This issue's been coming up for a week or so and I've tried some troubleshooting, but to no avail, and the problem might be getting worse or indicative of a bigger oncoming problem, but all parts were gotten and installed back in about October, save for the GPU and one SSD from ~September 2019. The short version is that it looks like it's an issue with RAM being loaded on boot, but not with the actual sticks I'm using. I'll have to break this down into a few paragraphs because I've alternated between having the problem, trying some troubleshooting, and having more of the problem.
Initial Problem
Over the last week, my computer had 3 instances of failing to boot from sleep after being left in sleep overnight. My motherboard (Strix X570-F Gaming) has lights on it to indicate problems. On the first and third instance, I got an orange light, indicating a RAM issue (2 16GB Corsair Pro RGB rated at 3600MHz, running DOCP). On the second, I got a red light, indicating a CPU issue (Ryzen 3900X). In all three instances, I held the power button to force shutdown, and upon switching on, everything's fine, RAM is still clocking 3600MHz, 32GB, temperatures are normal. These 'failed to boot' instances didn't happen every day, just about 3 out of 5 days or so. I also tried, as a test, putting the system to sleep and waking it up right after, and everything was fine, but a sample size of 2 isn't much good.
Initial Troubleshooting
To try some firmware troubleshooting in case this was some problem with my BIOS, I updated to the latest non-beta BIOS for my motherboard (version 3001), ensured firmware-based TPM was turned off, and updated my GPU (GTX 1660) drivers - most likely irrelevant, but they needed updating anyway.
Problem Continues / Worsens, Hardware Troubleshooting
Yesterday morning, I try to wake from sleep, get the same issue, orange light, says RAM issue (all lights from this point onward are orange). Figure it's time to reseat the RAM. Shut off, I do that, taking them out and putting them back in, and now I don't even get to POST from off state. Nothing sent to monitor. Orange light, RAM issue. To try something out I take them out and put in my old RAM, 2 8GB Corsair Vengeance sticks. Same light. So it's a RAM issue, but seemingly not bound to these 16GB sticks. I switch off, switch off at kettle, unplug kettle for ~10 min, come back, plug back in and it's turning on fine. Again, I check the RAM, it's running 2x16GB at 3600MHz just fine. I turn off secure boot in the BIOS, just on the off chance that it's related to it struggling to wake or POST. System is fine for the rest of the day.
Today: problem persists, struggling to post or wake from shorter sleep
Switched on today from sleep, orange light is back. Hold off, shuts down. Turn on again with no unplugging, no POST. Turn off, unplug, go away, come back, plug in, turn on, orange light. Turn off again, unplug, wait a while, plug back in, boots just fine.
I start to wonder if it's related to the length of sleep, so I run another test, putting it to sleep, going for a shower (~30m), come back, try to wake, orange light. Hold shutdown, off, turn back on with no unplugging, boots fine, here I am typing this.
Specs, to recap:
Motherboard: Asus Rog Strix X570-F Gaming
Bios: Version 3001
CPU: Ryzen 9 3900X
GPU: Zotac Geforce GTX1660
RAM: 2x Corsair Vengeance Pro RGB DDR4 16GB rated at 3600MHz, DOCP defaults
PSU: Corsair RM850
OS: Win10 Home 20H2 / 19042.789
antivirus: ESET (in case that mucks with anything booting)
OS install drive: Samsung 2TB 860 QVO.
So what gives?
The issue is:
Any particular recommendations?
Initial Problem
Over the last week, my computer had 3 instances of failing to boot from sleep after being left in sleep overnight. My motherboard (Strix X570-F Gaming) has lights on it to indicate problems. On the first and third instance, I got an orange light, indicating a RAM issue (2 16GB Corsair Pro RGB rated at 3600MHz, running DOCP). On the second, I got a red light, indicating a CPU issue (Ryzen 3900X). In all three instances, I held the power button to force shutdown, and upon switching on, everything's fine, RAM is still clocking 3600MHz, 32GB, temperatures are normal. These 'failed to boot' instances didn't happen every day, just about 3 out of 5 days or so. I also tried, as a test, putting the system to sleep and waking it up right after, and everything was fine, but a sample size of 2 isn't much good.
Initial Troubleshooting
To try some firmware troubleshooting in case this was some problem with my BIOS, I updated to the latest non-beta BIOS for my motherboard (version 3001), ensured firmware-based TPM was turned off, and updated my GPU (GTX 1660) drivers - most likely irrelevant, but they needed updating anyway.
Problem Continues / Worsens, Hardware Troubleshooting
Yesterday morning, I try to wake from sleep, get the same issue, orange light, says RAM issue (all lights from this point onward are orange). Figure it's time to reseat the RAM. Shut off, I do that, taking them out and putting them back in, and now I don't even get to POST from off state. Nothing sent to monitor. Orange light, RAM issue. To try something out I take them out and put in my old RAM, 2 8GB Corsair Vengeance sticks. Same light. So it's a RAM issue, but seemingly not bound to these 16GB sticks. I switch off, switch off at kettle, unplug kettle for ~10 min, come back, plug back in and it's turning on fine. Again, I check the RAM, it's running 2x16GB at 3600MHz just fine. I turn off secure boot in the BIOS, just on the off chance that it's related to it struggling to wake or POST. System is fine for the rest of the day.
Today: problem persists, struggling to post or wake from shorter sleep
Switched on today from sleep, orange light is back. Hold off, shuts down. Turn on again with no unplugging, no POST. Turn off, unplug, go away, come back, plug in, turn on, orange light. Turn off again, unplug, wait a while, plug back in, boots just fine.
I start to wonder if it's related to the length of sleep, so I run another test, putting it to sleep, going for a shower (~30m), come back, try to wake, orange light. Hold shutdown, off, turn back on with no unplugging, boots fine, here I am typing this.
Specs, to recap:
Motherboard: Asus Rog Strix X570-F Gaming
Bios: Version 3001
CPU: Ryzen 9 3900X
GPU: Zotac Geforce GTX1660
RAM: 2x Corsair Vengeance Pro RGB DDR4 16GB rated at 3600MHz, DOCP defaults
PSU: Corsair RM850
OS: Win10 Home 20H2 / 19042.789
antivirus: ESET (in case that mucks with anything booting)
OS install drive: Samsung 2TB 860 QVO.
So what gives?
The issue is:
- not constant
- doesn't necessarily seem to be linked to sleep length or even sleep vs boot from shutdown, and I might have just been getting coincidental results prior to yesterday. Similarly the 'unplug it and go away for a while' might not be a fix and I might just randomly and coincidentally be getting good boots 2 out of 3 times after unplugging it. Restarts from OS have only been done 2 or 3 times but have not had issues.
- indicated as a RAM issue about 6 times, a CPU issue once.
- not a RAM issue specific to the current RAM sticks, so not at all likely to be related to my sticks running at 3600MHz DOCP (AMD equivalent of TPM)
- first instance doesn't seem to correlate with any recent software changes
- not linked to fwTPM or secureboot
Any particular recommendations?
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