Question PC crashed and won't boot up - - - - DRAM LED is lit up on the motherboard with both RAMs properly seated ?

[brezipat]

Hello everyone. Two months ago, I've successfuly completed a new gaming PC build with following components:

Motherboard: ASUS ROG STRIX B550-F Gaming Wifi II
CPU: Ryzen 5700 X
RAM: Corsair 32GB KIT DDR4 3600MHz CL16 Vengeance RGB RT

EDIT - Remaining PC specs:
PSU: Corsair RM850x
GPU: GIGABYTE GeForce RTX 3070 TI GAMING OC 8G
Cooler: Arctic Liquid Freezer II 360
Memories:
Samsung 980 PRO 1TB
Samsung 970 EVO PLUS 1TB
Seagate Barracuda laptop 2TB, 2.5"

About a month ago, my PC froze while playing a game and I had to restart it using the reset button. The PC repeatedly failed to boot with DRAM led lit up on the motherboard. I've reseated both my rams and the PC booted successfully. However, two days ago (2 months after initial contruction), the PC froze again during gameplay, once again failing to boot up with DRAM led light lit. Reseating the RAMs did not help this time. I tried to boot the PC with only one RAM. The boot failed with one of the RAMs, but was successful with the other. This lead me to an obvious conclusion - one of the RAM sticks is faulty - so I exchanged my RAMs for new ones.

Unfortunately, the new RAMs did not fix the issue. When I inserted both the RAMs into the PC, it booted successfully, but after I tried to play a game, the PC almost immediately froze and did not boot up again with the DRAM led lit up. Reseating RAMs did not help, only removing one of them and booting the PC with just 1 RAM, which was successful. Both the RAM sticks seem to be functional for now...

In all the cases, the RAMs were seated into the motherboard according to the recommendation written in manual.

Currently, I am at a loss and quite desperated as I have no idea what could be the issue. It is unlikely the RAMs are faulty again. At the moment, the PC works, but something is obviously wrong and it can stop working any time. Do you have any idea what could be the issue?

Also, during my initial build two months again, I faced issues with the CPU, where the PC failed to boot with CPU led lit up. Back then, I exchanged both the CPU and motherboard for different ones and the system booted afterwards. So all these parts were already exchanged once.

 

[XxDarkMario20xX]

So your computer only crashes during games if this the case would check the temps also what is your PSU?


Also Ryzen 7 5700X CPU officially supports effective memory speeds up to 3200 MHz . So suggest that you go into bios and downclock your ram to 3200mhz and test your games out!

Connectivity
PCI Express® Version
PCIe 4.0
System Memory Type
DDR4
Memory Channels
2
System Memory Specification
Up to 3200MHz
Max Memory Speed
2x1R
DDR4-3200
2x2R
DDR4-3200
4x1R
DDR4-2933
4x2R
DDR4-2667

 

[brezipat]

Yes, so far it has only happened while playing a game. I've been also watching videos, movies or programming on the PC but it has never happened during any of these activities. I'll definitelly try to downclock the RAMs, thank you for the suggestion.

I have Corsair RM850x PSU.

 

[brezipat]

Also, how can I check RAM temperature? As far as I know, RAMs don't usually come with temperature sensors that would allow to monitor it.

 

[XxDarkMario20xX]

Also, how can I check RAM temperature? As far as I know, RAMs don't usually come with temperature sensors that would allow to monitor it.

yeah true so just downclock your ram and test your gaming out to see if it works

 

[brezipat]

yeah true so just downclock your ram and test your gaming out to see if it works

Unfortunately, limiting memory speed to 3200 MHz did not help. At first, it seemed hopeful as the PC successfully booted with both RAMs seated and after a few hours of gaming the PC held on. Yesterday, I've performed memory test via memtest86 and ran stress test using prime95, during which both RAMs and CPU were 100% utilized for about 8 hours. No errors occurred and no faults or instabilities were detected during either test.
Today, when I turned on a game, the PC froze again after about 30 minutes, refusing to boot with the VRAM led lit on the motherboard and the only way I was able to make it run again was to remove one of the RAMs. I was not able to boot the PC with both RAMs seated. Also, immediately after PC froze, i checked the temperature of the RAMs by hand. The RAMs were about as hot as forehead of an ill person with raised temperature, 40 °C at most.

