BUSINESS
Memory glitch sparks HP recall
28-06-2004
by Craig Liddell
Memory modules in up to 900,000 notebooks are being recalled following an announcement by Hewlett-Packard that some of its chips are faulty.
Hewlett-Packard (HP) said that it will replace memory modules in some of its notebooks because of an industry-wide design flaw that can cause system lockups, blue screens or memory corruption. Up to 900,000 of HP's notebooks could be affected, according to reports.
During routine testing, the company "identified a design flaw in certain notebook memory modules used across the industry that could potentially cause users to experience serious problems with their notebooks."
The memory modules are not manufactured by HP and were supplied by third parties.
"HP is the first technology company to publicly announce the existence of this problem -- which we discovered by conducting our own ongoing and routine testing of our notebook products," said Ronald Kasik, director of customer engineering and sustaining marketing.
He said that, "while the probability of occurrence of this issue with the memory modules is low and dependent on the user's environment, we think it's important to notify our customers of this potential problem."
HP has introduced a voluntary replacement program for customers who have purchased Compaq or HP notebooks with the affected memory modules. The program will allow a customer to receive a small kit, containing a screwdriver as well as instructions on how to replace the faulty DRAM modules, which extend to the 128MB, 256MB, and 512MB versions. The customer can then send the DRAM to HP and receive a new module for free.
HP has created a Web site (http://h30090.www3.hp.com/mmrp) which allows users to download a program to test for faulty RAM chips.
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