Suspected new RAM causing system to become unstable.

[Rishabh Tatiraju]

The trouble:
I recently upgraded my desktop that I assembled about a year ago. So far the only glitch I had was above normal temperatures of the APU which I intend to fix by buying a new heatsink.

However the trouble that I now face might be related to the RAM. I recently added a 8GB 1600 MHz 1.5V DDR3 Corsair Vengeance RAM into my rig. Before the upgrade, I had a single Transcend 4GB 1600MHz 1.5/1.6V DDR3 RAM installed. Bundled together, the new 12GB pair would run normally during light program execution.

Suddenly, the game I used to play till yesterday without any troubles caused a system restart, which was replicated in another game. During the boot-up after the restart, I went into BIOS and saw that the BIOS could detect only 8GB of memory. Investigating further, I could see that the motherboard was detecting the 4GB RAM but was disabling it for some reason.

During the next boot I ran the game again. This time the game, on its loading screen, caused a system hang. Keyboard and mouse were not responsive. The hang also caused visual artifacts on the screen.

Determined to fix this, I checked if the new RAM was causing trouble, and ran a Memtest86 test, which did not give away any errors. I then later raised up the voltage level of the memory, changing it from auto, and gradually increasing it and checking if the game ran or not every time. I could finally get a stable setting at 1.63 V. The timing settings were set to auto meanwhile. I have also tried removing both RAMs, removing the CMOS battery for 30 seconds and installing the memory sticks again.

After playing the game for 1 hour, the PC suddenly rebooted (no BSOD). When I opened my browser and added two tabs, there was that screen artifact issue once again. I removed the 8GB RAM stick and everything has been working normally again.

I haven't attempted any tests since then. I had a similar issue before which was resolved by upgrading the PSU. However back then the previous PSU was deemed faulty. My APU has been displaying above average temperatures since it was installed. It runs at 48-50 degrees celsius when idle, jumps to 60 when running light programs, and goes till 80 to 85 when gaming. To address this issue, I'm buying a new heatsink, either a Deepcool Gammaxx 400 or a Cooler Master Hyper 212X.

What I think:
1. The new RAM might be faulty or incompatible with the old RAM.
2. The APU might be overheating. (Probably since the new RAM caused the system to run more stuff?)
3. The PSU might be reaching its peak wattage and cutting off (unlikely since my usage shouldn't be anywhere near or above 450W).

My current configuration:
1. AMD A4-6300 APU 3.7GHz (Turbo Boost upto 3.9 GHz), bundled with Radeon HD 8350 graphics.
2. 12GB DDR3 RAM (4GB Transcend 1600MHz/8GB Corsair Vengeance 1600MHz)
3. Gigabyte GA-F2A55M-DS2 Rev 3 MoBo
4. 1 TB WD Caviar Green HDD.
5. Cooler Master Thunder 450W PSU.

Any suggestions?

 

[PTOWN GAMER]

your supposed to have excatly the same ram. the reason light applications are running smooth is because it does not reach the point that it need to use the second stick of ram. Once you open a game, both ram sticks are used. then the PC says "hang on, both ram sticks are different im not gonna work propperely". You cant have 4gb+8gb in the same system. And they have to be the exact same model aswell. I say you go and buy another stick of the corsair ram, then problem will be fixed.

You simply cannot run 2 different brands of ram, even if they are the same brand, they may both be different models.

a running 4gb+8gb sticks is a very very very bad idea.

You do not do that. always buy the exact same ram, amd they must be equal amounts like 4+4 or 8+8 or 16+16

or you can have 12gb of ram by having 4+4+4

so go and get another stick of the corsair ram, take the transcend ram out and put both corsair ram 8+8

or another way to fix it is, take the 4gb ram out. And put the 8gb in the 1st slot.

you dont need 16 gb of ram, 1 stick of 8gb is enough.

just take the 4gb out

 

[Rishabh Tatiraju]

your supposed to have excatly the same ram. the reason light applications are running smooth is because it does not reach the point that it need to use the second stick of ram. Once you open a game, both ram sticks are used. then the PC says "hang on, both ram sticks are different im not gonna work propperely". You cant have 4gb+8gb in the same system. And they have to be the exact same model aswell. I say you go and buy another stick of the corsair ram, then problem will be fixed.

You simply cannot run 2 different brands of ram, even if they are the same brand, they may both be different models.

a running 4gb+8gb sticks is a very very very bad idea.

You do not do that. always buy the exact same ram, amd they must be equal amounts like 4+4 or 8+8 or 16+16

or you can have 12gb of ram by having 4+4+4

so go and get another stick of the corsair ram, take the transcend ram out and put both corsair ram 8+8

or another way to fix it is, take the 4gb ram out. And put the 8gb in the 1st slot.

you dont need 16 gb of ram, 1 stick of 8gb is enough.

just take the 4gb out

Oh. I didn't know that!

