Question [HELP] RGB with strange behavior in one stick of RAM

[Floydsound]

Hi, everyone! A couple weeks ago I purchased a kit of 2x16GB G.Skill Trident Z RGB DDR4 3200MHz (model 3200C16D-32GTZR), but one of the sticks is driving me crazy.

In the first week of use, the RGB on both sticks worked as intended. I controlled it with MSI Center (my motherboard is a B550 Tomahawk) and had no issues. The configuration was always kept after turning the PC off and on.

Then, for no apparent reason, the RGB on one of the sticks stopped lighting up at boot and would only light up randomly, many minutes after entering Windows, in the standard rainbow pattern.

All of the times it decided to light up, I tried controlling the RGB with Trident Z Lighting Control, MSI Center, Armoury Crate, OpenRGB and SignalRGB (one software at a time, always uninstalling and cleaning the last one before installing the next, because I know there are conflicts).

In these opportunities, I managed to control the RGB on both sticks normally with all of these programs, BUT... If I turn the PC off and on, that same stick stops lighting up and starts this loop of problems all over again.

Since then, I tried:
- Uninstalling and reinstalling all of the softwares above (and cleaning the registry)
- Removing all cables from the PC and holding the power button to drain residual charge
- Returning BIOS to default settings
- Clearing CMOS by removing the battery
- Removing and reinstalling both sticks in all 4 motherboard RAM slots (the same stick behaves that way in all slots)

Here's my configuration:
- Ryzen 7 5800X3D + DeepCool AK500
- Asus TUF Gaming RTX 3080 V2 OC 10 GB GDDR6X
- G.Skill Trident Z RGB 32 GB (2x16) DDR4 3200 MHz
- MSI MAG B550 Tomahawk
- WD Black SN850X 2 TB
- Samsung 970 EVO Plus 1 TB
- Corsair TX750M
- Windows 10 Pro x64

Temperatures in all parts are completely controlled, everything is updated (including BIOS, Windows and graphics card driver) and, aside from the RGB, the faulty stick is functioning perfectly.

The only thing I haven't tested so far is formatting the PC (which I'll probably do soon).

Does anyone know what else I could do, or is it an RMA case? 🙁 It's really disappointing, spending your hard earned money on a supposedly excellent brand and having to deal with this. If RMA is the only solution, I'll probably be left with no PC for a month.

Thanks in advance, guys.

 

[Lutfij]

For the sake of relevance, can you check and see what BIOS version you're on for your motherboard? You might want to see if your ram kit behaves the same way on a donor/test platform.

The only thing I haven't tested so far is formatting the PC (which I'll probably do soon).
That is something I think you might want to do but make sure you've backed up your mission critical data in case the install goes side ways. One other note, fabricate your bootable USB installer using Windows Media Creation Tools and make sure you've only got the drive that you intend to install the OS on hooked up, leaving the rest disconnected.

 

[Floydsound]

For the sake of relevance, can you check and see what BIOS version you're on for your motherboard? You might want to see if your ram kit behaves the same way on a donor/test platform.

The only thing I haven't tested so far is formatting the PC (which I'll probably do soon).
That is something I think you might want to do but make sure you've backed up your mission critical data in case the install goes side ways. One other note, fabricate your bootable USB installer using Windows Media Creation Tools and make sure you've only got the drive that you intend to install the OS on hooked up, leaving the rest disconnected.

Thanks for the recommendations, Lutfij! I have just done what you suggested (testing in my brother's PC and formatting), but the stick still behaves the same way 🙁

 

[Lutfij]

Then the drive is what's the issue, not the motherboard.

 

[Floydsound]

Then the drive is what's the issue, not the motherboard.

The drive? But I don't think it's possible, because today I actually installed a new M.2 SSD and removed the old SATA one that had the system. I also don't think it could be the motherboard, because I tested both RAMs in all 4 slots, and the problem occurs with the same one.