[SOLVED] Peculiar issues with RAM - no idea how to proceed further

[_peo_]

Hi guys,

I am at my wit's end - don't know how to proceed to isolate the issue. Please find my component list at the very end of this post.

PREFACE

I have been having issues (presumably) with my RAM - although I am not sure anymore. Let me preface it all by saying that prior to the start of the issues I have not changed any components or installed any major software. The only thing that I think coincides with the issues popping up and might be vaguely relevant is that I moved the PC to another room but that seems a bit far-fetched at best...

ISSUE

Onto the issues... I have first noticed it when my Chrome would occasionally shut down. I would be working or playing a game while having a youtube video in the background on my second monitor and suddenly Chrome would become unresponsive and I would have to shut it down and launch it again. If I attempted to open new tabs once it became unresponsive it would sometimes (cannot replicate it with 100% success) say that it was out of memory. A couple of times I have noticed that tight before my Chrome crashes a notification would pop up that one of the Chrome extensions (random one each time) has become unresponsive and then Chrome itself would follow shortly.

Once or twice, when launching a game which I have played for the last 2 years issue-free, the game failed to launch saying that there is not enough memory available. Might be relevant to add that I basically always have chrome open with something on it...

It is probably also important to mention that since I have started working remotely from my PC the issue with Chrome becoming unresponsive has been occurring strangely regularly - around 6h after beginning work (the workload each day is almost identical and consistent when it comes to stressing the PC components).

MY TROUBLESHOOTING

The above issues made me think that the RAM was at fault. So I have fired up MemTest64 and did the stress test. The only software open at the time of tests was: MemTest64, Task Manager, and CPUID HWMonitor (wanted to see the temperatures).
After some time, the issue popped up... First, the Task Manager closed, Then MemTest. The PC itself did not freeze or shutdown. After the MemTest has closed and stopped the stress test everything seemed to return to normal.
At this point, I was using 2 sticks of RAM (8Gb each) installed in the 2nd and 4th slot as per the MB manual. Fearing that one of my sticks died I have ordered 2 additional sticks of the same exact model and speed.

Since then I have tried to stress test the following combinations:

• Just the 2 "old" sticks in slots 2 and 4;
• Just the 2 "new" sticks in slots 2 and 4;
• Each of the 4 sticks in slot 2 by itself;
• All sticks at the same time;

All combinations above have resulted in the same issue happening quite regularly - roughly 1h - 1.5h into the stress test.

Prior to the testing I have also opened up my PC and reseated everything just to be sure. Please also know that I have updated all drivers as well as updated chrome itself in case this was somehow a software issue.


FINISH AND PC COMPONENT LIST

Aaand this is where I am at right now... Having no idea how to proceed further I turn to you guys to hopefully point out what else can I do to isolate and fix the culprit... here are the components I'm using right now:


MB: MSI B450-A PRO
RAM: G.Skill Aegis, DDR4, 8 GB, 3000MHz, CL16 (2x8gb when the issues started, now 4x8gb)
CPU: Ryzen 5 2600
GPU: Radeon 5700 XT
PSU: be quiet! Straight Power 11 750W

Any help is much appreciated.

Cheers!

 

[Nemesia]

How full are you drives and what is the pagefile setting in Windows 10? Is it left to automatically let windows taking care of the page file?

 

[_peo_]

How full are you drives and what is the pagefile setting in Windows 10? Is it left to automatically let windows taking care of the page file?

There is ~20Gb on one SSD and ~30Gb on the second SSD (boot drive). There might have been less space available (less than 5Gb) when the issue started. I haved freed up the drive space prior to doing the stress test - although some of the stress test might have been run with less available storage than there is now .

As for the Pagefile settings - yes, they are set to be automatic.

 

[Nemesia]

There is ~20Gb on one SSD and ~30Gb on the second SSD (boot drive). There might have been less space available (less than 5Gb) when the issue started. I haved freed up the drive space prior to doing the stress test - although some of the stress test might have been run with less available storage than there is now .

As for the Pagefile settings - yes, they are set to be automatic.

Try to keep your SSD's at less than 75-80% full. Once a SSD is getting too full some of them will crawl to a speed slower than a normal HDD and it could give you memory issues. Try cleaning more stuff from the OS drive where the page file is and test to see if you still have that memory error again.

 

[_peo_]

Try to keep your SSD's at less than 75-80% full.

Does this apply to both SSDs? Or just the one with the OS?

I will free up more space and run the stress test overnight.

Thank you for your help, I will report with the results.

 

[Nemesia]

Does this apply to both SSDs? Or just the one with the OS?

I will free up more space and run the stress test overnight.

Thank you for your help, I will report with the results.

The slow down from being too full applies to both but the memory issue is only from the drive with the pagefile on.