Just had a DIMM fail in an older but perfectly functioning server (Supermicro X8DTU-F motherboard). The DIMM was manufactured by Kingston. Went to their site to look for a replacement and found that everything had been discontinued. I called them up and they told me that DDR3 ECC Registered memory simply isn't made any longer and that most likely I couldn't even get a warranty replacement from them because they simply have none. I made sure to ask them to clarify that this wasn't just for the old 4GB DIMMs I was looking to replace, but for the larger DIMMs as well.
Of course I immediately picked up several kits of DIMMs identical to the one that failed from a vendor who showed it to be in stock. We'll see what shows up next week.
Still, this seems to me to be rather difficult to believe. The customer service person stopped me early as I was describing my problem and asked "Is it DDR3?" as if it's a common issue they deal with. But I have servers with DDR3 in them that aren't new but certainly aren't old, and I'd hate to think that I'll have to pay out the nose for replacement RAM (or throw out otherwise functional machines) if something goes wrong. I thought I might be misunderstanding the situation but the rep was quite clear. Of course, they could only speak for Kingston so maybe they have simply gotten out of the business of selling them and were attempting to blame their supply chain somehow.
And regardless, "lifetime warranty" certainly doesn't mean what I'd hoped it meant. I'd assumed they would keep stock on hand to cover warranty issues long after they stopped manufacturing the items, but I guess I'm just being naïve.
Has anyone else heard of manufacturers no longer making DDR3 DIMMs?
Of course I immediately picked up several kits of DIMMs identical to the one that failed from a vendor who showed it to be in stock. We'll see what shows up next week.
Still, this seems to me to be rather difficult to believe. The customer service person stopped me early as I was describing my problem and asked "Is it DDR3?" as if it's a common issue they deal with. But I have servers with DDR3 in them that aren't new but certainly aren't old, and I'd hate to think that I'll have to pay out the nose for replacement RAM (or throw out otherwise functional machines) if something goes wrong. I thought I might be misunderstanding the situation but the rep was quite clear. Of course, they could only speak for Kingston so maybe they have simply gotten out of the business of selling them and were attempting to blame their supply chain somehow.
And regardless, "lifetime warranty" certainly doesn't mean what I'd hoped it meant. I'd assumed they would keep stock on hand to cover warranty issues long after they stopped manufacturing the items, but I guess I'm just being naïve.
Has anyone else heard of manufacturers no longer making DDR3 DIMMs?