especially the prebuilts).

 

[Beertintedgoggles]

Again, not trying to insult anyone regarding my resistance to help. In fact, now I'm curious to see if these sticks will work in one of our work machines that takes DDR2. One more data point never hurts. I've never heard of anyone trying to revive RAM modules which is why I thought I'd see if anyone has had experience with it. I know the ancient DDR memory chips had legs whereas DDR2 and above use BGA for its connections.....

If the seller refuses to take these sticks back I will for sure update this thread on my results for reflowing everything. I've already gone ahead and bought a pair of G. Skill Pi series (I always wanted a pair) so at this point trying to resurrect the Patriot sticks is mostly educational and to entertain my curiosity.

 

[Bones]

Baking will not fix sticks in most any case you'd ever encounter because what normally happens when a stick goes bad is the IC's themselves that will crap out. When a stick's IC's go bad it's game over for the stick.
I've tried baking and even freezing sticks just to see if it would have an effect but no dice at all either way.

 

[Beertintedgoggles]

Turns out I won't be applying heat to these sticks, the ebay seller agreed to offer a refund. At least they'll get a pair of static bags in the return shipment and hopefully use them in the future. Our old Core2Duo system at work takes DDR3 so I couldn't test them in a second computer.

 

[neatfeatguy]

@Beertintedgoggles

I've got some DDR2 that worked when I last tested the hardware 6ish months back. I ran the 2x2GB RAM in on my old PII x4 build. If you're still interested in tracking more DDR2 down let me know.

 

[Beertintedgoggles]

@Beertintedgoggles

I've got some DDR2 that worked when I last tested the hardware 6ish months back. I ran the 2x2GB RAM in on my old PII x4 build. If you're still interested in tracking more DDR2 down let me know.

Thanks for the offer! However, I went ahead and rolled the dice on another ebay auction for a pair of G. Skill Pi 2x2GB 800MHz DDR2 sticks. If I get burned twice I'll make sure to shoot a PM your way.

 

[Beertintedgoggles]

The "new" G. Skill RAM arrived and worked perfectly. Both sticks of the Patriot Vipers must have surely been dead. I received my refund already for the bad pair but no return shipping label or communication about returning them.... if these end up in my possession after all this I will bake away for the sake of curiosity.

 

[Frick]

I don't think it'll help. Baking is for when traces inside a chip lose connection. Baking it reconnects them. I've to date only heard baking of CPU's and GPU's, not RAM modules. Because it's unlikely that broken traces inside RAM are the issue.

It reheats the solder under BGA chips so it can reconnect. I doubt heat, or anything, can fix anything broken inside a chip.

 

[r9]

Baking helps in case of cold solder joints, mostly bigger BGA chips.
I've reflown couple with rework station, didn't help.
When ram dies its mostly bad memory IC, and not connection kind of deal.

 

[Solaris17]

Sorry everyone, should have stated at first that I'm not exactly looking for advice but only interested in if people have tried backing their RAM. I have resurrected the main board in my LCD TV, a handful of graphics cards, and a laptop motherboard using the oven and heat gun. I am 100% sure that this RAM (Patriot Viper DDR2 800MHz 4-4-4-12... the green sticks) should work on this board (GA-P43-DS3L). I did try throwing the pair in with my existing pair (same timings and size but different brand), trying them by themselves, trying one stick at a time (both failed to POST) and then verifying that one stick of my old pair worked in the same slot (so not the slot and verified the board would boot with one module) then cleared the CMOS and tried one stick at a time again. I know these are double sided so I'll have to use the heat gun to flow one side then the other instead of the oven to avoid components from falling off on the "bottom" side. I was simply curious to see if people have been trying to oven bake RAM. (Again, I have baked video cards which I know also reflows the memory but I haven't heard of anyone trying it on a stick of RAM).

Iv baked GPUs and PSX multiple times to fix NAND chip issues (specifically VRAM) and it has always worked in my case. not individual sticks though.

 

[silentbogo]

Anyone ever oven baked RAM modules?

Baking any piece of hardware doesn't fix anything (including laptop motherboards and GPUs). It only prolongs the miserable lifespan of an already faulty hardware in a few lucky cases.

In case of your RAM sticks, I would suggest to get a refund as fast as possible. If those are cheap Kingston DDR2 modules by any chance, they are most likely fake (check the authentic label guide on Kingston website), and probably did not work off the start. I've seen dozens of those, and even got scammed once myself (DDR2 did not survive even the first week of use, and only worked on one AM2 board).