So I am back to where I was - I have no idea what could be the issue. Considering the results of memory test and stress test, I am inclined to believe that it's not an issue with either RAM or CPU, but its caused by a faulty motherboard.

 

[brezipat]

There is a similar thread where the poster has pretty much identical problem to mine. Link

 

[Aeacus]

Today, when I turned on a game, the PC froze again after about 30 minutes, refusing to boot with the VRAM led lit on the motherboard and the only way I was able to make it run again was to remove one of the RAMs.

Besides the info i asked from you on another topic, what is your CPU cooler? Since RAM issues can happen when you have over tightened CPU cooler mounting screws. At worst, you can brake/bend CPU pins. A bit more lucky means loosing RAM in the middle of PC usage, thus freezing the PC.

Also, system wide temps, both idle and under load, are what?
You can use HWinfo64 for that.

I've performed memory test via memtest86 and ran stress test using prime95

These are nice, however, what Unigine Superposition says?
Download link: https://benchmark.unigine.com/superposition

 

[brezipat]

Besides the info i asked from you on another topic, what is your CPU cooler?

My complete PC specs are:
Motherboard: ASUS ROG STRIX B550-F Gaming Wifi II
CPU: Ryzen 5700 X
RAM: Corsair 32GB KIT DDR4 3600MHz CL16 Vengeance RGB RT
PSU: Corsair RM850x
GPU: GIGABYTE GeForce RTX 3070 TI GAMING OC 8G
Cooler: Arctic Liquid Freezer II 360
Memories:
Samsung 980 PRO 1TB
Samsung 970 EVO PLUS 1TB
Seagate Barracuda laptop 2TB, 2.5"

I'll check the windows log and unigine benchmark when I come home from work.

 

[brezipat]

Also, system wide temps, both idle and under load, are what?

Temps with no load:
Motherboard: 33°C
CPU: 33°C
GPU: 44°C
DIMM: 37 °C

Temperatures while playing a game (Elden Ring) that froze twice so far:
Motherboard: 33°C (max 34)
CPU: 42°C (max 47)
GPU: 55°C (max 56)
DIMM: 43.5°C (43.8)

I was monitoring CPU temperature during prime95 stress test. The CPU temperature peaked at 60°C and was moving between 50-55°C for most of the time.

These are nice, however, what Unigine Superposition says?

I ran the performance benchmark test with default settings (preset = 1080p medium, Graphics API = DirectX) with the result in the image.

what Event Viewer says when freezes happen to you? Namely "Windows Logs -> System".

In the event logs there doesn't seem be anything noteworthy before the freeze occured. There are logs with information level saying that the Microsoft Defender Antivirus was successfully installed few minutes before the freeze. While PC is running, there seems to be a bunch of warnings associated with DistributedCOM source and occasially an error for the same source saying a server did not register with DCOM within required timeout.

I've also checked logs from the weekend in time of crashes, but its only information level logs with a few errors stating that "the PC was shut down unexectedly" and "The system has rebooted without cleanly shutting down first" (those refer to the freezes I've experienced) and also "Dump file creation failed due to error during dump creation." which is likely caused by the shutdowns.


I borrowed older RAM sticks from a friend that he used in his previous gaming PC (Kingston HX421C14FB2/8) so I'll install those and give them a try and see if the freeze occurs again. This may or may not take a while...

 

[Aeacus]

Your temps look fine, so, no thermal issues.

I ran the performance benchmark test with default settings (preset = 1080p medium, Graphics API = DirectX) with the result in the image.

