The Register® — Biting the hand that feeds IT

Feeds

Distie stung with fake Compaq memory

CRN also reports chip theft in crime-packed issue

  • print
  • alert

Magic Quadrant for Enterprise Backup/Recovery

Hurrah for CRN UK for two big crime stories. First up is the "major UK distributor (which) has admitted that it has up to £200,000 worth of fake Compaq memory on its shelves". CRN funks it, by declining to name the distie, which said it bought the product, packaged for retail, from a broker which claimed that it had sourced directly from Compaq in Hong Kong. That could be a dynamite spin - Compaq selling counterfeit branded DRAM to its channel, because it can't tell the difference from the real thing. But this would require the broker to be telling the truth to make that angle work. Underneath the Compaq retail packaging, is product made by Winbond. "The quality of the memory is poor," says sources quoted by CRN. That's fighting talk, Winbond. What do you have to say about that? The secret distie has reported the fraud to Compaq in Houston, according to CRN, which in passing mentions that fake Compaq-branded DLT drives and controllers are also in circulation. *CRN's second big crime story of the week is the robbery of 200 Pentium chips from a delivery driver stopping for petrol at an Esso garage, in Ashford, Middlesex. He was jumped by a man wearing a full-face crash helmet and wielding a hammer. Police say the value of the goods was £1.5 million, but CRN raises an editorial eyebrow as it "values each processor at £7,500. Intel's current flagship Pentium III 500MHz Xeon server chip costs £4,447." ®

Magic Quadrant for Enterprise Backup/Recovery

More from The Register

Microsoft to open Windows Stores inside 600 Best Buy locations
Product showcases 'must be seen to be believed'
 breaking news
BBC-featured call centre slapped with hefty fine for unwanted calls
PPI pests: Swansea-based firm stung for £225k by ICO
Author Iain (M) Banks falls to cancer at 59
Misses the release of his final work
 breaking news
What did the Lehman Brothers implosion look like to a techie?
Insider tells all about the Gnab Gib at Lehmans
It's official: 'tweet' an English word – not just in the avian sense
If the Oxford English Dictionary says it is so, then it is so
 breaking news
The only Waze is Google: Ad giant tipped to gobble map app 'for $1.3bn'
Pac-Man-satnav-ish upstart in bidding war with Apple, Facebook
 breaking news
1-in-10 e-tomes 'are self-published'... most are 'rubbish' says book ed
Publishing man scoffs at go-it-alone writers, ursines still fouling in forests
 breaking news
Facebook RSS reader said to uncloak June 20
Secret event scooped by Scottish developer?