Question System is unstable when RAM is in certain slots ?

freznar

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Apr 22, 2017
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So back in 2019 I built my current system. When building it, I had an issue where if I inserted my 2 ram sticks into the A2 and B2 slots, the computer would not boot. Tried other RAM sticks with the same result. Instead of RMAing like I should have, I instead put the ram into slots B1 and B2 and the system worked without any hitches.

Fast forward to recent times it seems like this problem has caught up to me. Many recent games have run poorer than they should for my specs. While playing Space Marine 2, I was just getting awful performance and 100% cpu usage no matter what I did. After some googling, I decided to update my BIOS, and for the heck of it I decided to put my ram into the A2 and B2 slots to try it out. The system booted this time. Space Marine 2 got a 20 fps boost and played at a solid 60 fps and CPU load was no longer at 100%. But then my computer froze after about 30 minutes of play and got stuck in a boot loop, LEDs and fans spinning up, but black screen, then shutting down, over and over until I cut the power.

So I decided to reset the CMOS after that. Did a full Molten Core raid on World of Warcraft Classic the next day with no issues. But after that I tried Space Marine 2 again and this time it crashed within 10 minutes. I tried flashing the BIOS, same thing happened. I decided to put the RAM back into the B1 and B2 slots again. The game's performance once again tanked, but it no longer crashed the PC. Over the years, I've resat the CPU multiple times for different reasons, so I feel like I would've noticed any bent pins, but if that's the likely culprit, I'll guess that's the next thing to check when I get a chance. Any other suggestions?

Specs
Motherboard: MSI Z390-A Pro
CPU: i7 9700K
GPU: EVGA Geforce 2070 Super
RAM: Corsair Vengeance LPX 16GB DDR4 3200MHz