Buying used sdram memory sticks - any chance of virus or is it a silly question?

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rebuildapc

I was just wondering if a boot sector virus or some other piece of malware
could be spread to the ram chips. It might be a silly question, but it's
hard to find this ram other than through used dealers, or to pay top dollar
at the retailers.
 
I was just wondering if a boot sector virus or some other piece of malware
could be spread to the ram chips. It might be a silly question, but it's
hard to find this ram other than through used dealers, or to pay top
dollar
at the retailers.
Click to expand...

Nope, nothing can survive on the ram whatsoever once electricity is taken
away. So you be fine, they're not like floppy disks, usb pen drives, hard
drives, etc...

The only problem you should be wary of is if the user of the ram previously
had been overclocking the ram which if not cooled properly would've reduced
it's lifespan but that's about it.
 
I was just wondering if a boot sector virus or some other piece of malware
could be spread to the ram chips.
Click to expand...

Yes, when the bios loads it'll load that virus into main
memory.

HOWEVER, once you turn off the system, that volatile memory
is empty again. Nothing permanent happens to it from a
virus/etc.
It might be a silly question, but it's
hard to find this ram other than through used dealers, or to pay top dollar
at the retailers.
Click to expand...


More likely is it was damaged somehow, buy it from someone
with good feedback or even better, avoid
top-dollar-retailers AND ebay, and look for discounts at
popular online stores like http://www.newegg.com et al.
 
I was just wondering if a boot sector virus or some
other piece of malware could be spread to the ram chips.
Click to expand...

Nope, they dont store anything when not powered.
It might be a silly question, but it's hard to find this ram other
than through used dealers, or to pay top dollar at the retailers.
Click to expand...

There is no risk of viruses. The boot sector is on the hard drive.
 
I was just wondering if a boot sector virus or some other piece of malware
could be spread to the ram chips. It might be a silly question, but it's
hard to find this ram other than through used dealers, or to pay top dollar
at the retailers.
Click to expand...

no chance of a virus at all
 
popular online stores like http://www.newegg.com et al.
Click to expand...

Newegg is great, but it would cost 3x the used price at auction.
At that rate, I could buy 5 sticks for 40% less, test them all and use the
best 3.

Since I respect your opinion, do you think it pays to spend $110 after
rebate for cheap memory like Kingston or K-byte if I could get it new?
At some point, I may upgrade to a Powerleap 1.2 ghtz CPU as it's compatible
with the board (if I could get a good price on it).

I don't see any reason to retire the machine yet. My feeling is that it's
always useful to have an extra machine on hand to surf the web for drivers
and software testing in the event the other unit crashes.

Between the cd-rw and DVD-rw drives I've installed, the new hard drives
I've purchased, and the cards I've upgraded over the years, you have
better stuff in this box than the junk Dell puts in its lower end machines
and the stuff that's sitting on the shelves in Bestbuy.
 
Newegg is great, but it would cost 3x the used price at auction.
At that rate, I could buy 5 sticks for 40% less, test them all and use the
best 3.

Since I respect your opinion, do you think it pays to spend $110 after
rebate for cheap memory like Kingston or K-byte if I could get it new?
Click to expand...

I don't understand paying for a lot of old memory and a
powerleap adapter in the first place, so... I can't really
tell you it's a good idea.

How much memory did you plan on getting, and can it be high
density or low? Here's 256MB of CAS2 high-density for $31
delivered,
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16820141205
or $53 after rebate,
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16820141515

If the board can't take high-density memory then IMO it
makes even less sense to buy a lot of memory for it as like
the memory issue, it'll tend to have other technological
limitations too.



At some point, I may upgrade to a Powerleap 1.2 ghtz CPU as it's compatible
with the board (if I could get a good price on it).

I don't see any reason to retire the machine yet. My feeling is that it's
always useful to have an extra machine on hand to surf the web for drivers
and software testing in the event the other unit crashes.
Click to expand...

Ok, but how much memory do you really need to surf the web
for drivers? Even a bloated OS like WinXP can be restrained
to use around 80MB when finished booting, leaving 48MB for a
few instances of a browser. I would suggest at least 256MB
for Win2k or XP though, but as seen above that's $31, not
$110.

