Question Pc keeps crashing when under load and/or when running RAM at advertised speed

[Lucas Swordsen]

So my pc keeps shutting down when I play a game or when I try to run my RAM at the advertised speed.

I have bought a new motherboard. Swapped the PSU for a new one to see if that would fix it. Tried a single RAM stick. Tried swapping the RAM sticks. Bought new RAM sticks as well. Installed new chipset drivers and reinstalled (after DDU cleanup) GPU drivers. Updated to the newest BIOS. Checked if everything is plugged in properly. I honestly don't know what else to do. I've basically searched everything I could and tried everything I could except for trying a different GPU. Also I don't have any oc's and nothing is overheating.

If anyone recognizes this, please help me. I seriously don't know what else to do.

Specs:
Ryzen 5 2600
Asus tuf B450 pro
2x8GB Gskill Ripjaws series V (3200mhz)
Kingston A1000 500gb
CoolerMaster MWE 550W modular Gold+
Inno3D RTX 2060

Thanks in advance!

 

[rickypicky5]

What are your temperatures like?

 

[Lucas Swordsen]

What are your temperatures like?

CPU is sitting at around 65 degrees and my GPU is around 70 degrees.

 

[rickypicky5]

Are those temps while you are gaming and what are you using to determine them? Ideally, you'd download something like hwinfo and let it run while you game to capture the min/max temperatures for your CPU and GPU. This could get tricky since your PC is crashing when you do this, so try to exit the game before it crashes??

 

[Lucas Swordsen]

Are those temps while you are gaming and what are you using to determine them? Ideally, you'd download something like hwinfo and let it run while you game to capture the min/max temperatures for your CPU and GPU. This could get tricky since your PC is crashing when you do this, so try to exit the game before it crashes??

No those temps are while I'm stress testing my components. I still believe the problem has something to do with the RAM. I used a simple program to check for any errors in my RAM and when I was utilizing more than 90% of my RAM, it instantly crashes just like when I'm gaming. My pc also boots fine as long as I don't change anything in the BIOS that has to do with RAM. When I enable D.O.C.P. it won't boot anymore. But when I don't, it boots, but it crashes in-game. So what can it be?

 

[rickypicky5]

Have you run Memtest? If Memtest shows errors, it might be a good idea to RMA the RAM and get a replacement set.

MemTest86 Download page

Otherwise, you might try to disable DOCP and manually change the settings for your RAM. Initially manually set the values to the "advertised" settings and work from there. It likely won't work the first time you try this because you're essentially replicating the DOCP settings. I recommend gradually bumping up the Voltage setting in minimal increments till it becomes stable. Hopefully you won't have to modify any of the other settings (timings, etc...) to get it to work. Very often, a slight voltage increase will do the trick.

 

[Lucas Swordsen]

Have you run Memtest? If Memtest shows errors, it might be a good idea to RMA the RAM and get a replacement set.

MemTest86 Download page

Otherwise, you might try to disable DOCP and manually change the settings for your RAM. Initially manually set the values to the "advertised" settings and work from there. It likely won't work the first time you try this because you're essentially replicating the DOCP settings. I recommend gradually bumping up the Voltage setting in minimal increments till it becomes stable. Hopefully you won't have to modify any of the other settings (timings, etc...) to get it to work. Very often, a slight voltage increase will do the trick.

MemTest didn't show any errors. I also bought new RAM already which didn't fix the problem unfortunately. Exactly how 'slight' are you talking about? 0.005?
Also, when I ran the RAM on 3200mhz at 1.2V, the system would shut down and then try to restart, bu then shut down again and not turn on until I drain the power. However, when I ran 3200Mhz at 1.35V and 1.4V, the system would instantly shut down and not go on anymore. Do you think I might not have enough Volt left or something? Because I understand 3200mhz isn't stable at 1.2V, but the problem seems to be that it doesn't have enough volt or something. The BIOS says there is 12V of which 11.9 is used. I don't know if I'm talking rubbish right now because I don't know a lot about increasing voltages and stuff. I'm eager to hear what you think about this.

