[SOLVED] Something killing RAM - or just hyper bad RNG

Jun 6, 2020
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Build:
Corsair RM850x
i9-9900KF
Gigabyte Z390 Aorus Master v1
Corsair Vengeance LPX (forgot MHz) -> Vengeance Pro 3200 4x8GB RAM -> 3000 2x16gb -> 3000 2x16GB
Gigabyte 2080 GPU
Entire build + peripherals behind a mini tower UPS

I upgraded my original LPX RAM after a few months and the new set had a slow death causing random application crashes etc into full BSODs and was advanced RMA'd, still running while I waited. I requested a 2 stick set as a replacement hoping it was just a bad channel but had issues again a month or so in. I was able to narrow it down to one corrupt stick from the B channel. Ran a single stick perfectly fine over the past month and a half in the A channel while waiting on corsair (they lost track of my RMA I think). I received and installed the new set and within 5 hours had a Memory Management BSOD that appears to have fried the B channel ram stick - wont boot with it dual or alone in either channel. I'm currently back to one stick in the A channel. Not sure if my original LPX RAM was accumulating errors as I never ran a memtest on them but don't remember any symptoms.

Any advice on my next move? I'll have to RMA the RAM again because one stick is actually dead, though I'm not sure how to explain it this time... It seems to be progressive. Should I RMA the board? Not really sure how to diagnose further.
 
Solution
I've seen rumors that Asus quality has gone down a lot as of late. Their boards in particular. I personally have no knowledge of this. But I know some of the other mods have had issues as of late.

There is a chance your CPU isn't making contact correctly. I've seen members come back and say after resetting the CPU the RAM works. Again, I personally hasn't experienced this. If you are comfortable with thermal paste and want to try it then go ahead.

4745454b

Titan
Moderator
Did you double check the settings? Two sticks, in channel A, and make sure the timings were picked up; correctly. Incorrect timings can make it seem like a stick is bad when in fact it's just not running as it should. You should take everything off auto and make sure they are set to what's on the sticks.
 
Jun 6, 2020
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Did you double check the settings? Two sticks, in channel A, and make sure the timings were picked up; correctly. Incorrect timings can make it seem like a stick is bad when in fact it's just not running as it should. You should take everything off auto and make sure they are set to what's on the sticks.
It won't boot after the BSOD with that stick. I didn't try with both in channel A but the one stick alone would not boot in A or B. I'll give it a go either way and report back today. Would I turn XMP off for manual settings?
 
Jun 6, 2020
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I went ahead and set the bios to the spec settings for freq timing and volts and popped the second stick in the A channel along with the other stick. Still got no boot unfortunately. I can hear the MB repeatedly cycling and stopping on the RAM visual led (normally cycles CPU-RAM-VGA-BOOT).
 

4745454b

Titan
Moderator
It's unlikely that you have two bad sticks. There is probably something wrong with the board, or the CPU. Which holds the memory controller. You'd have to test with different boards or CPUs which probably isn't something you have on hand. Sending it to a shop is probably a good idea so you can figure out what exactly is wrong.
 
Jun 6, 2020
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Unfortunate since I use the PC for work atm. Thank you for your help either way I appreciate your quick responses. There's nothing else I can do to try and get the "bad" stick to boot so I can memtest it right? It'd be nice not to have to try and get a 3rd RMA out of corsair.

If it turns out to be the MB, since you are immersed in the issues people ask, is there a different board you'd recommend? Or have you noticed an uptick in Gigabyte board issues at all? I usually jump to ASUS but everything I have read about the z390 boards said ASUS did some strange marketing and only has 4 phase VRM's, but I'm not experienced enough to know how much that actually matters.

The first person to invent a PC system that can self diagnose exact issues will go down in history. The guessing game is so tedious and expensive :X
 
Jun 6, 2020
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A couple more quick questions actually, if you will humor me. Is there a chance re-seating all the components will have any effect? And I still have not returned my 2nd set of ram from the current advanced rma, is there any merit to running a memtest on them with manual bios settings?
 

4745454b

Titan
Moderator
I've seen rumors that Asus quality has gone down a lot as of late. Their boards in particular. I personally have no knowledge of this. But I know some of the other mods have had issues as of late.

There is a chance your CPU isn't making contact correctly. I've seen members come back and say after resetting the CPU the RAM works. Again, I personally hasn't experienced this. If you are comfortable with thermal paste and want to try it then go ahead.
 
Solution