Between the cd-rw and DVD-rw drives I've installed, the new hard drives
I've purchased, and the cards I've upgraded over the years, you have
better stuff in this box than the junk Dell puts in its lower end machines
and the stuff that's sitting on the shelves in Bestbuy.
Click to expand...

Maybe, but those drives and cards could likewise be used on
a more modern motherboard/CPU/memory combo... now is a
really good time to think about upgrading them since you can
get a CPU/board combo some places for a little under $100.

I haven't shopped ebay for memory recently though, maybe
PC133 is dirt cheap... so long as you don't have bad luck
and have to spend a lot of time dealing with a shady seller.
 
I was just wondering if a boot sector virus or some other piece of malware
could be spread to the ram chips. It might be a silly question, but it's
hard to find this ram other than through used dealers, or to pay top
dollar at the retailers.
Click to expand...
Unless someone strapped a battery to the module, everything's dead.

You'd notice something like that :)

poly-p man
 
I was just wondering if a boot sector virus or some other piece of malware
could be spread to the ram chips. It might be a silly question, but it's
hard to find this ram other than through used dealers, or to pay top dollar
at the retailers.
Click to expand...

0% chance of getting a virus via ram.
 
I was just wondering if a boot sector virus or some other piece of malware
could be spread to the ram chips. It might be a silly question, but it's
hard to find this ram other than through used dealers, or to pay top dollar
at the retailers.
Click to expand...

0% chance of getting a virus via ram.
 
Yes, when the bios loads it'll load that virus into main
memory.

HOWEVER, once you turn off the system, that volatile memory
is empty again. Nothing permanent happens to it from a
virus/etc.



More likely is it was damaged somehow, buy it from someone
with good feedback or even better, avoid
top-dollar-retailers AND ebay, and look for discounts at
popular online stores like http://www.newegg.com et al.
Click to expand...

I can understand a situation where the O.P. would want to buy used RAM
rather than new. I have an older PC that was built for RDRAM (doh!) and
rather than becoming popular and cheap, this type of RAM is rare and
expensive. If I want to upgrade my RAM capacity for this machine, I
definitely would go for used RAM, from someone tossing out a similar
machine. Likewise, I can imagine that people upgrading from DDR to DDR2
based machines may have a lot of RAM that they no longer could use, and a
lot of this would be in perfect shape.
 
Since I respect your opinion, do you think it pays to spend $110 after
rebate for cheap memory like Kingston or K-byte if I could get it new?
At some point, I may upgrade to a Powerleap 1.2 ghtz CPU as it's compatible
with the board (if I could get a good price on it).
Click to expand...

seems a lot to spend on a machine that cant even do 1.2G. What are the
present specs & OS, and why do you need more ram? Have you tried all
other methods of boosting performance, if so which?


NT
 
How much memory did you plan on getting, and can it be high
density or low? Here's 256MB of CAS2 high-density for $31
delivered,
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16820141205
Click to expand...


Take a look at the review for this memory! 0 stars!

I would suggest at least 256MB
for Win2k or XP though, but as seen above that's $31, not
$110.
Click to expand...


$110 for 3x256 mg or 768 mg ram after rebate for Kingston or K-byte.

My question is should I go that route rather than spending $50 for about 3-
4 sticks of used Dell Micron 256 mg sdram (or Kingston or PNY)on Ebay?
 
(e-mail address removed) wrote in @h48g2000cwc.googlegroups.com:
seems a lot to spend on a machine that cant even do 1.2G. What are the
present specs & OS, and why do you need more ram? Have you tried all
other methods of boosting performance, if so which?
Click to expand...

I currently have 384 mg and between Windows 2000 and other programs,
there's a drag. Every post I've read on the Dell board says that the
increase to 768 mg makes quite a difference.
 
On Tue, 22 Aug 2006 10:44:24 -0500, (e-mail address removed) wrote:

| (e-mail address removed) wrote in | @h48g2000cwc.googlegroups.com:
|
| >
| > seems a lot to spend on a machine that cant even do 1.2G. What are the
| > present specs & OS, and why do you need more ram? Have you tried all
| > other methods of boosting performance, if so which?
| >
|
| I currently have 384 mg and between Windows 2000 and other programs,
| there's a drag. Every post I've read on the Dell board says that the
| increase to 768 mg makes quite a difference.

