Question Two identical RAMs causing PC to crash after 5 months, but using mixed RAM works okay ?

[Ankero]

Hello, I'll try to keep it short and give you a timeline in what happened:

• 07.2020: I got a new laptop (used but it was in brand new condition, irrelevant info tbh) and the first thing I did was to go out and buy 2x16gb identical ram sticks (wasn't a 2 stick bundle). Installed them, everything worked good, no problem.
• 12.2020: Cyberpunk came out and I wanted to play.. and to my surpsire the game constantly crashed, even got one blue screen. I brushed it of as the games fault. But now comes the fun part: when I first got the computer I played a lot of Apex Legends, sometimes 8 hours a day but I stopped playing for a bit. Right after the Cyberpunk incident I got back to it again and the game simply just closed after 15mins. No error, nothing. Same in Star Wars Battlefront 2.

Fast forward a couple of painful days:

1. If I use the 2 identical 16gb ram sticks, games crash (not all of them, Apex, Battlefront 2, Cyberpunk does, but Minecraft and League doesn't for example)
2. memtest shows an error, doesn't matter if new ram1 is in slot 1 or 2 etc

My solution at the moment:

1. If I mix one new stick with the one that came with the laptop everything works, no errors nothing (I've been using my laptop since december like this) the only thing that's different is the mixed memory only runs at 2400mhz and the matching ones run at 2666
2. Every ram combination works without memtest error as long as I'm mixing. I tired old ram + new ram 1 / old ram +new ram 2 /old ram in slot 1 /old ram in slot 2 etc... you get the point. As soon as the new rams are together it's rip, but both of them work separately

One of my friends suggested it's a cpu problem. I even reached out to lenovo but they their solutions did nothing. Tbh at this point everything works flawlessly I'm just kinda sad that I know I have mixed rams. Plus I want to resolve this problem before the warranty runs out lol.

ps: only thing I did that could result in any kind of damage is I used canned air on the fans when I cleaned the laptop and I just let it rip because I didn't know it was bad. I don't think this is relevant but who knows.

 

[RealBeast]

Two "identical" memory sticks are not guaranteed to work as a set if not purchased as a set. Depending on the brand you may be able to RMA them, but without any information on the laptop or memory model numbers, it is difficult to provide further advice.

Canned air will not damage anything when sprayed into the radiator slits.

 

[Ankero]

Two "identical" memory sticks are not guaranteed to work as a set if not purchased as a set. Depending on the brand you may be able to RMA them, but without any information on the laptop or memory model numbers, it is difficult to provide further advice.

Canned air will not damage anything when sprayed into the radiator slits.

Both new rams are Kingston KHX2666C15S4/16G sticks and they worked flawlessly togethoer for 5 months so I don't know. The one that came with the laptop is a SK Hynix HMA82GS6CJR8N-VK. My laptop is Lenovo Y740 17" with i7 9750h and 1660 ti. And as for the cleaning I didn't just spray into the radiator part, I sprayed the fans and let them spin really fast that's why I'm kinda concerned, I read somewhere it can damage stuff.

 

[RealBeast]

It is difficult to damage fans that way -- I've done it to hundreds of fans over the years and never had an issue. If they were damaged they would most likely be making a lot of noise due to problems with the bearings.

Since you have other memory, I would RMA the pair of Kingston since they fail Memtest as a pair. Although you honestly will see no performance difference between 200 and 2666MHz.

 

[Bob.B]

Hello, I'll try to keep it short and give you a timeline in what happened:

• 07.2020: I got a new laptop (used but it was in brand new condition, irrelevant info tbh) and the first thing I did was to go out and buy 2x16gb identical ram sticks (wasn't a 2 stick bundle). Installed them, everything worked good, no problem.
• 12.2020: Cyberpunk came out and I wanted to play.. and to my surpsire the game constantly crashed, even got one blue screen. I brushed it of as the games fault. But now comes the fun part: when I first got the computer I played a lot of Apex Legends, sometimes 8 hours a day but I stopped playing for a bit. Right after the Cyberpunk incident I got back to it again and the game simply just closed after 15mins. No error, nothing. Same in Star Wars Battlefront 2.

Fast forward a couple of painful days:

1. If I use the 2 identical 16gb ram sticks, games crash (not all of them, Apex, Battlefront 2, Cyberpunk does, but Minecraft and League doesn't for example)
2. memtest shows an error, doesn't matter if new ram1 is in slot 1 or 2 etc

My solution at the moment:

1. If I mix one new stick with the one that came with the laptop everything works, no errors nothing (I've been using my laptop since december like this) the only thing that's different is the mixed memory only runs at 2400mhz and the matching ones run at 2666
2. Every ram combination works without memtest error as long as I'm mixing. I tired old ram + new ram 1 / old ram +new ram 2 /old ram in slot 1 /old ram in slot 2 etc... you get the point. As soon as the new rams are together it's rip, but both of them work separately

One of my friends suggested it's a cpu problem. I even reached out to lenovo but they their solutions did nothing. Tbh at this point everything works flawlessly I'm just kinda sad that I know I have mixed rams. Plus I want to resolve this problem before the warranty runs out lol.

ps: only thing I did that could result in any kind of damage is I used canned air on the fans when I cleaned the laptop and I just let it rip because I didn't know it was bad. I don't think this is relevant but who knows.

Check the lenovo site for bios/chipset/ME drivers.