1080p medium preset is too weak for RTX 3070 Ti. Better pick 1080p extreme or 4K optimized preset.

Idea is to tax your GPU hard, thus simulating gaming environment, and to see if you still get the freeze when you run your GPU hard (most likely even harder than within actual game).

I borrowed older RAM sticks from a friend that he used in his previous gaming PC (Kingston HX421C14FB2/8) so I'll install those and give them a try and see if the freeze occurs again. This may or may not take a while...

Overall, you seem to have issue with RAM. Now, it could be either RAM itself (using 2nd set would help), MoBo RAM slots have issue (2nd MoBo would tell that, but MoBo swap is very tedious), or you've put too much pressure on CPU when you installed your AIO (loosening the screws, tiny bit should help).

I'd try witb 2nd RAM first, then remount the CPU cooler and if still no luck, start looking towards 2nd MoBo.

 

[brezipat]

1080p medium preset is too weak for RTX 3070 Ti. Better pick 1080p extreme or 4K optimized preset.

Idea is to tax your GPU hard, thus simulating gaming environment, and to see if you still get the freeze when you run your GPU hard (most likely even harder than within actual game).

I ran the 1080p extreme and 4k optimized preset.

1080p extreme ended with:
score: 9414
FPS: min 54.23, avg 70.40, max 87.75
GPU Temperature: min 42.0°C, max 66.0°C

4k optimized:
score: 12220
FPS: min 75.12, avg 91.40, max 112.92
GPU Temperature: min 41.0°C, max 65.0°C

Overall, you seem to have issue with RAM. Now, it could be either RAM itself (using 2nd set would help), MoBo RAM slots have issue (2nd MoBo would tell that, but MoBo swap is very tedious), or you've put too much pressure on CPU when you installed your AIO (loosening the screws, tiny bit should help).

I'd try witb 2nd RAM first, then remount the CPU cooler and if still no luck, start looking towards 2nd MoBo.

Thank you very much for the directions. I'll post an update when I get some new results. If I remount the CPU cooler, should I clean the thermal paste from the CPU and the cooler and apply new one? I've been told before that the thermal paste should be reapplied whenever you take the cooler off the CPU. The last time i did this was about two months ago.

 

[Aeacus]

should I clean the thermal paste from the CPU and the cooler and apply new one?

Yes.

Using isopropyl alcohol + cotton pad (or even coffee filter) cleans up the thermal paste very well, at least 90% pure (i have 99% pure in my home). 70% pure would do too, if you don't have access to purer one.

1080p extreme ended with:
score: 9414
FPS: min 54.23, avg 70.40, max 87.75
GPU Temperature: min 42.0°C, max 66.0°C

It's not as much about the score (or FPS), but more about GPU utilization, thermals and system stability. Since your PC didn't freeze on high GPU utilization, i'm starting to suspect game issue.

While Prime95 and Superposition are great to test either CPU or GPU individually, it doesn't tell much about overall system stability.

Now, you can tax your system far more, by running Prime95 and Superposition at the same time. <- This would be the greatest load you can put on your PC, where none of the games even get close to that. And it will tax your PSU as well. So, if you want to do the ultimate stability test, run both at once.

 

[brezipat]

There is one thing I should emphasize. Earlier on thursday I said:

Today, when I turned on a game, the PC froze again after about 30 minutes, refusing to boot with the VRAM led lit on the motherboard and the only way I was able to make it run again was to remove one of the RAMs. I was not able to boot the PC with both RAMs seated.

Since then, my PC is running with the 1 RAM stick, because if I seat the second RAM, the PC won't boot, ever. The prime95 and memtest were performed with both the RAMs seated, but the GPU test was performed with just the one RAM.

Now, you can tax your system far more, by running Prime95 and Superposition at the same time. <- This would be the greatest load you can put on your PC, where none of the games even get close to that. And it will tax your PSU as well. So, if you want to do the ultimate stability test, run both at once.

