Question 2 Ram slots are faulty, should i get a new motherboard or 2 higher size ram sticks?

[nhyde321]

Specs
ASRock B450 Pro4 AM4 ATX Motherboard
AMD Ryzen 3 3200G 4 Core 3.6Ghz CPU
Corsair VS Series v2 450W
Inno 3D Geforce GTX 1650 SUPER Twin X2 OC 4GB video card
Corsair Vengeance LPX 8GB DDR4 2666MHz (2 of them)

Hi, i was wondering if anyone could give me advice, i recently got new RAM ( the same ones as above ) so i could have 32 GB of ram. I had the first two installed in A2 and B2 slots and put the new ones in A1 and B1. My computer worked fine until a started a game and then it gave me a blue screen of death and on startup it was stuck in a repair loop, even freezing on UEFI sometimes. The ram show up on UEFI but i cant use the A1 and B1 slots without it boot looping. I tested the new ram in the old slots to see if they were faulty, they were working fine.

My question is, my A1 and/or B1 slots are faulty so should I get a new motherboard that does not have 2 faulty ram slots or refund my ram sticks and get 2 of the 16GB Ram sticks?

Thanks, any help would be appreciated.

 

[jeremyj_83]

Specs
ASRock B450 Pro4 AM4 ATX Motherboard
AMD Ryzen 3 3200G 4 Core 3.6Ghz CPU
Corsair VS Series v2 450W
Inno 3D Geforce GTX 1650 SUPER Twin X2 OC 4GB video card
Corsair Vengeance LPX 8GB DDR4 2666MHz (2 of them)

Hi, i was wondering if anyone could give me advice, i recently got new RAM ( the same ones as above ) so i could have 32 GB of ram. I had the first two installed in A2 and B2 slots and put the new ones in A1 and B1. My computer worked fine until a started a game and then it gave me a blue screen of death and on startup it was stuck in a repair loop, even freezing on UEFI sometimes. The ram show up on UEFI but i cant use the A1 and B1 slots without it boot looping. I tested the new ram in the old slots to see if they were faulty, they were working fine.

My question is, my A1 and/or B1 slots are faulty so should I get a new motherboard that does not have 2 faulty ram slots or refund my ram sticks and get 2 of the 16GB Ram sticks?

Thanks, any help would be appreciated.

Are you trying to run all 4 sticks at 2666MHz?

 

[nhyde321]

Are you trying to run all 4 sticks at 2666MHz?

Yes

 

[Dark Lord of Tech]

IF purchased separately the memory modules are only identicalin spec..They should all be purchased in a single kit. Adding a new set to a previously purchased set more often than not can cause these types of issues.

 

[nhyde321]

IF purchased separately the memory modules are only identicalin spec..They should all be purchased in a single kit. Adding a new set to a previously purchased set more often than not can cause these types of issues.

So getting 4 sticks of ram in one kit is better?

 

[jeremyj_83]

Yes

They 400 series boards are more likely to not be able to run 4 sticks of RAM at their rated speeds. I would first try getting your motherboard BIOS to the most recent release. Looking at the list of available BIOS' you should be able to get all the way to L8.02 as the 3200G is in the Picasso line of chips. If that doesn't work try turning off XMP and running the RAM at 2133MHz and see if things are stable.

 

[Dark Lord of Tech]

KITS are always the better option , they are suppose to be purchased that way , to be truly identical. Check your board specs and qvl to find out what you should be running.

 

[Dark Lord of Tech]

As stated above by ,

jeremyj_83​

2 sticks are better than 4 , for your type of setup.

 

[Jason-Julius]

It is conceivable that the A1 and/or B1 RAM slots on your motherboard might be defective. To verify this, you can try installing the old RAM sticks into those particular slots. If the problems persist, you may have to contemplate purchasing a new motherboard. Another option could be to return the newly purchased RAM sticks and stick with the original 16GB configuration if it meets your requirements. To obtain further guidance, consult the motherboard manual and reach out to technical support for assistance.

 

[geofelt]

It is not certain that you have faulty ram slots.
Ram is sold in kits for a reason.
A motherboard must manage all the ram using the same specs of voltage, cas and speed.
The internal workings are designed for the capacity of the kit.
Ram from the same vendor and part number can be made up of differing manufacturing components over time.
Some motherboards, particularly ryzen can be very sensitive to this.
This is more difficult when more sticks are involved.
Ram must be matched for proper operation.
What to do??
Option 1.
Your best option would be to buy a 2 x 16gb ram kit replacement.
Pick a kit that is explicitly supported by your motherboard QVL or by the ram vendor.
AMD is dual channel only so there is no advantage to a 4 stick kit.
And, because of matching, 4 sticks of the same capacity will usually cost more anyway.
Option 2.
Go into the bios and explicitly set the ram specs of speed, cas and voltage.
Lower speed a bit and increase the voltage past what is shown on the stick itself.
Then add the second pair.
If this seems to work,
Run memtest86 or memtest86+
They boot from a usb stick and do not use windows.
You can download them here:

MemTest86 - Official Site of the x86 Memory Testing Tool

MemTest86 is the original self booting memory testing software for x86 and ARM computers. Supporting both BIOS and UEFI, with options to boot from USB.

www.memtest86.com

Memtest86+ | The Open-Source Memory Testing Tool

Memtest86+ is an advanced, free, open-source, stand-alone memory tester for 32- and 64-bit computers (UEFI & BIOS supported)

www.memtest.org

If you can run a full pass with NO errors, your ram should be ok.

Running several more passes will sometimes uncover an issue, but it takes more time.
Probably not worth it unless you really suspect a ram issue.

 

[rickypicky5]

As everyone else has already stated, if your using 4 sticks of RAM, it's a good idea to buy them as a 4 stick kit.

Did you do a clear CMOS prior to turning on your PC after you added the new sticks to the A1 and B1 slots? It's usually a good idea to do a clear CMOS after you add or change any hardware in your PC.