[SOLVED] Removing and cleaning out ram sticks has caused high demanding games to stutter then crash

[Jahocs]

I had not cleaned out my PC for at least a year and decided it was time to clean it out. After a general dusting, I decided to remove the ram sticks and blow them out with compressed air. I made sure to put them back in the same slots they were in. This was about 2 months ago. Since then when playing games such as Read dead redemption II and Apex legends I have begun to lag and drop frames as low as .3 fps. My game starts to stutter, my audio begins to fail and stutter (I will be in a discord call as well and I can no longer hear the call). Even after closing the game I was running the audio does not return to normal. It requires me to go as far as sign out and sign back in every time to fix the audio and the game problems. I have tried just about everything imaginable to resolve this. I have updated to the most recent NVIDIA drivers, I have disabled HPET, I have adjusted power settings, I have run the Memory Diagnostic Test (came up no issues), and etc. Nothing has seemed to help my issue in the slightest. I have in total four 8 GB ram sticks and have had zero problems with them until I cleaned them out. I am about to lose my mind trying to resolve this issue. I have come to this site and made an account to hope that someone may know a fix to my issue.

Thanks

 

[Lutfij]

Welcome to the forums, newcomer!

Can you explain how you cleaned the sticks of ram? On a side note, can you please try and see if resetting the CMOS changes for you? You can disconnect from the wall and display, remove the CMOS battery, then replace said battery after 30 minutes. Reconnect to the display and wall and then see if your BIOS and OS shows the right amount of ram.

Please parse the specs to your build, like so
CPU:
Motherboard:
Ram:
SSD/HDD:
GPU:
PSU:
Chassis:
OS:

If you're on Windows 10, please parse the version(not edition) of the OS.

Lastly, have you made sure the sticks of ram are properly seated in the slots on the motherboard?

 

[Jahocs]

I had used compressed air to dust out the dust of my pc and used it to clean out my ram sticks as well

CPU:AMD FX(tm)-8350 Eight-Core Processor 4.00 GHz
Motherboard: Gigabyte Technology Co., Ltd. 970A-DS3P x.x
Ram: 32GB Ram (Rip jaw) (26.1 GB Available)
Hard drives: Samsung SSD 860 EVO 500GB
WDC WD10EZEX-00MFCA0
GPU: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1060 3GB
PSU: 600W
Chassis: I really do not know. It is a prebuilt Skytech PC (Has plenty of breathing room)
OS: Windows 10 Pro Version 21H1

I have gone as far as reversing the order of my four ram sticks in the slim chance I had reversed the order when I put them back in. They are all properly seated and clicked into place. The problem occurred on both stick orders.

I will try to reset the CMOS. I am not particularly advanced when it comes to this type of repair but I have a general knowledge on PC parts and pc knowledge. I had done some research and I had thought about updating my BIOS as I have a 2016 version but I had gotten mixed reviews as far as if it aint broke dont fix it as this could potentially make things worse if I do it wrong. My PC is very fast and I keep roughly 20% of my hard drive space free. I can only assume it is a problem due to the removal of my ram sticks.

 

[Bob.B]

I had used compressed air to dust out the dust of my pc and used it to clean out my ram sticks as well

CPU:AMD FX(tm)-8350 Eight-Core Processor 4.00 GHz
Motherboard: Gigabyte Technology Co., Ltd. 970A-DS3P x.x
Ram: 32GB Ram (Rip jaw) (26.1 GB Available)
Hard drives: Samsung SSD 860 EVO 500GB
WDC WD10EZEX-00MFCA0
GPU: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1060 3GB
PSU: 600W
Chassis: I really do not know. It is a prebuilt Skytech PC (Has plenty of breathing room)
OS: Windows 10 Pro Version 21H1

I have gone as far as reversing the order of my four ram sticks in the slim chance I had reversed the order when I put them back in. They are all properly seated and clicked into place. The problem occurred on both stick orders.

I will try to reset the CMOS. I am not particularly advanced when it comes to this type of repair but I have a general knowledge on PC parts and pc knowledge. I had done some research and I had thought about updating my BIOS as I have a 2016 version but I had gotten mixed reviews as far as if it aint broke dont fix it as this could potentially make things worse if I do it wrong. My PC is very fast and I keep roughly 20% of my hard drive space free. I can only assume it is a problem due to the removal of my ram sticks.

What speed does windows show your ram is running at?

Reseat the sata data and power cables for the disk......both ends.

 

[geofelt]

I doubt your problem is with the ram.
Run memtest86 or memtest86+
They boot from a usb stick and do not use windows.
You can download them here:

MemTest86 - Official Site of the x86 Memory Testing Tool

MemTest86 is the original self booting memory testing software for x86 and ARM computers. Supporting both BIOS and UEFI, with options to boot from USB.

www.memtest86.com

Memtest86+ | The Open-Source Memory Testing Tool

Memtest86+ is an advanced, free, open-source, stand-alone memory tester for 32- and 64-bit computers (UEFI & BIOS supported)

www.memtest.org

If you can run a full pass with NO errors, your ram should be ok.

Running several more passes will sometimes uncover an issue, but it takes more time.
Probably not worth it unless you really suspect a ram issue.

I suspect that you are thermal throttling.
In the process of cleaning, your cooler may have come loose.

A common problem with FX motherboards other than the 99fx series.
Take the side covers off and direct a house fan at the innards.
If that helps, perhaps better case cooling can get you going.

I would not spend anything on a FX system that can not be carried forward to a hew build.
$250 will buy you a stronger cpu,mobo and ram replacement.