512MB is the practical minimum for Windows XP and 2k. And 768MB has been called
the "sweet spot." Beyond 768MB of RAM, returns start to diminish except for
certain specialized software. In other words, a 256MB stick added to 512MB to
reach 768MB would result in more overall benefit than a second 256MB stick added
to 768MB to reach 1GB.

I understand that will change somewhat with Vista.

Larc



§§§ - Change planet to earth to reply by email - §§§
 
(e-mail address removed) wrote in @h48g2000cwc.googlegroups.com:
Click to expand...
I currently have 384 mg and between Windows 2000 and other programs,
there's a drag. Every post I've read on the Dell board says that the
increase to 768 mg makes quite a difference.
Click to expand...

Then we may have spotted the problem, I'd look at your software
choices. Any type of app comes from various different writers with very
different performance and resource use. Despite regularly running
software that pushed my P3 W2k to its limits continuously, and
multitasking heavily, I dont think I've ever seen it use over 500M RAM,
for one simple reason - choice of software. And that ran quite happily
on 256M RAM

Trouble is picking good software takes more skill/time than it does to
slam in the ram. If you list all the apps your using you might get some
feedback. Not just the big ones, all.


NT
 
SDRAM sticks lose all data when removed from the computer so you do not have
to worry about retained viruses.
 
Take a look at the review for this memory! 0 stars!
Click to expand...

Look again, 4 out of 5 stars. Also remember, newegg is the
most popular hardware site on the internet. People who
don't know what they're doing buy there as well as those who
do. Buying high density memory for a system that needs
low, won't work. Does a reviewer blame themselves or the
memory? The memory or the board?

There is no great feat today in making PC133 memory, it's
old tech. The one issue may be a board not so stable at
CAS2, in which case your bios ought to be able to raise CAS
to 2.5 or 3. Also, in those days it wasn't so uncommon to
have a module, add a large module and find the combo
instable but if the user removes the old memory leaving the
new, it would've been stable.

Lots of variables, but still 4 starts average rating is
quite good, everthing considered.

I would suggest at least 256MB


$110 for 3x256 mg or 768 mg ram after rebate for Kingston or K-byte.
Click to expand...

Why?
Slow HDD performance and slow CPU mean it'll take so long to
actually fill that much. Memory upgrades can help a lot up
to a point, but overdoing it won't make up for other
bottlenecks.
My question is should I go that route rather than spending $50 for about 3-
4 sticks of used Dell Micron 256 mg sdram (or Kingston or PNY)on Ebay?
Click to expand...

The answer is, don't buy that much memory, it may not even
be stable. "Some" having success is not evidence everyone
will. If you had a legitimate need it would be one thing
but so far only evidence is that you don't.

Plus, do you know if the Dell/ebay memory is low density?
It'll have to be to work. Naturally if the only issues
were, should you get working memory from ebay or pay more,
the answer would be obvious. It's not that simple of
course, and frankly I'd not pay $50 or more on that box to
begin with, expect maybe a HDD or DVD burner which can be
transplanted to another system later.

Sure, what the heck... buy the ebay memory then you can
always resell it on ebay if it doesnt' work out.
 
On Tue, 22 Aug 2006 10:44:24 -0500, (e-mail address removed) wrote:

| (e-mail address removed) wrote in | @h48g2000cwc.googlegroups.com:
|
| >
| > seems a lot to spend on a machine that cant even do 1.2G. What are the
| > present specs & OS, and why do you need more ram? Have you tried all
| > other methods of boosting performance, if so which?
| >
|
| I currently have 384 mg and between Windows 2000 and other programs,
| there's a drag. Every post I've read on the Dell board says that the
| increase to 768 mg makes quite a difference.

512MB is the practical minimum for Windows XP and 2k. And 768MB has been called
the "sweet spot." Beyond 768MB of RAM, returns start to diminish except for
certain specialized software. In other words, a 256MB stick added to 512MB to
reach 768MB would result in more overall benefit than a second 256MB stick added
to 768MB to reach 1GB.

I understand that will change somewhat with Vista.
Click to expand...


That's a pretty arbitrary conclusion. Amount of memory
needed depends entirely on the tasks. Any very basic use
will run on 256-512MB but above 512MB it can vary quite a
bit per user/use.
 
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