Question Unusual DRAM issue suddenly occurred on two year old system. Any advice please?

djwhitfield

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Mar 18, 2012
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18,510
Hello,

Usually pretty good at figuring this stuff out for myself, but I'm pretty stumped right now. I have a custom rig I built about 2 years ago, October 2021 to be more precise. I did switch to a custom water cooled loop about August 2023. Since then, no changes other than software but I'll mention that later. Two things that carried over from a previous rig was my Geforce 3080 RTX which I got September 2020 and then the outlier which is my PSU, its a Corsair 1000HXi, old model (Link) don't know how long ago it was since I got that, but its a long time. I just want to try provide as much relevant information as possible. I'll do a full rig breakdown later.

Onto the issue itself, for the past couple of weeks I've been running a heavily modded Fallout 4 with a lot of memory and CPU intensive mods, including mods that give the game access to additional memory. Again, just think it might be relevant. Yesterday I started getting random crashes, just a black screen and the computer would reset itself. At first I thought it might be a unstable overclock. I've been running my CPU undervolted and my ram at 3600MHz. So I adjusted my CPU undervolt. But it had been running fine for months so I don't understand why the issue occurred now. Anyway it kept happening more frequently and less time between each crash. Until eventually Fallout 4 would just crash on start up. A usual Fallout 4 crash would be to desktop, but all of these was outright crash of the computer. Eventually my PC would not boot at all. The DRAM light was on my motherboard and solid. I managed to reset the CMOS and get into Safe Mode on was getting spammed about a CTF Loader Memory Buffer or something, I googled that and figured it might be a virus so I wiped my Windows 11 with a fresh install.

Everything was all good and there was no issues. I did a single pass of a Memtest86 on all modules and there was no issues so I figured it was all good. I haven't applied any new overclocks. I thought I better load up Fallout 4 on my new system to see if it runs ok. I loaded a totally unmodded vanilla Fallout 4 and it just crashed instantly. Then it refused to boot entirely again. Unplugged main power and reset CMOS. Managed to get it working again. I've tried all sorts of different combinations of Ram in different slots with wildly different results. I admit I've not tried any other games other than Fallout 4 or Fallout 76 and it did exactly the same thing. But I don't understand why a game would cause a outright computer crash, a crash to desktop I would understand though.

I put coloured stickers on each other the ram modules to identify them. I tried putting just one single module in each of the slots for all the colours. So I total of at least 16 tests. All results was mostly inconsistent. Sometimes it was able to boot and even get into Fallout 4 and I'd be able to play. If I was able to get Fallout 4 to launch I did a test run around Boston and there was no issues once it was running. But again that's on a single DRAM stick, all of the sticks where successful at least once. The second I try put a second RAM stick in, it just frecks out again. I'm very lucky to even get it to boot to windows will all 4 modules now.

I read somewhere it could be my PSU which I hope it is because its old and I wanted to replace it anyway. Worst case for me is the motherboard and CPU, because that means I need to drain my entire loop and even then I don't have any spare parts to run a test. I also read it could be the CPU cooler being too tight, so I loosen that off slightly. As for my temps, my custom loop would rarely let the CPU above 70 degrees.

A few other things to note, for the longest time now, once in a blue moon when I plug the power cable into the PSU and hit the power switch there is a audible pop and it makes me jump every time. It happens only after I unplug the power cable from it and hit the switch again. Its rare I do that anyway and then there is a chance it will make that noise. It did it once after unplugging it like 30 times during my tests today to swap out the ram modules. Currently running another Memtest86 now with all modules in and I'm gonna do all 4 passes and see if it flags anything. So far one pass has been done with no errors.

I've been running this system for 2 years now with no issues what so ever until now. I've recently started using IOBits Advance Care PRO to autoclean my PC and make changes to my PC as well as autoclean the ram. I donno if that might have caused a issue.

Thanks in advance for all your help!

OS: Windows 11
Motherboard: ASUS Prime X570 Pro - BIOS 4802 (Need to update the BIOS to latest, just need to wait on another USB stick)
CPU: AMD Ryzen 5900x (Undervolted)
RAM: x2 (2x8GB) Corsair Vengence RGB Pro White 16GB DDR4 - 4 Modules for 32GB (CMW16GX4M2C3600C18W) Overclocked to 3600Hz
GPU: Gigabyte Geforce 3080RTX Eagle (Stock)
PSU: Corsair 1000HXi (Old model with blue label)
CPU Cooler: Corsair Hydro X XC7 (Very rarely went over 70 degrees under load)
Storage: Samsung 980 Pro 2TB M.2
 
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djwhitfield

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Mar 18, 2012
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18,510
Just did some more research and my PSU is like 10 years old at this point. (Link)

I've also seen this example (Link) of someone who resolved a similar issue with a PSU upgrade. Could the PSU really be the issue here?
 

djwhitfield

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Mar 18, 2012
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18,510
For those who find this thread later on. I think I've resolved the issue. I ordered a new PSU and out of curiosity I opened my old PSU (advice you don't do this). I noticed one of the parts of the PSU looked like it had been blown, there was audible rattling when I shook the PSU. I matched the lose part with the same damaged component of the PSU. After installing the PSU I've booted Fallout 4, max graphics, overclocked RAM and CPU with no issues at all.