Fake 256MB 33L3070 module?

[kstuart]

Has anyone seen or heard of IBM 33L3070 memory that is PC133 ?

I bought some laptop sticks on Ebay and they are clearly fake pirate memory sticks, one side has a Kingston sticker for a 168-pin stick on one side, and the other side has an IBM 33L3070 sticker, exact that it say PC 133.

Did IBM sell PC133 32Mx64 memory 256mb sticks with the old 33L3070 part number, because they knew it would be compatible (just like the Crucial memory mentioned in this thread) ?

Or is the whole sticker fake as well ?

Admin note: Split off from http://forum.thinkpads.com/viewtopic.php?f=6&t=24744

[rkawakami]

As far as I know, IBM 33L3070 always means PC100. The module may actually be PC133-rated but I'd say that a genuine IBM label would have PC100 on it (or no speed marking at all). I don't know if I have any IBM-marked 256MB low density SODIMMs around here but if I find some, I'll update this post.

[kstuart]

I have a PC100 one in my 600X, but that does not necessarily exclude the possibility of a PC133.

I found a picture on ebay of an 8 chip PC133 "IBM 33L3070", you can see it at:

http://i.ebayimg.com/14/!BUrj10!BGk~$(K ... gQ~~_1.JPG

[rkawakami]

Blowing up the picture, I can read something like "EM63A165TB-6G" on the Etron part. Etron is one of the many small DRAM players in Taiwan. Searching for a datasheet, it appears to be a 16M x 16 SDRAM part:

http://www.datasheetarchive.com/pdf/Dat ... 237438.pdf

Since there's 8 of them on the module, that would make that module a total of 256MB; each separate memory chip will store 32MB, times eight of them, yields 256MB. However, looking closely at the datasheet, this part uses 8K refresh. That would be considered "high density" and would not work properly in a 600X.

[kstuart]

Which means that either the PC133 33L3070 sticker is a fake sticker, or else has been pealed off of dead IBM sticks and pasted onto cheap high density sticks.

[kstuart]

Between the one in the linked photo, and the ones that I bought on ebay, there are two different sticks that are falsely labeled as IBM parts of FRU 33L3070 and both are labeled PC133.

My lengthy experience with IBM would give me to believe that if they had a 256mb PC133 stick, they would give it a different number, and then list 33L3070 as being superseded by this new number.

So we can assume that the sticker itself is fake. Printing is easy enough for someone trying to sell cheap high density RAM as IBM low density RAM.

[kstuart]

It seems that there is a lot of fake memory products out there.

http://fightflashfraud.wordpress.com/ takes about fake flash drives.

One particular case at that site is quite parallel to the one I encountered, i.e. return address in Hong Kong, but seller asks item to be sent back to Guandong.

Some of the items come from sellers who have fake addresses in the USA which they get from addresses of restaurants in the phone book, so the sellers do not seem to be in China.

PS To moderators - if you like I can make this post the start of a more general thread to alert members to fake ebay memory and flash drives.

[kstuart]

I used toolhaus.org to isolate the negative feedback for the seller who sold me the fake sticks, and there was previous feedback from someone reporting that they have received "fake 33L3070 that is actually high density". So, I guess that confirms the fraud. There was also other negative feedback of "piracy" for the seller.

[RealBlackStuff]

Next time do your homework BEFORE you buy stuff!

[kstuart]

Next time do your homework BEFORE you buy stuff!

I probably would have done so if the amounts were not pocket change.

Actually, it is worth knowing that people are actually creating fake Thinkpad stuff, so we are aware of that possibility in the future.