Question Suspect RAM issue

[Lordslayer]

This is a bit of a story so please bear with me.

I had 2 16gb ram sticks (different brands and speeds) but which was working fine together. Then i borrowed one to my cousin when his died. He has replaced his and now i'm back with the 2 sticks.

So, the ram is in alternate slots (both channel 1 or channel 2 gives same results) windows boots no issues, detects all 32gb. I can browse and even play games. The issue comes when i play warzone 2 for several rounds i have a crash. No BSOD, only the screen freezes, ctrl+alt+del and windows key does nothing. Pc does not want to switch off untill i physically pull power. After that it does not start up again.

Or rather it does, but it goes into a loop of switching on for 2 seconds then off, on, off....Only way to stop this is pulling one of the sticks, restarting, change bios settings, go into windows, shut down. Then reinsert second stick, bios...etc.

I'm at a loss as to what is going on. Or whether this is game/hardware related. The only difference between 3 days ago when everything was running fine and now was the ram.

A single ram stick gives no crashes, regardless of which stick is used. This only happens when using both.

Bios indicates that xmp is unavailable so i cannot change anything there.

Running
i7-7700k
rtx 1080 8gb
z270 Krait
Windows 10

*Edit - all drivers up to date, did a clean install on Nvidia. Bios on newest version from manufacturer.

Any help/advice would be appreciated

 

[Darkbreeze]

Install both sticks, making sure they are in the A2 and B2 slots which are the second and fourth slots to the right of the CPU socket. Those are the ONLY slots that should EVER be used when using two DIMMs in any consumer motherboard from the last maybe ten to fifteen years. HEDT platforms have a different set of rules as might many workstation boards, but for consumer boards with four DIMM slots, those are always the two primary slots you will want to use. If you cannot use those two slots for some reason then there is a problem with the board, the memory, the CPU or the CPU cooler installation.

So, install them in the A2 and B2 slots and then do a hard reset of the BIOS. Then reconfigure any custom BIOS settings you previously had configured and try it again to see if the problem still remains. Do not use variations on this process such as partially following the instructions, or opting to use the CMOS reset pin instead. Do it EXACTLY as outlined.

Also, if your BIOS is not currently fully up to date on your motherboard, you might want to update that first and THEN do this. What is your current motherboard BIOS version?

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 about three to five minutes. In some cases it may be necessary to remove the graphics card to access the CMOS battery.

During that five minutes while the CMOS battery is out of the motherboard, press the power button on the case, continuously, for 15-30 seconds, in order to deplete any residual charge that might be present in the CMOS circuit. 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 BIOS to fully reset and force recreation of the hardware tables.

 

[Lordslayer]

Thanks @Darkbreeze. Will try this tomorrow after work. I am runnning the newest bios version available from the manufacturer's website.

 

[Lordslayer]

Okay so i tried that but the PC no longer POST's if 2 sticks are inserted. I tried with a different set of ram as well and still no joy. I am leaning towards a board fault now but I am open to other suggestions

 

[Darkbreeze]

So, if you tried with two different sets of otherwise compatible memory then there's either a board or CPU problem.

You didn't have the CPU out of the board at any time while you were loaning that memory to your cousin did you? Or the CPU cooler off? Any hardware changes during that time other than simply taking out the one stick of memory and then putting it back in?

 

[Lordslayer]

Nope only changes was the ram. Oh and going from the 1070ti to the 1080. But yes, never removed the cpu. Also i did reapply thermal paste and reseat the cooler while i was in there just in case

 

[Darkbreeze]

You applied new thermal paste before or after the problem began?

 

[Lordslayer]

After. Once it didnt want to POST anymore with 2 sticks

 

[Darkbreeze]

Ok. Well, I'm going to be honest. Those Krait boards were never very good even since the AMD AM3+ days when they started the Krait lineup. The fact that your board made it this long, which is about six years most likely, is probably a year or two longer than a lot of those boards made it. The Krait boards were much like the ASRock HDV boards and the Gigabyte DS3H boards. They were cheap. Cheaply made, cheap components, cheap manufacturing quality. I mean, good enough for the price because again, they were not particularly expensive, but at 5-6 years old it would not be the most surprising thing to see that there is a problem with the board.

What IS surprising, is that there was not any problem with the board before you loaned out one of the DIMMs and then after getting it back there suddenly is. That is the only thing that gives me doubts about it being the board.

I think maybe you simply got lucky the first time around with using two different sticks, and now the board is a bit older it simply isn't finding settings that are working for both sticks when used together.

What is the EXACT model of the "different set of RAM" that you tried and is that set made up of matched sticks that came together in the same package, or is it also separate sticks/kits together, regardless of whether they are the same part number or not? You can usually determine this by looking at the lot or production date code on the sticker on the DIMMs themselves.

This is why I am concerned. Please read section two titled "Mixed memory (Or the odd man out)" at the first link and then the post at the second link.

How To - Troubleshooting problems with PC memory (RAM) and XMP profile configurations

In the beginning, there was......BIOS Before you go ANY further, go to the manufacturer product page for your specific motherboard model AND revision. Revision is an important aspect because for any given motherboard there may be more than one version of that model which will be identified...

forums.tomshardware.com

AMD Ram compatibility

Good Day all. Here are the parts i will be ordering soon: Asus rog strix B350-F AMD Ryzen3 1200 4Core 3.1Ghz CPU + Wraith Cooler Asus ROG Strix GeForce GTX 1050 Ti OC 04GB GDDR5 Antec True Power Classic 550W Corsair Vengeance LPX 16GB (1x16GB) DDR4 DRAM DIMM 3000MHz - Intel 600p 128GB 80mm...

forums.tomshardware.com

 

[Lordslayer]

Reading your last comment made me realise i had a set of corsair vengeance 16gb x2 but i only used one of them when testing. So i used both now and it actually POST's with both in. Only weird thing is that it only boots with the chips in A1 and B1. A2 and B2 is a no go for booting, not even the keyboard led's light up with the chips in those slots even though the pc starts up and fans are running. If i wasn't confused before i am now 😅

 

[Darkbreeze]

Well, either the motherboard is failing, there are bent pins on the CPU or the CPU cooler is installed improperly and is cocked/not even in the socket causing the CPU to act like there are bent pins on the motherboard. There's really nothing else that can cause a DIMM slot to have this kind of behavior other than motherboard, CPU, CPU cooler. That's pretty much it and my money would be on the motherboard unless you've had the CPU or cooler out recently.

 

[Lordslayer]

I am going to agree with you on that. Havent taken out the cpu since it was installed. Same for the cooler aside from the new thermal and reapplication now which was after the ram issues started. Thanks for the assist. Guess i gotta start saving up for that next upgrade now

 

[Darkbreeze]

Ok man. Well if I can answer or try to help with any other questions just let me know. Good luck.

BTW, you can get into a pretty decent platform upgrade for probably less than you think and add significant performance gains when doing so. Maybe 300 bucks and you can get into a very decent upgrade of motherboard, CPU and memory. Probably gain about 40-50% in single core performance and likely around 100-200% in multicore performance, even with somewhat budget parts.

 

[Lordslayer]

I'm in south africa, out currency is in the cr*pper at the moment. Even going for a cheap build (asus prime h610-k d4, i7-13700f and g.skill f4 16gb) will put me back 12.4k 🫠. So yes, been looking at it but definitely going to take a bit of saving up. Thanks again

 

[Darkbreeze]

I understand.