 

[rickypicky5]

What is the exact model number of your RAM? The G.SKILL set I'm looking at has timings of 16-18-18-38 and voltage 1.35V. If your able to select an increase of 0.005 (1.355), that is what I would try first and gradually increase by 0.005. I'm really not an expert on this at all, so I don't know what the upper limit should be be before you give up.

If I were you, and you're able to return/exchange the RAM, that is what I'd do.

 

[Lucas Swordsen]

What is the exact model number of your RAM? The G.SKILL set I'm looking at has timings of 16-18-18-38 and voltage 1.35V. If your able to select an increase of 0.005 (1.355), that is what I would try first and gradually increase by 0.005. I'm really not an expert on this at all, so I don't know what the upper limit should be be before you give up.

If I were you, and you're able to return/exchange the RAM, that is what I'd do.

You're probably looking at the right RAM since those are my specs. The serial number is 19353706672. I'll try doing slight increments.
I can't return the RAM anymore. And even if I could, it wouldn't change anything since new RAM sticks from a different lineup didn't work either.

 

[rickypicky5]

You're probably looking at the right RAM since those are my specs. The serial number is 19353706672. I'll try doing slight increments.
I can't return the RAM anymore. And even if I could, it wouldn't change anything since new RAM sticks from a different lineup didn't work either.

It's usually a good idea to buy RAM modules that are listed in your motherboard's QVL.

Memory-QVL_For_AMD_Ryzen_2000_Series_Processo

The ones in the QVL have been tested and verified to work.

 

[Lucas Swordsen]

It's usually a good idea to buy RAM modules that are listed in your motherboard's QVL.

Memory-QVL_For_AMD_Ryzen_2000_Series_Processo

The ones in the QVL have been tested and verified to work.

Let's say I do buy a kit listed on the QVL. This problem didn't occur because I changed something. It started crashing out of nowhere and I still don't know why. I'm not really convinced that it will fix anything. I'm still not even sure if it is the RAM, I just don't know what else it can be because it's the only thing connected to the crashing. Isn't there a way to further isolate what the reason for this behaviour can be?

 

[Lucas Swordsen]

Small update: slight volt increments didn't work. Also, pc now shuts down after like 10 seconds when doing pretty much anything. I was monitoring my Temps again in HW monitor and then it shuts down. Is my case perhaps shorting the motherboard, perhaps specifically the part that controls memory stuff? I think I'm gonna build my pc outside of my case to check and see. Really annoying how the situation just keeps getting worse when all my electronic parts seem to be just fine.

 

[rickypicky5]

Let's say I do buy a kit listed on the QVL. This problem didn't occur because I changed something. It started crashing out of nowhere and I still don't know why. I'm not really convinced that it will fix anything. I'm still not even sure if it is the RAM, I just don't know what else it can be because it's the only thing connected to the crashing. Isn't there a way to further isolate what the reason for this behaviour can be?

I was under the impression this was a new or recent build you were having issues with.

How long ago did you build the original system with the original motherboard? How long did it work with the original RAM before you started having the issues? When it was working with the original RAM, was it running at DOCP settings or was it running at a lower speed?

Is the replacement motherboard the same chipset (B450) as the original motherboard?

 

[hotaru.hino]

If you can't get it working at the advertised speed, try the next lower speed setting (I think it's DDR4-2933 in most cases). Even if that's stable, you're not going to see much of a performance drop, if any. I had to do this with my previous build and unless I was comparing Cinebench scores, there was practically zero difference lowering the speed to something more stable.

 

[Lucas Swordsen]

I was under the impression this was a new or recent build you were having issues with.

How long ago did you build the original system with the original motherboard? How long did it work with the original RAM before you started having the issues? When it was working with the original RAM, was it running at DOCP settings or was it running at a lower speed?

Is the replacement motherboard the same chipset (B450) as the original motherboard?

No this build has been upgraded over the years. Original system was build around 2 years ago. The RAM is a year old. So it has been working fine with this RAM for more than a year now. It was always running at XMP settings so 3200mhz at 1.35V. Then crashes started out of nowhere when under load about 2 weeks ago. The replacement motherboard is the same as the original chipset, so B450.

