Bent heatsink

Should I be concerned. I got my RAM in the mail today from Newegg. The bubble wrap envelope looking like it had seen the depths of Hell. I noticed one of the corners of the plastic holding the ram in place was slightly crushed. Upon inspecting the stick, the end of the heat spreader is warped from whatever pressed on it. Instead of the ends of the heat spreader being parallel with the PCB, they angle inward at the top, not by that much, but it's noticable. My concern is with the memory chips on the end there. It's very hard to tell if its not just an illusion, but it appears that last chip on either side is crooked where the endmost edge is pushed closer to the PCB then the other edge / the rest of the modules. Unfortunately, I won't have the rest of the hardware to test them out on for another month or so. I'm wondering if I should contact Newegg now, and go through the annoying as hell, cost to me (even though they were free shipping) exchange process, or should I just wait, but then potentially be screwed once I have all the components amassed, and have to do an RMA through the manufacturer.

They're Mushkin DDR3 btw, they have those typical loop top heat spreaders like the majority of Mushkin RAM has these days.

contact newegg now because if that damaged anything on the ram and you wait they could say it was due to user error

hmmm... I guess so. I just hate this crap. At least I have some time, it would really suck if I were planning the full build this week. I took timestamped photos in case I had to prove my case.

May we see these photos?

UUUGGGHHH. Well I'm retarded. I bought these sticks for more than the G.SKILL I was going to by because they came with a rebate. The rebate ended last weekend, and the redemption period is short, only like 2 weeks. I didn't want to risk returning / exchanging these and miss the rebate period, so I cut out the UPC to mail back in. Now of course I read that newegg does not accept returns if the UPC's been cut out for a rebate. Grrr... So now I have to go to Mushkin, and convince them to let me RMA potentially fine RAM because UPS damaged it in a shipment from UPS! And even if they do, I'll get "refirbished" RAM instead of brand spankin new ones. I'm giving Newegg a terrible review for this, even if the whole UPC part is my fault.

Nah. Chill out. Mushkin sticks are amazing. No worries.

Personally, I'd say - just test those sticks. You must have someone there that has a DDR3 platform machine. If you are at the univ campus and don't know anyone that has one then advertise through the mailing list of your campus, befriend someone, and bla bla. If it's a girl, you take her out for a coffee. If it's a guy, you take him out for drinks.

Since I am a UPS Employee, I just wanted to say this.

I'm sorry.


If you were the shipper I would suggest you call and file a claim and get the 100$ that automatically applies to every package shipped. But the shipper is newegg, so it wouldn't apply.


I was going to post this long ass "how it got damaged by ups" describing each process/cycle of unloading to loading to delivery, but it was so long, I don't think anyone would read it.

I'd read it, I love finding out about the backend stuff. I didn't know you worked for UPS, you might be able to then identify the exact step where my package was crushed. On the outside of the bubble mailer there's a big black spot, like the black was applied to the envelope from whatever it was pushed against (like a sneaker scuff mark on the floor) and you could see where each bubble was on the inside of the envelope in this black skid mark.

Anyways, I filed an RMA with Mushkin, I'll be mailing it out tomorrow. Better safe than sorry. (although with a lifetime waranty it's more, better safe, then still safe, just more time consuming)

Sounds like a belt ate it for dinner.

It got stuck in a belt trap, and was belt burn for 3-6 hours before the shift ended and the engineer did his routine, found it and got it out.

I agree with madhyena...I would have tried that ram, as there's a great chance that the damage is superficial.

Problem is I can't test it. I'm home, not at school, and everyone I know has a laptop only, or an ancient PC. The most modern PC in my house runs DDR2 not 3. I won't have the rest of the parts for about 2 weeks. I'm willing to bed the RAM is actually fine too, but why risk it. Even if I get refirbished back from Muskin, they're a great company, and it shouldn't make a difference. I'd rather go through the effort now than find out in 2 weeks when I'm trying to build my computer that the RAM is bad, and I have to wait another 2 weeks for an RMA.

Personally since I work for UPS, I would send that shit back, who knows where it's been, it could have been thrown, stepped on, bent or other.

Call newegg and say that you received the item in a envelope and that the envelope looks like shit and the heatsink was bent, take a picture with your phone or camera, so you have proof of the condition of the envelope and the item along with an after picture of repacking it and send it back.

or if you don't have camera or a phone: take the item and envelope and put both in a BOX, print the return label and stick it to the box, be sure to tape that label on the box real GOOD, put a packing list with the return address, the tracking number of the return label and the RMA# in the box and send it.

THAT WAY THEY CAN'T SAY BULLSHIT, THE CUSTOMER DAMAGED THIS!

You can protest it and say I HAVE PROOF and stick your tongue at them along with the finger.

Yeah your right drumzy, prob best to send back now and they might be back before other parts arrive.

Good Luck!

Well it doesn't help that I got paid today, and splurged on the rest of the parts (and they'll be here mid-week next week). Hmm...

Anyways, here's what it looks like.

throw it on a friends pc ,if it works dont worry about it. it can take some time for the replacement to get back to you. its not going to effect the cooling at all. im sure you dont wanna wait. let us know if it works. btw the ram looks nice