[SOLVED] is this good indication of bad ram stick?

[GM-Otomon]

So I been having random freezes last few days, been trying ever fix I could find.
Last nigth I decided to try Windows Memory Diagnostic for my 2 ram sticks at the same time, few minutes in... freeze.
I then tried memtest with same setup, after a few minutes freeze.
Then I took one of the sticks out and ran memtest again, I did all 5 passes fine and no errors.

Is this usually a good indicator that the other ram stick is faulty? BTW both ram sticks were different brands.

Funnily enough, with only 1 ram stick, pc seems to run even better now, before icons would take a bit to all show up on desktop, now they all seem to show up almost instantly on boot.

 

[punkncat]

If you are running two different sticks it would be hard to say for sure. Taking a lot of guessing based on not knowing what you are working with, but you could attempt to reset CMOS, remove the one stick, replace it with the other and see if the stability issues for sure follow that stick.

When you load two different sticks they may or may not be running the same timings. The system will try to find something workable as it posts and could just be the one stick was unstable on the "happy medium" the system auto selected.

 

[GM-Otomon]

If you are running two different sticks it would be hard to say for sure. Taking a lot of guessing based on not knowing what you are working with, but you could attempt to reset CMOS, remove the one stick, replace it with the other and see if the stability issues for sure follow that stick.

When you load two different sticks they may or may not be running the same timings. The system will try to find something workable as it posts and could just be the one stick was unstable on the "happy medium" the system auto selected.

I know for sure they are running the same timings since that is what I asked for when I purchased the second stick since I was told not having the same timing would cause them to stop working after a while. (funnily enough they did stop working a year later lol) Only difference between them was the brand.

 

[geofelt]

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.
Ram must be matched for proper operation.

Time to replace both sticks with a single 2 x (8?) gb kit.

 

[mamasan2000]

I know for sure they are running the same timings since that is what I asked for when I purchased the second stick since I was told not having the same timing would cause them to stop working after a while. (funnily enough they did stop working a year later lol) Only difference between them was the brand.

The Sticks can be rated for the same timings but your motherboard can still set different timings, especially for the subtimings. The secondary and tertiary. Those are not programmed into the XMP settings. If your motherboard shows what the actual timings are per stick, you'll see.

 

[GM-Otomon]

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.
Ram must be matched for proper operation.

Time to replace both sticks with a single 2 x (8?) gb kit.

Wait can I not use the one stick 8GB stick until I can get the 2x8 kit? Or is that a bad idea? The gaming pc came with a single stick 0_0

The Sticks can be rated for the same timings but your motherboard can still set different timings, especially for the subtimings. The secondary and tertiary. Those are not programmed into the XMP settings. If your motherboard shows what the actual timings are per stick, you'll see.

Dam gotcha, guess ill stick to buying 2 ram stick kits in the future, btw why did you say to reset CMOS before testing second ram stick? Also, why did it take over a year for this issue to pop up?

 

[geofelt]

You can certainly use a single 8gb stick that tests out ok.
It will operate in slower single channel mode.

When two disparate sticks were inserted, the motherboard tried to find a setting that worked.
Both sticks needed to operate at the same specs of speed, voltage, and timings.

What is the make/model of your motherboard?
If your motherboard is capable, go into the bios and raise the ram voltage a bit.
Sometimes, that can help.

You also might check to see if there are any motherboard bios updates that address ram issues.

 

[GM-Otomon]

You can certainly use a single 8gb stick that tests out ok.
It will operate in slower single channel mode.

When two disparate sticks were inserted, the motherboard tried to find a setting that worked.
Both sticks needed to operate at the same specs of speed, voltage, and timings.

What is the make/model of your motherboard?
If your motherboard is capable, go into the bios and raise the ram voltage a bit.
Sometimes, that can help.

You also might check to see if there are any motherboard bios updates that address ram issues.