 

[Lucas Swordsen]

If you can't get it working at the advertised speed, try the next lower speed setting (I think it's DDR4-2933 in most cases). Even if that's stable, you're not going to see much of a performance drop, if any. I had to do this with my previous build and unless I was comparing Cinebench scores, there was practically zero difference lowering the speed to something more stable.

Well I can try to do that again. Only problem is that at the moment it's already crashing under extremely small loads at 2133mhz. So the problem has gotten even worse. I revert all changes I make that don't work, so I don't even know how it got worse. But I'm going to try 2933mhz and see what happens.

 

[rickypicky5]

No this build has been upgraded over the years. Original system was build around 2 years ago. The RAM is a year old. So it has been working fine with this RAM for more than a year now. It was always running at XMP settings so 3200mhz at 1.35V. Then crashes started out of nowhere when under load about 2 weeks ago. The replacement motherboard is the same as the original chipset, so B450.

And the replacement motherboard was installed about 2 weeks ago?

 

[Lucas Swordsen]

And the replacement motherboard was installed about 2 weeks ago?

No the replacement motherboard was installed 2 days ago. I thought it might be the motherboard, that's why I replaced it.
Crashing only started to happen after I bought a new monitor 2-3 weeks ago. But since that honestly cannot be the cause it didn't seem worthy to mention. Nevertheless I tested it with my old monitor to see if that was the cause but the shutdowns continued.

 

[Unolocogringo]

To be honest I would suspect the power supply capacitors going bad.
It is in the "MEH" category.
Descent ripple and gold efficiency but bad build quality and cheap caps.

 

[Lucas Swordsen]

To be honest I would suspect the power supply capacitors going bad.
It is in the "MEH" category.
Descent ripple and gold efficiency but bad build quality and cheap caps.

After some research on what it could be I thought it would be the power supply too. So I bought a new one, a Seasonic 550w bronze +. However, I got the same results, so it must not have been the power supply. You seem to have knowledge about electricity, do you think that the case might be the problem because it's shorting my motherboard?

 

[rickypicky5]

I assume when you say you "Installed new chipset drivers ", you downloaded them from the Asus website, and they were specific to the Asus tuf B450 pro.

At this point, I'm running out of suggestions. You could always try ( I know it's kinda painful ) taking the PC apart and reassembling it.

 

[Lucas Swordsen]

I assume when you say you "Installed new chipset drivers ", you downloaded them from the Asus website, and they were specific to the Asus tuf B450 pro.

At this point, I'm running out of suggestions. You could always try ( I know it's kinda painful ) taking the PC apart and reassembling it.

Yeah I installed them from the Asus website and they are specific to the Tuf B450 Pro.

I think I'm going to install it outside of my case. The last thing I can think of now is that my case is shorting something on the back of my motherboard. The case and the GPU are the only things that were also used with my older motherboard, which I used when the problem started. I'll let you know of course if it did anything.

 

[Lucas Swordsen]

If you can't get it working at the advertised speed, try the next lower speed setting (I think it's DDR4-2933 in most cases). Even if that's stable, you're not going to see much of a performance drop, if any. I had to do this with my previous build and unless I was comparing Cinebench scores, there was practically zero difference lowering the speed to something more stable.

It didn't work. Still getting the same results. Even at 2133mhz, which is what it is on when I set it to 'Auto'.

 

[rickypicky5]

Yeah I installed them from the Asus website and they are specific to the Tuf B450 Pro.

I think I'm going to install it outside of my case. The last thing I can think of now is that my case is shorting something on the back of my motherboard. The case and the GPU are the only things that were also used with my older motherboard, which I used when the problem started. I'll let you know of course if it did anything.

Good idea. Hope you get it working. Let us know.

 

[Lucas Swordsen]

Good idea. Hope you get it working. Let us know.

New development. As I was taking the pc apart, I noticed something strange:

https://flic.kr/p/2kySD8N

As seen in the photo, there is something missing in the 24-pin cable, an entire cable to be precise. This could explain why I'm not getting enough power which would explain why it can't run at higher voltages. However... And that's a big however. I had already ordered another PSU, and somehow that didn't fix the problem. And it still doesn't explain why it worked fine like this for almost 2-3 months. I will admit the PSU wasn't bought new. Still, maybe someone has an explanation for this.