I tried to run both tests at the same time (with just one RAM stick). No freeze occurred and the 4k optimized test went very smoothly with 99% utilization, 91 average FPS and 41.0°C minimum GPU temperature and 65.0°C maximum. On the other hand, the 1080P extreme was stuttering a bit with FPS moving between 15-20, min temperate 40.0°C and max 66°C, but interesting is that the GPU utilization rarely went above 40%. If I run it without prime95, the utilization during this test goes up to 99% with the results mentioned above.

i'm starting to suspect game issue

I think this is unlikely. It is not happening with just one game, but has so far happened with 4 different games. However, there is one thing in common among all the games. It seems to happen few seconds after transfer between game scenes (after loading screen).

I'd try witb 2nd RAM first

I've just tried it. Here are the steps I performed and how my system behaved:
I turned the PC on with 1 corsair RAM (my current working setup) - the PC booted
I seated the second corsair RAM - The PC did not boot, VRAM led was lit up on the motherboard
I removed both the corsair RAMs and instead seated the second pair of kingston RAMs I borrowed - The PC did not boot
I removed 1 of the kingston RAMS and left only 1 in the system - The PC booted
I removed the 1 kingston RAM and placed my corsair RAM into the PC (the other stick that was not in there previously) - The PC booted

Although the motherboard has 4 RAM slots, I am strictly following the manual and only using the recommended slots for the desired number of RAM sticks. I once accidentally left 1 RAM stick in the other slot where the second ram should be and the PC did not boot. So I am inclined to believe that this is indeed motherboard issue where the slot for the second RAM stick is not working properly. However, I did experience one freeze with only 1 RAM stick inside the system and the system refused to boot until I switched the RAM for the other one, but this happened with the older RAMs that I exchanged for new ones last weekend and I haven't experienced a freeze with only 1 RAM seated since then. So, who knows, the previous RAMs could have been faulty as well...

Either way, I wish to ask if there is still a chance that this could be a CPU issue? Something that would cause a RAM slot on the motherboard not to function properly. I haven't remounted the CPU cooler yet as I am out of thermal paste and need to get a new one.

 

[DavidM012]

Hello,

Have you checked the qvl list of compatible memory for the board?

ROG STRIX B550-F GAMING | Motherboards | ROG United Kingdom

rog.asus.com

A search of your memory throws up the part number CMN32GX4M2Z3600C16, is that correct? It doesn't appear on the QVL.

I know, I know there are people who say qvl doesn't matter which it might not to very experienced system builders who do it every day and can cross reference the charts and find compatible non-qvl dimms but the evidence is you have a bug and non-qvl dimms.

Scrolling down the list of compatible 32gb kits for ryzen 5000 series is

G.SKILL

F4-3600C17D-32GTZ

G.SKILL

F4-3600C17D-32GTZSW

I don't know what they are because I haven't looked them up and I can see it's getting frustrating for you the only thing I noticed at a glance was that corsair kits for this board ran at c18 so maybe you could try your corsair dimms with cas 18 timings rather than go through the rigmarole of switching them out not sure though as I don't have any hands on experience with ryzen yet just an idea the notion being that you could go on switching dimms and motherboards ad infinitum if you ignore the qvl for the boards.

 

[brezipat]

CMN32GX4M2Z3600C16, is that correct?

Yes, this is the correct one.

Have you checked the qvl list of compatible memory for the board?

Yes, I am aware of qvl (but I didn't about it when I was selecting the parts 2 months ago) and neither the RAMs I am using nor the RAMs I borrowed are on the qvl list. But the problem is that I don't really have a choice in this matter. The vendor I bought the parts from doesn't seems to offer any RAMs that actually are on the qvl. I've checked about 10 different RAMs offered by the vendor that fit my requirements (2x16GB) and none of them were on the list. I've also done it the other way around and took some RAMs (also about 10) from the qvl and search for them on the vendor page and I haven't found them there. Maybe if I checked all the offered RAMs i might eventually find a match. I've found some of RAMs on qvl at other vendors, but that doesn't do me much good as I won't be able to exchange it there.

