Question How to fix Explorer.exe failure loop that occured after changing RAM Sticks

[Chytrus]

Hello fellow Windows Wizards.
(If I have chosen a wrong place to post I apologise, I'm new to this forum)

Recently I've encountered a strange error.

My PC was working just fine untill about 3h ago. But now whenever I turn it on, first I'm greeted with "Shell infrastructure host has stopped working" message,

and when I choose the "Start debugging" option I'm immediately struck by another message that reads: "Visual Studio Just-in-Time Debugger
an unhandled win32 exception occurred in sihost.exe [4340]. Just-In-Time debugging this exception failed with the following error: No installed debugger has Just-In-Time debugging enabled..."

The issue is that after I click "OK" on that window my PC is stuck in a constant Explorer shutdown loop. I cannot open my Start Menu, my toolbar is appearing for a second then it's gone. And my Background is just a black screen. I am able to open Task Manager and run new tasks though it but my focus is constantly being shifted off the window I'm trying to type in. Here is the video showing this state:

View: https://youtu.be/UfVOnTzOkiU?si=TxB2gO3zarchIMSV



How I arrived at this point:

Recently I have bought 4x8GB used Memory Ram kit from G.Skill 3200MHz CL16, over couple of recent days I was testing those ram modules because when I put them in initially my PC crashed under heavier game load. I was testing them with MemTest USB drive. The sticks were showing errors but the PC booted everytime and everything was working just fine, untill I put in my old RAM stick that I was using before. (GOODRAM 2666 CL 16 IRDM-X)



I tried:

Roughly checking all the connections on my MOBO

Refitting the RAM module

Resetting MOBO settings to optimised deafults

System file checker through CMD prompt

Renaming Explorer Key in the regedit





PC specs:

Gigabyte AB350M-DS3H V2 Motherboard

Ryzen 5 1600AF CPU

G.Skill Ripjaws 3200MHz CL16 "newly bought ram"

GOODRAM IRDM-X 2666MHz CL 16

Please help, LMK if you need to know anything more

 

[rgd1101]

test with just use 1 set of ram?

 

[Chytrus]

test with just use 1 set of ram?

I have tested it with Ripjaws 2x sticks and with single Goodram stick in both times the same error occured

 

[rgd1101]

what if you click the program on the "Shell infrastructure host has stopped working" message?

 

[Chytrus]

what if you click the program on the "Shell infrastructure host has stopped working" message?

"Debug the program" I get this second window that I shared.
Closing th program also leads to the explorer loop, so they might not even be connected.

 

[Viking2121]

Sounds like unstable memory, Try a memory speed below 3200mhz, Try 2133mhz just to see if everything is stable and work your way back up, might be able to get 3200mhz to work with a little bit of tweaking.

My r5 1600 system did not like fast memory without some crazy tweaking to timings and voltages, first gen ryzen was always problematic with ram speeds.

Good Luck!

 

[Chytrus]

Sounds like unstable memory, Try a memory speed below 3200mhz, Try 2133mhz just to see if everything is stable and work your way back up, might be able to get 3200mhz to work with a little bit of tweaking.

My r5 1600 system did not like fast memory without some crazy tweaking to timings and voltages, first gen ryzen was always problematic with ram speeds.

Good Luck

Thanks for the reply, unfortunately I've already reset the BIOS settings to optimised defaults, so the ram is running at 2133 MHz. The problem still persists. Plus the AF version is closer to 2nd gen and 3200MHz ram is listed on the list compatible parts. I'm sure it's some sort of a dumb tweak I've made along the way but I am unable to figure it out.

 

[Chytrus]

I think my system files have been corrupted and now I'm reinstalling windows 10.

 

[geofelt]

If memtest shows even just ONE error, the ram is bad and should be returned to the seller.
Ram must be matched for proper operation.
Possibly the ram you bought was not a single matched kit.
Or, the seller also had issues and wanted to dump it.

ryzen is particularly sensitive to ram for proper operation and performance.

If you want to try to make things work, go into the bios and set the ram settings yourself.
In particular, set increasingly higher ram voltages past 1.35v