I will probably order another 4GB RAM (the same model as the one currently installed), since tossing away the existing 4 GB seems difficult at the moment as I'm on a tight budget, and the difference of costs between the 4GB and 8GB sticks will be compensated in buying the heatsink. The 8GB stick can be returned back since it has only been a day since it was bought.

And what do you suggest about the heating issue?

 

[PTOWN GAMER]

Cooler Master Hyper 212X.

but 45 degrees is normal for idle.

cause smartphones run at 30 degrees idle, amd 60 degrees when gaming.

But since your worried, get the cooler master heatsink

make sure you get exactly this ram then:
Transcend 4GB 1600MHz 1.5/1.6V DDR3 RAM

no but im telling you, pull the 4gb out right now and check if you have any problems. if you dont you can just keep the 1 8gb stick in there, then you wont need to buy anither ram stick anything.

caus euf you get another 4gb transcend ram ,then you will have 8gb.

so its better u use just the corsair 8 gb ram. And corsair is one of the best brands when it comes to ram. i havent even heard of transcend.

 

[Tradesman1]

Rishabh Tatiraju

You prob hadn't heard about any of this as a lot of mis-information has been presented. CAN the 2 sticks work together - YES. It's not advised to mix DRAM as it can be problematic, but many do it all the time with no problems. And yes an 8 and a 4 GB stick can work side by side, Intel started developing what they call FLEX mode over 10 years ago which allows for mismatched sticks to play nice - in your case if Flex or it's AMD equivalent is active tou would run dual with 4GB from each stick, and the odd 4 from the 8 GB stick will run in single channel mode.

Also you don't gauge temps of a computer CPU by comparing it to a cellphone - that makes absolutely no sense what so ever, ludicrous!

In your instance I would try raising the DRAM voltage + 0.06 and the CPU/NB voltage (MC voltage ) + 0.10

 

[Rishabh Tatiraju]

Rishabh Tatiraju

You prob hadn't heard about any of this as a lot of mis-information has been presented. CAN the 2 sticks work together - YES. It's not advised to mix DRAM as it can be problematic, but many do it all the time with no problems. And yes an 8 and a 4 GB stick can work side by side, Intel started developing what they call FLEX mode over 10 years ago which allows for mismatched sticks to play nice - in your case if Flex or it's AMD equivalent is active tou would run dual with 4GB from each stick, and the odd 4 from the 8 GB stick will run in single channel mode.

Also you don't gauge temps of a computer CPU by comparing it to a cellphone - that makes absolutely no sense what so ever, ludicrous!

In your instance I would try raising the DRAM voltage + 0.06 and the CPU/NB voltage (MC voltage ) + 0.10

Thank you, I had seen an AMP option on my motherboard and had enabled it. Is that what you are referring to?

And DRAM voltage +0.06 meaning 1.5+0.06 or 1.63+0.06? Same with CPU/NB voltage? I guess I have separate voltages assigned for CPU and NB. Should I raise both of them?

And as we speak, my APU temperature just jumped to 83 degrees celsius. I only have my browser open with three tabs.

Edit:
The timing data of the two RAMs are:
- Transcend 4GB 1600MHz: 11-11-11-28
- Corsair 8GB 1600Mhz: 10-10-10-27

 

[Tradesman1]

Try the timings at 11-11-11-28 DRAM voltage 1.56 If no separate CPU/NB voltage, then just increase the NB voltage (not the CPU voltage)

 

[Rishabh Tatiraju]

Try the timings at 11-11-11-28 DRAM voltage 1.56 If no separate CPU/NB voltage, then just increase the NB voltage (not the CPU voltage)

Okay, I have separate voltage settings for CPU and NB...one says CPU Vcore and other for NB.

 

[Tradesman1]

Yes, only the NB, vCore is the CPU feed, NB feeds the memory controller

 

[Rishabh Tatiraju]

Yes, only the NB, vCore is the CPU feed, NB feeds the memory controller

With the following settings:
11-11-11-28 for both sticks, AMP On, DRAM Voltage 1.56, NB Core Voltage +0.106

I am able to boot, and load the game. As soon as the gameplay started, it gave me a Page Fault in Nonpaged Area BSOD.

Should I try again to see if it was just a one-time BSOD or not?

EDIT: BSOD was fixed by resetting page file settings. But the game just hanged with visual artifacts and keyboard, mouse unresponsive.

this is how the artifacts look:
Image: http://postimg.org/image/tdcz6wjwx