[SOLVED] Recently bought additional RAM but now my pc keeps restarting itself

Apr 3, 2020
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I recently bought some additional RAM for my pc but once the RAM was installed it would start then 20/30 seconds later restart and would do this until I turned the power supply off. The RAM I bought was the same as the initial RAM I had already in my pc. I've tried all combinations of the new and old RAM with only two sticks in to see if the RAM was faulty and the pc will work fine but as soon as all four are put in the problem returns.

My pc;
Core - i5-6600k
Motherboard - Gigabyte GA-Z170-Gaming K3
Graphics card - MSI GTX 970
RAM - 4X4GB Hyperx 2400 MHz

Any help would be appreciated.
 
Solution
Memory stability is only guaranteed when you buy ALL of it in one kit. ANY mixed memory usage can have equally mixed results. It might work fine, it might work but with some errors or it might not work at all. Part numbers don't really matter, what matters is that all sticks being used come off the same production run and are tested by the manufacturer for compatibility. That is the only way there is any guarantee of compatibility.

Getting another kit of the same model is not a guarantee. As seen here:

https://forums.tomshardware.com/threads/amd-ram-compatibility.3210050/#post-19785792

That being said, if you have NOT done so already, I would first try a full reset of the CMOS BIOS as follows:

BIOS Hard Reset...
Memory stability is only guaranteed when you buy ALL of it in one kit. ANY mixed memory usage can have equally mixed results. It might work fine, it might work but with some errors or it might not work at all. Part numbers don't really matter, what matters is that all sticks being used come off the same production run and are tested by the manufacturer for compatibility. That is the only way there is any guarantee of compatibility.

Getting another kit of the same model is not a guarantee. As seen here:

https://forums.tomshardware.com/threads/amd-ram-compatibility.3210050/#post-19785792

That being said, if you have NOT done so already, I would first try a full reset of the CMOS BIOS as follows:

BIOS Hard Reset procedure

Power off the unit, switch the PSU off and unplug the PSU cord from either the wall or the power supply.

Remove the motherboard CMOS battery for five minutes. In some cases it may be necessary to remove the graphics card to access the CMOS battery.

During that five minutes, press the power button on the case for 30 seconds. After the five minutes is up, reinstall the CMOS battery making sure to insert it with the correct side up just as it came out.

If you had to remove the graphics card you can now reinstall it, but remember to reconnect your power cables if there were any attached to it as well as your display cable.

Now, plug the power supply cable back in, switch the PSU back on and power up the system. It should display the POST screen and the options to enter CMOS/BIOS setup. Enter the bios setup program and reconfigure the boot settings for either the Windows boot manager or for legacy systems, the drive your OS is installed on if necessary.

Save settings and exit. If the system will POST and boot then you can move forward from there including going back into the bios and configuring any other custom settings you may need to configure such as Memory XMP, A-XMP or D.O.C.P profile settings, custom fan profile settings or other specific settings you may have previously had configured that were wiped out by resetting the CMOS.

In some cases it may be necessary when you go into the BIOS after a reset, to load the Optimal default or Default values and then save settings, to actually get the hardware tables to reset in the boot manager.

It is probably also worth mentioning that for anything that might require an attempt to DO a hard reset in the first place, IF the problem is related to a lack of video signal, it is a GOOD IDEA to try a different type of display as many systems will not work properly for some reason with displayport configurations. It is worth trying HDMI if you are having no display or lack of visual ability to enter the BIOS, or no signal messages.


And if that fails to do the trick, try removing all but one stick and then boot into the BIOS and increase the DRAM voltage by .005-.020v, depending on what the minimum increment is your board will allow you to make adjustments by. Then save settings, shut down, install the rest of the memory and power on to see if it will POST. If not, try increasing the DRAM voltage again as outlined above. Rinse and repeat. If it doesn't work by the time you've reached 1.4v DRAM voltage, then it is not going to work and you should assume the problem is due to an incompatibility between the two sets of memory. Also, BEFORE you do any of this, make sure you have the MOST recent motherboard BIOS version installed.
 
Solution