Yeah this single stick didnt show a single error in memtest (I did all 5 passes)
The reason I made the thread was because I would rather work with a single stick even if slower, than risk messing around inserting and testing the second stick if it was obvious it was faulty. As I mentioned, PC seems to be running better now with a single stick and no freezes yet crosses fingers

For the BIOS update, I checked the manufacturer website and they seem to have an older version of my current BIOS for some reason.
Not sure if my motherboard can raise voltage as its a prebuilt gaming pc but its an Acer, Nitro N50-600(DCH)

 

[geofelt]

Pre-built pc's will normally include a crippled bios.
Even if the chipset allowed ram overclocking, they do not want uninformed people fiddling with it.
To find a compatible 16gb kit, go to kingston, crucial, g.skil and such.
Access their ram upgrade app.
Enter your pc make/model and you will get a list of supported ram kits.

 

[GM-Otomon]

Pre-built pc's will normally include a crippled bios.
Even if the chipset allowed ram overclocking, they do not want uninformed people fiddling with it.
To find a compatible 16gb kit, go to kingston, crucial, g.skil and such.
Access their ram upgrade app.
Enter your pc make/model and you will get a list of supported ram kits.

Crippled bios meaning they prevent you from messing around with it? Yeah I wouldn't want to risk it.

And thanks! I will do this when I buy my ram sticks.

When I was buying my second ram stick (the one that failed) I called one of those big PC stores and they told me the timing/voltage etc etc all needed to match or it would fail further down the road. A local shop told me that was a lie and they showed me how the second stick was working properly. Well here I am a year later... the stick failed lol

What I dont understand is why the failure after a year? You said:

When two disparate sticks were inserted, the motherboard tried to find a setting that worked.
Both sticks needed to operate at the same specs of speed, voltage, and timings.

So they were not working optimally, does that mean I should expect the single stick to die very soon also? Or was motherboard working optimally at the speed/voltage/timing of the first stick but not the second and that is why it eventually died?

 

[geofelt]

Ram kits from major makers will have a lifetime warranty.
You probably can get a replacement for the one that died.

The Big box store was not exactly right.
Timing,speed, voltage, all do need to match or the motherboard can not run.
The bios will try to find a common setting among those available.
Ram once working should not fail later.
Only if one overclocked it excessively, and that does not seem likely.

Local shop was not exactly right either. Mismatched ram may not work properly together, but that should not cause a individual stick to fail.

Some motherboards, particularly ryzen are tightly tied to ram and really need compatible kits.
On occasion, the internal construction of the kits can cause incompatibilities.
This is less of a concern with intel motherboards.

To be certain of ram compatibility, look at the motherboard ram QVL list for your motherboard and cpu. It will list ram kits that have been tested and found to work properly.
Not all ram has been tested.
If your ram does not show up as a part number on that list check the ram vndor selection app,
If the ram shows up there as supported, you will be ok.

 

[GM-Otomon]

Ram kits from major makers will have a lifetime warranty.
You probably can get a replacement for the one that died.

The Big box store was not exactly right.
Timing,speed, voltage, all do need to match or the motherboard can not run.
The bios will try to find a common setting among those available.
Ram once working should not fail later.
Only if one overclocked it excessively, and that does not seem likely.

Local shop was not exactly right either. Mismatched ram may not work properly together, but that should not cause a individual stick to fail.

Some motherboards, particularly ryzen are tightly tied to ram and really need compatible kits.
On occasion, the internal construction of the kits can cause incompatibilities.
This is less of a concern with intel motherboards.

To be certain of ram compatibility, look at the motherboard ram QVL list for your motherboard and cpu. It will list ram kits that have been tested and found to work properly.
Not all ram has been tested.
If your ram does not show up as a part number on that list check the ram vndor selection app,
If the ram shows up there as supported, you will be ok.

Well this is a bit confusing since as I mentioned, the second stick was working properly together with the other one for over a year. without issues... also its an Intel mobo and I did not overclock anything. Furthermore the second stick was from Samsung so pretty sure its compatible.

Now I dont know how to proceed since you said "Mismatched ram may not work properly together, but that should not cause a individual stick to fail" so it potentially could be another issue besides just a bad stick of ram?