Question I've got a super strange problem.

Proigr3

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Apr 15, 2017
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One day, my PC hard crashed, the screen was stuck, no bluescreen etc. couldn't even turn it off. So I unplugged it from the wall. Then I tried plugged it back in, and tried to start it. No display output, cpu LED red, ram LED yellow. So I disassembled the whole pc, built it back together to make sure, nothing broke etc ... Turned it on, and now only yellow LED for memory issues. so I uninstalled the second pair of the ram, slot 2 and 4, and it booted up no problem. Which is strange, bcs the PC was warking super fine with all ram slots populated before the sudden hard crash. When I tried booting it up with all of the stick in place, it just did not. I came up with an idea, to just take each ram stick and put it in a different slot, basically swapped both matched pairs, and bingo, it booted up. IDFK why, that does not matter though, bcs the real problem is, since I did that, I've got many problems, like processes hanging, not responding, mainly games. Could switching the slots that the stick occupy influence the system's responsiveness? I also ran window's memory training program, to see if there were any problems, there were not. Any information greatly appreciated

Specs:
i7-7700K -running at base clock 4.2
32 GB -2 pairs, not matched, one pair is rated for 2133, the other is 2400, working fine on XMP at 2400
Asus Z270F strix
 

Proigr3

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Apr 15, 2017
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Check Event Viewer for event codes to see what the system is logging. Reliability History can sometimes show useful info.

Would suggest running memtest to see if you are coming back with errors.
There's about 4000 Error codes, and 18000 warnings in event viewer, window's memtest passed fine, could you recommend some else?
 

punkncat

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Critical and Error are the ones you want to check the most. Get another device, such as another computer or phone and start seeing what the PC is doing. Use memtest86 as it is a much more thorough troubleshooter.

I would also recommend your loading CPU-Z and taking a look at the SPD screen for each stick. Take a screen shot or picture of the JEDEC/XMP timings and try to manually set the speed that both of the different pairs intersect on, if possible. If you have RAM running at 2400 that is rated for 2133 that could most certainly cause errors to arise. Memory errors, given long enough can cause corruption in the OS.

You could try doing SFC/DISM to see if that helps.
 

Proigr3

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Apr 15, 2017
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Critical and Error are the ones you want to check the most. Get another device, such as another computer or phone and start seeing what the PC is doing. Use memtest86 as it is a much more thorough troubleshooter.

I would also recommend your loading CPU-Z and taking a look at the SPD screen for each stick. Take a screen shot or picture of the JEDEC/XMP timings and try to manually set the speed that both of the different pairs intersect on, if possible. If you have RAM running at 2400 that is rated for 2133 that could most certainly cause errors to arise. Memory errors, given long enough can cause corruption in the OS.

You could try doing SFC/DISM to see if that helps.
Here's the SPD report for the first pair:
View: https://imgur.com/jU8Y7Dp

And for the second pair:
View: https://imgur.com/uqDzi7g


What settings should I match? And how would I do that in the bios? Also, program hanging didn't change when I turned XMP off
 

Proigr3

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This would have been my main guess on the problems. It's one thing to OC high end RAM, but OCing mere 2133 speed RAM that high is not really a good idea. Those RAM kits aren't at all a good match really.
I thought so, but before that sudden hard crash, all worked like butter, couldn't be more happy. Now, games load 50% slower, it feels like.
 

punkncat

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In particular, the timings between those are WAY apart. I am surprised the system was able to train something to work for them both installed at the same time. I think the 3200 kit is faster than the 7700K can use IIRC, anything over 2400 is an OC. Given the CL of the "lesser" kit and XMP speed on target I think I would search those out again and put the 3200 kit up for later use or sale.

.02
 

Proigr3

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In particular, the timings between those are WAY apart. I am surprised the system was able to train something to work for them both installed at the same time. I think the 3200 kit is faster than the 7700K can use IIRC, anything over 2400 is an OC. Given the CL of the "lesser" kit and XMP speed on target I think I would search those out again and put the 3200 kit up for later use or sale.

.02
Well tank you for the help, but I must use all the sticks, I cannot just sell it and buy new one. And like I said, there was no problem up until recently, for a whole year
 
Feb 11, 2023
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Well tank you for the help, but I must use all the sticks, I cannot just sell them and buy a new one. And like I said, there was no problem up until recently, for a whole year

Hi, there mate, I hope you solved your issue, in case not, it seems to be a failure in the RAM sticks, like you said, even if they didn't fail before, it doesnt mean it won't like someone said messages above, the RAM OC could have to cause the stick to slowly damage itself, and the RAM tests by software not always show when there's an actual issue, using a faulty component would cause others to fail too, id recommend to debug which stick is causing the issue, or if they're more than one, by taking them all out, and then using each stick by itself in each slot and try, measure the response and loading time with each in each slot, don't combine them until you test them all. I believe you will find 1 or 2 sticks booting slowly or not booting at all. You said you can't just simply sell the faulty one but having a faulty component causing it to malfunction the whole pc will end up with more components failing. Id takes off the faulty one and save up to buy a new one. and Try to use ALWAYS all at the same frequency, don't OC them, and you might think it gives you BIG results, but it doesn't, 2100 to 2400 won't be too much of a difference because they are still in the same range, only a few FPS.
 

Kona45primo

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A few members on here have had success getting troublesome RAM working using a simple pencil eraser to clean the contacts. Might be worth a shot, could be something as simple as dirty contacts causing the problem.
 
Feb 11, 2023
5
1
15
A few members on here have had success getting troublesome RAM working using a simple pencil eraser to clean the contacts. Might be worth a shot, could be something as simple as dirty contacts causing the problem.

That is totally a way to solve it, but still, I recommend you to keep and at the normal frequency and flash rams by slotting as I told you before, good luck with it, hope it works man. Cheers
 

Proigr3

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Apr 15, 2017
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Hi, there mate, I hope you solved your issue, in case not, it seems to be a failure in the RAM sticks, like you said, even if they didn't fail before, it doesnt mean it won't like someone said messages above, the RAM OC could have to cause the stick to slowly damage itself, and the RAM tests by software not always show when there's an actual issue, using a faulty component would cause others to fail too, id recommend to debug which stick is causing the issue, or if they're more than one, by taking them all out, and then using each stick by itself in each slot and try, measure the response and loading time with each in each slot, don't combine them until you test them all. I believe you will find 1 or 2 sticks booting slowly or not booting at all. You said you can't just simply sell the faulty one but having a faulty component causing it to malfunction the whole pc will end up with more components failing. Id takes off the faulty one and save up to buy a new one. and Try to use ALWAYS all at the same frequency, don't OC them, and you might think it gives you BIG results, but it doesn't, 2100 to 2400 won't be too much of a difference because they are still in the same range, only a few FPS.
Thanks for asking, I made it work in the end. Runs "smoothly", no problems arose since. I messed around in uefi bios, tried disabling/enabling xmp etc ... Also I enabled Intel Rapid storage technology, don't ask me why, idek what it does tbh. But it seems to have improved stability of the system.