[SOLVED] i7-4790k How to make sure it's NOT overclocked?

[Chalef]

Hello, I'll start with the facts; my system is stable. Everything working just fine. Except Photoshop, however. I know this is not the place for Photoshop troubleshooting, but hear me out first .
In PS v21 when I tried to save any image as any format, it'd cause a cold reboot. Every single time. It stopped doing that when I disabled XMP entirely, and everything worked just fine. (Note; the cold reboots only happened with PS, nothing else had issues). Now I tried the newer PS v22, it works pretty fine, though I experienced a cold reboot again when testing out some new features, which admittedly are still in beta (and they state so), but definitely doesn't justifly a system crash; the expected error would be PS crashing/freezing/closing. So I suspect something is off with the BIOS settings or drivers. Initially I'd like to know how to set both CPU (i7-4790k) and RAM (24 GB 1333 MHz) to stay at their factory clocks. In the BIOS they are currently set to Auto (XMP still remains disabled), which means CPU clock gets faster if the system needs it. But there are various options and some on/off switches in the BIOS, which I lack the knowledge of. Any kind illuminators here?
Note: using Gigabyte Z97 Gaming 5 motherboard. BIOS version F4

 

[PrinceTexasLoaf]

Enable xmp and set the ram speed a hundred mhz lower or so than what it put it at and see if that fixes the issue.

 

[Chalef]

Enable xmp and set the ram speed a hundred mhz lower or so than what it put it at and see if that fixes the issue.

XMP will not work properly now; I thought that since I'll need to have it disabled, I could as well install 2 more older RAM modules which run at 1333 MHz but do not support XMP. The system has been running smoothly (including Photoshop v21), no problems really. Except now with the newer version of PS, and only when I tried some beta new feature (my concern is that this should not be causing an instant system shutdown-->reboot). I read earlier, after my initial post, that PS is heavily reliant on bandwidth speed, and not as much as the amount of RAM you have installed. So my guess, some critical error is caused when PS is trying to do certain tasks/commands. I will try removing the older RAM modules and try what you suggested with the 16 GB total memory; XMP boosts it to 2400 MHz as default, not sure if that's too much or not. I'm using the Corsair Vengeance Pro CMY32GX3M4A2400C11.
Any other suggestions are welcome, nonetheless.

 

[PrinceTexasLoaf]

XMP will not work properly now; I thought that since I'll need to have it disabled, I could as well install 2 more older RAM modules which run at 1333 MHz but do not support XMP. The system has been running smoothly (including Photoshop v21), no problems really. Except now with the newer version of PS, and only when I tried some beta new feature (my concern is that this should not be causing an instant system shutdown-->reboot). I read earlier, after my initial post, that PS is heavily reliant on bandwidth speed, and not as much as the amount of RAM you have installed. So my guess, some critical error is caused when PS is trying to do certain tasks/commands. I will try removing the older RAM modules and try what you suggested with the 16 GB total memory; XMP boosts it to 2400 MHz as default, not sure if that's too much or not. I'm using the Corsair Vengeance Pro CMY32GX3M4A2400C11.
Any other suggestions are welcome, nonetheless.

I wouldn't suggest using the older ram as that does more harm than good. And 2400mhz should work with just your corsair ram alone.

 

[geofelt]

It is doubtful that you have bought a 24gb ram kit. There are none for sale.
Ram must be matched to work properly.

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, can be very sensitive to this.
This is more difficult when more sticks are involved.

XMP is a set of settings in the ram stick used to overclock the stick to rated speeds.
The xmp settings for some of your sticks are not going to be the same as for the other sticks.

Run memtest86.
It boots from a usb stick and does not use windows.
You can download the free edition here:
https://www.memtest86.com/download.htm

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

Photoshop can make good use of lots of ram.
Consider abandoning your current 24gb in favor of a matched 4 x 8gb kit of the speed you need.

 

[Chalef]

I never said I bought them as one kit. They are 2x8 GB and 2x4 GB kits, with the same CAS values and supporting 1333 MHz speed. But I'm not trying to doubt you anyway, as I said the system DOES work fine with 24 GB of RAM, the issues I experienced were only when using Photoshop, the technology of which I do not know, to identify the cold reboots (which, might I add, happened when I had only the 2x8 GB kit installed, with XMP enabled).
I will, however, run the memtest86 and see if I get any errors. Thank you for the suggestion .

P.S.: I don't think RAM kits of 2x16 GB even exist for DDR3 modules. My old motherboard would not allow more than 4 GB on a single RAM module, but the Z97, I couldn't find any information on whether it allows only up to 8 GB per module or more; but nonetheless I can't find any 2x16 GB DDR3 kits from the little I've searched .

 

[geofelt]

I know they could not be part of a matched kit except that there were some 3 x 8gb kits for triple channel systems.
You are correct on the ram.
Your motherboard supports up to 4 sticks, totaling 32gb. That would be 4 x 8gb.
Here are the specs for your motherboard.
https://www.gigabyte.com/us/Motherboard/GA-Z97X-Gaming-5-rev-10/sp#sp
There is a ram QVL list with explicitly supported ram kits, but I do not think your motherboard is particularly sensitive to the ram type.
https://download.gigabyte.com/FileList/Memory/mb_memory_ga-z97x-gaming5.pdf

I can not think of anything particular about photoshop other than it uses lots of ram.
In the long past, I did experience a similar issue when an app used a particular location in ram.
Memtest86 should show that type of problem.
Ram will usually have a lifetime return policy in case memtest86 shows up a defect.

Since you will need to specify ram settings yourself(do not use XMP) try adding an extra bit of voltage.
The xmp settings in one set of sticks will differ from the other and that can confuse things.

 

[PrinceTexasLoaf]

I never said I bought them as one kit. They are 2x8 GB and 2x4 GB kits, with the same CAS values and supporting 1333 MHz speed. But I'm not trying to doubt you anyway, as I said the system DOES work fine with 24 GB of RAM, the issues I experienced were only when using Photoshop, the technology of which I do not know, to identify the cold reboots (which, might I add, happened when I had only the 2x8 GB kit installed, with XMP enabled).
I will, however, run the memtest86 and see if I get any errors. Thank you for the suggestion .

P.S.: I don't think RAM kits of 2x16 GB even exist for DDR3 modules. My old motherboard would not allow more than 4 GB on a single RAM module, but the Z97, I couldn't find any information on whether it allows only up to 8 GB per module or more; but nonetheless I can't find any 2x16 GB DDR3 kits from the little I've searched .

The thing here is that your corsair ram runs at 2400mhz vs the 1333mhz ram with the same exact timings just way slower see what I mean so your ram is running veeery slow. You're greatly slowing down your system by adding that ram to it, but hey If your workloads demand those amounts then It's a hit worth taking, Kinda :/

 

[SamirD]

I would definitely run memtest--sounds like an error is causing the system reboot.

 

[Chalef]

I ran the memtest overnight with all RAM modules installed, new and old. Absolutely no errors over 4 passes. Corsair RAM runs at 2400 MHz when XMP is enabled; its factory clock is 1600/1333 MHz. Came to the conclusion that it's just Photoshop engine that's faulty, since nothing else causes issues, not even other Adobe products.

 

[SamirD]

Yeah, then it's just one of those oddball issues that really has no solution.