Question 16GB Memory Issue Ryzen 3 2200G

[eRo0717]

Hi all. This is my first post so be gentle ... I have 16GB of Corsair Vengeance LPX DDR4 2133MHz ram, two sticks of 8GB. Now, when using both sticks of ram I am repeatedly displayed a Blue Screen of Death with multiple different stop codes/error messages (SYSTEM_PTE_MISUSE / KMODE EXCEPTION NOT HANDLED / 0xc0000145 etc...)
I was unable to install Windows at first, so ended up removing one stick of Ram after hours of troubleshooting, which resolved the crash. Once up and running I installed the newest drivers and did the latest BIOS update, thinking it might be a memory compatibility issue, even though the memory is on the QVL list for my mobo. Unfortunately same issue after rebooting with second stick installed. Both sticks are in the correct Dimmslots as per the manual as well. Any help would be appreciated folks, I'm at my wits' end.

System -
MSI B350 PC Mate
Ryzen 3 2200G w/ Wraith Cooler
16GB Corsair Vengeance LPX 2133MHz
Samsung 480GB SSD
Seasonic 500Watt 80+ Gold
Kolink Stronghold Mid Tower Case

 

[sizzling]

Did you buy a 2x8gb kit or 2 (1x8gb) kits?

 

[eRo0717]

Did you buy a 2x8gb kit or 2 (1x8gb) kits?

Thanks for the reply - One kit, 2x8gb sticks

 

[firemrshlbill]

Does it run fine with either stick installed but crashes with both, or does it work with just that one stick?

Try each single stick in each slot and see if it is a bad stick or an issue with a slot in your mobo.

edit: doing a quick search, seems a lot of people reporting compatibility issues with ryzen. Why did you purchase this kit over a higher speed kit? Is it just that much cheaper in your area or was it something you had on hand from another build?

I'd personally return it if you still can and grab something 3000MHz or higher. If you are in the US, DDR4 has dropped a lot and there is very little price difference between 2133 and 3000mhz, even 3200mhz is usually only $10 more or so nowadays.

 

[TechyInAZ]

Leave one RAM of stick in your system, then update your BIOS, then try to run both sticks again. BIOS updates significantly improve memory compatibility for Ryzen. Especially on first gen boards like B350.

As said above, why did you go with 2133mhz? That RAM speed is extremely low, you will easily have a 30% performance penalty by not going with at least 3000mhz memory.

 

[eRo0717]

Thanks for the replies guys, turns out you were spot on. I tried the first stick on it's own with no issues, swapped for second stick and after a few seconds after Windows booted it crashed, so seems that the stick itself is bad.
I got the 2133MHz as a friend of mine was building a PC and bought two sets instead of 1 so was willing to sell it to me with a very generous discount. The PC itself is for a family member who only really uses her current system for watching movies off a hard drive, surfing the web and Facebook and such, so paying €50 for 16gb of 2133MHz Ram (still sealed btw) instead of 8gb higher frequency memory seemed like a no brainer at the time, obviously wasn't expecting this to happen ...
Thanks a lot though, feel silly no for all the hours spent troubleshooting when it was this simple!

 

[firemrshlbill]

Single channel of 2133MHz is probably the worst configuration you can put with a Ryzen, especially an APU. However, if it is someone that doesn't do any gaming or intensive computing, then it should be fine for general web surfing, netflix, youtube, office type tasks, etc. Though it is overpaying at that point for what you are getting, so if you friend can still return it, I'd get just do that and you probably can get a 2x 4GB of 2666MHz+ for the same €50

 

[eRo0717]

Single channel of 2133MHz is probably the worst configuration you can put with a Ryzen, especially an APU. However, if it is someone that doesn't do any gaming or intensive computing, then it should be fine for general web surfing, netflix, youtube, office type tasks, etc. Though it is overpaying at that point for what you are getting, so if you friend can still return it, I'd get just do that and you probably can get a 2x 4GB of 2666MHz+ for the same €50

Would 16GB of 2133MHz memory (dual channel) not be better than 8gb of faster (2666Mhz+) memory? Returning the memory is unfortunately not an option where I am, but my friend will be contacting Corsair as their memory is covered by a lifetime warranty here and I should be able to get a replacement for the faulty kit.

Also, on a side note, I've seen a lot of people talking about overclocking their Ram, is that something I could look into?

 

[mitch074]

Would 16GB of 2133MHz memory (dual channel) not be better than 8gb of faster (2666Mhz+) memory? Returning the memory is unfortunately not an option where I am, but my friend will be contacting Corsair as their memory is covered by a lifetime warranty here and I should be able to get a replacement for the faulty kit.

Also, on a side note, I've seen a lot of people talking about overclocking their Ram, is that something I could look into?

You can overclock the ram, yes - but you have to be ready to run extensive tests. As higher clocked ram is no longer much more expensive than base clock, personally I don't bother. However, if you push it to 2666, relax the timings and you are ready to run memtest86+ overnight on it, you can land yourself a nice little boost. More than that though, I don't think it's worth the nights of testing.

 

[TechyInAZ]

Memory is an absolute beast to overclock. You need to run memtest86 and prime95 (8 hours of P95) at the bare minimum. I JUST got done overclocking my memory to tighter timings and it too a lot of work. (see timings on my sig)

2666mhz is still quite slow, i highly recommend you get at least 3000-3200MHz speed RAM. If you are gaming at all, you need at least 16GB of RAM. Because the IGPU will take at least 2GB of that RAM for itself (leaving you with 6GB of RAM which is barely usable in any modern game).

 

[firemrshlbill]

Would 16GB of 2133MHz memory (dual channel) not be better than 8gb of faster (2666Mhz+) memory? Returning the memory is unfortunately not an option where I am, but my friend will be contacting Corsair as their memory is covered by a lifetime warranty here and I should be able to get a replacement for the faulty kit.

Also, on a side note, I've seen a lot of people talking about overclocking their Ram, is that something I could look into?

For what you said your family member does (no gaming or other intensive tasks) it doesn't sound like 8gb vs 16gb matters much. Since you already paid for it and are getting a replacement stick, just stick with that, run the 2x 8gb, and go into bios and just use the XMP profile and see if you can OC it to 2400MHz and run a mem test overnight when you go to sleep (would be surprised if it doesn't at least do 2400MHz). If that works, then just leave it at that and give it to the family member. You could try seeing if you can get closer to 2666MHz, but they are pretty good about how well each speed of ram is binned and you won't get too much OC over what it is rated for without really cranking the voltage or investing more time than you probably care to in getting it stable. Since this is a non-gaming PC for a family member, then stable is more important than performance. So I'd aim for the 2400MHz OC just using the XMP profile, test it overnight with a mem test and if all is ok in the morning, you are good to go.

If you were going to be gaming with it, I'd take 8gb of 3200+ over 16gb of <3000MHz. I have a 2200g build just using the APU for gaming, and bumping up from 2933 to 3133 on my 3000MHz ram was a noticeable difference in GPU performance and I haven't hit big walls only having 8gb in it, even when messing around with playing at 1440p just for the fun of it. That said, when the new APU's come out in the next year, since RAM prices dropped since I built it last June/July, I will be upping to better quality 16gb of 3200MHz or higher ram. I have another 2200g build that uses 16GB of the same type of ram and a GTX 1060, I should just swap them now since the 2200g+1060 doesn't utilize all 16gb, but I have been too lazy since I'd need to snip a bunch of zip ties and redo cable management just to get to the 16gb ram in that build.