I know, I know there are people who say qvl doesn't matter which it might not to very experienced system builders who do it every day and can cross reference the charts and find compatible non-qvl dimms but the evidence is you have a bug and non-qvl dimms.

I am not at all experiences with system building and all the knowledge I've gathered in the past 2 months comes from multiple discussions I've read (in fact, quite a lot of them was from this forum). I've read multiple discussions regarding the qvl and the general idea I took from it is that those are components that were tried at some point by the manufacturer, but others should work as well. Having components on the qvl would be ideal and should increase the probability of your success, but even that is not a guarantee of fautless run. I also believe I've searched specifically for the combination of my exact RAM and motherboard and seen some claims that it works great, but that was quite a while ago and I didn't save the links to the discussions.
But yes, it is also an evidence and a potential cause of problems.

 

[DavidM012]

Hmm.

View: https://www.reddit.com/r/ASUSROG/comments/mkrucv/rog_strix_b550f_gaming_wifi_compatibility_with/


Found a reddit post that says someone tried it the question is though are they discussing the same exact dimms because they aren't talking about the part numbers and the person who claimed it worked is using cas 18 dimms and the thread was inconclusive. while a search of the model name of your dimms threw up cas 16 dimms so that just leaves you with trying different timings. It seems to me like the idea was that you wanted to buy some high performance dimms.

 

[SkyNetRising]

Although the motherboard has 4 RAM slots, I am strictly following the manual and only using the recommended slots for the desired number of RAM sticks.

Which ram slots exactly are you using? Try different ram configurations.

For example. if you have tried only B2,A2 (as per manual),
then try A1, A2 or B1, B2 instead.

 

[brezipat]

Found a reddit post that says someone tried it

Yes, that is one of the discussions I've seen before, but back there I didn't realize the difference between 16CL and 18CL.

It seems to me like the idea was that you wanted to buy some high performance dimms.

Indeed. The general idea was to assemble high performance PC that would last for a few years. PC I had earlier was assembled about 8 years ago and worked quite well during that time except for two breakdowns that were solved by part replacement (GPU and RAM). I wanted to achieve something similar with this build, but that didn't turn out so well considering it didn't run for even a single month without a fault.

Which ram slots exactly are you using?

A2 for a single RAM - boots succesfully
A2 + B2 for two RAMS - won't boot

then try A1, A2 or B1, B2 instead.

I've just tried it and the result is:
A1 + A2 - boots successfully
B1 + B2 - won't boot

So B1+B2 and A2+B2 do not boot. B2 seems to be faulty. The only difference I've noticed is that with A2+B2 the orange led lights up right away and nothing else happens. With the B1+B2, the orange led lights up, then red, white, green, and finally the orange led lights up again and stays lit.

Edit:
Sorry, I accidentally switched As and Bs in some configurations mentioned above. I fixed it and is correct now.

 

[SkyNetRising]

So - use B1,B2.
It will run in single channel mode though.

 

[DavidM012]

So try the CAS 18 timings you should be able to look up a ram timing guide.

 

[brezipat]

So - use B1,B2.

Sorry, I messed up when writing my reply and accidentally switched As and Bs (in the reply, not when I was testing it). The working one is A1+A2, not functional are A2+B2 and B1+B2.

It will run in single channel mode though.

Could running in a single channel cause any problems?

So try the CAS 18 timings you should be able to look up a ram timing guide.

I'll look into it, thank you.

 

[SkyNetRising]

Could running in a single channel cause any problems?

Memory performance is slightly lower in single channel mode.
But is should still operate just fine.

 

[DavidM012]

Try these

https://www.tomshardware.com/features/ryzen-5000-ram-guide

https://www.corsair.com/corsairmedia/sys_master/productcontent/Ryzen3000_MemoryOverclockingGuide.pdf

CL18 vs. CL16: Which RAM Is Better? | The World's Best And Worst

Discover the difference between CL18 and CL16 RAM. Learn which latency is better for gaming, productivity, and overall system performance.

www.theworldsbestandworst.com

So cas 16 is faster than cas 18 and supposedly better for ryzen but you seem to be experiencing some sort of compatibility problem with your dimms so trying the looser timing might coax it to work at 3600 although at cas 18 there is probably also a slight performance drop so you aren't getting the full perfomance you wanted while the tom's hardware review suggests cas 14 or 15 dimms to reach higher overclocks if that be possible on 'the majority' of ryzens although it's not guaranteed so the long and short of it is it's a lot of messing around that'll take some time to determine and also a bit of a gamble if you want expensive perfomance cl14 dimms since there's a chance they wouldn't work either.

The corsair guide has got some cas 18 timings a bit down the page that you could manually enter so I'm thinking maybe you'd have to try installing one dimm first, setting the timing manually, test it for stability then shut down and installing the 2nd dimm and see if it works.

There's also quite a few disparate articles and youtubes that go into all this which will take some time to wade through. Just start at the base of seeing if you can get it to work and then maybe when you get the hang of it you can try pushing it a bit.

Also still haven't looked at whether they're single rank or dual rank dimms and voltages so don't try to overclock them until you are a bit more familiar with the voltages particularly.

 

[Aeacus]

Could running in a single channel cause any problems?

Problems? No.

Memory performance is slightly lower in single channel mode.

Not slightly lower, but instead significantly lower.

Here is comparison between two, almost identical RAM, where only diff is, that one is 1x 8GB (single channel) and another is 2x 4GB (dual channel),
link: https://ram.userbenchmark.com/Compa...vs-HyperX-Fury-DDR4-2133-C14-2x4GB/3555vs3554

I am not at all experiences with system building and all the knowledge I've gathered in the past 2 months comes from multiple discussions I've read (in fact, quite a lot of them was from this forum). I've read multiple discussions regarding the qvl and the general idea I took from it is that those are components that were tried at some point by the manufacturer, but others should work as well. Having components on the qvl would be ideal and should increase the probability of your success, but even that is not a guarantee of fautless run. I also believe I've searched specifically for the combination of my exact RAM and motherboard and seen some claims that it works great, but that was quite a while ago and I didn't save the links to the discussions.

If you want to go into the world of manual RAM OC, including timings adjustment, here's a good short video about RAM timings:

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yed-a9vqTYc


The OC part is at 02:34. And while the guide talks about tightening timings, same can be applied on loosening timings. Just make sure that when loosening timings, you set tRAS value double + 1 or 2 values more of tRCD and tRP values. E.g 14-15-15-31 or 15-16-16-35. My Kingston RAM is running 3000 Mhz with 15-17-17-39 timings and 1.35V.

Also, do note that higher frequency isn't always the best, especially when you have high CAS Latency to go along with it. To know which frequency and CAS Latency combos are most beneficial, lets put the frequency and latency into nanoseconds, with a formula of:
(cas latency/ram frequency) x 2000 = latency in nanoseconds

Few examples:
(22/3200) x 2000 = 13.75 nanoseconds
(20/3000) x 2000 = 13.33 nanoseconds
(16/2667) x 2000 = 11.998 nanoseconds
(14/2400) x 2000 = 11.667 nanoseconds
(18/3200) x 2000 = 11.25 nanoseconds
(15/3000) x 2000 = 10 nanoseconds <- what i'm currently running

With this, slower frequency (2400 Mhz) but also smaller CAS Latency (CL14) RAM, is overall quicker, than higher frequency (3200 Mhz) and bigger CAS Latency (CL22) RAM.