Lenovo Legion Y540-15iRH - RAM causes crashes and freezing?

[Gargamel17]

Hi,

 

I bought my Lenovo Legion Y540-15iRH a year ago and about 7 months ago i upgraded the RAM from the original 8 gb to 32 gb. The RAMs used for the upgrade was Corsair Vengeance (2x16 gb) DDR4 2666 MHz.

 

It worked fine up until December when it started giving BSODs (and occasional freezes) at complete random times. I first thought it was related to the games i were playing but it would happen completely random, like when just browsing or whatever. Like a week or two ago i installed the latest BIOS and Windows update and it actually seemed to be running fine again. I could play my games and use my music production-software without issues at all. Then just the other night after a few hours recording music i switched to a video editing-software and the computer freezes up.

 

Normally when it crashes i can just start it up again it's fine (until the next crash...) but now the computer would not start. As i pressed the power button the fans went on and it started booting (with nothing on the screen) for two seconds before it died and just kept doing that until i forced shut down. I did some troubleshooting on my own and discovered that the RAM was the problem. I switched their places and then i could boot it up again but it was not long before the next BSOD/freeze occurred. 

 

Now i have put in the original 8 gb ram again and so far it is working just fine. Why is my computer suddenly rejecting these RAMs when they have worked for several months before? It really feels like one of the updates is the culprit here. Anyone have any ideas?

[Nathanpete]

Your RAM may be not be the cause, just an unfortunate solution. Unless like you dropped your laptop and somehow the RAM was damaged (could be microscopic), then I don't really know anything exact.

Have you used any new peripherals since the time right before the BSOD's started to occur? Stuff like a new webcam, mic, mouse or keyboard? And do these BSOD's occur when nothing external is plugged in  (no power, USB, display out, etc.)? Like when you are unplugged from everything and just using the touchpad and keyboard? 

[Gargamel17]

2 minutes ago, Nathanpete said:

Your RAM may be not be the cause, just an unfortunate solution. Unless like you dropped your laptop and somehow the RAM was damaged (could be microscopic), then I don't really know anything exact.

Have you used any new peripherals since the time right before the BSOD's started to occur? Stuff like a new webcam, mic, mouse or keyboard? And do these BSOD's occur when nothing external is plugged in  (no power, USB, display out, etc.)? Like when you are unplugged from everything and just using the touchpad and keyboard? 

Thanks for the reply! No, not any new peripherals at that point when the problems started. The only thing plugged in is usually my wireless mouse that has been plugged in from day one.

 

The BSODs occur whether i have the power cord plugged in or not, or the mouse. Should add that the usual BSOD error message i get is (IRQL_NOT_LESS_OR_EQUAL).

[unclewebb]

@Gargamel17 Are you undervolting your CPU or running it at default voltage? Did you try testing one memory module at a time? Computer memory can fail at any time. It happens. Just make sure that you are not doing anything to your computer like undervolting. Some people reduce the CPU voltage too much and then blame the memory when they lose stability. 

[Nathanpete]

5 minutes ago, Gargamel17 said:

Thanks for the reply! No, not any new peripherals at that point when the problems started. The only thing plugged in is usually my wireless mouse that has been plugged in from day one.

 

The BSODs occur whether i have the power cord plugged in or not, or the mouse. Should add that the usual BSOD error message i get is (IRQL_NOT_LESS_OR_EQUAL).

That is a very common, if not the most common BSOD's, and there are so many damn causes that I am afraid I can't help you anymore. I am going to suggest that your RAM isn't actually the problem unless it was damaged recently. You RAM is only a couple months old and most RAM lasts a very long time, but I'm not going to downplay @unclewebbjust yet. If it was a problem you would have had BSOD's within days of you installing the new RAM. Something else is likely going on, and unfortunately swapping in your old RAM seems to have fixed the issue. 

 

My experience with diagnosing blue screens is very inadequate and I'm afraid I can't help you anymore. 

[ministrsinister]

I know it sounds rudimentary, but good practice with any new laptops is to completely re-install Windows 10 just to clean it of all the unnecessary stuff the manufacturer loads onto your PC. Lenovo in particular loves to jam their in-house software down your throat, so I wouldn't be surprised if there's some sort of conflict going on with that. I had a similar issue on an old Asus laptop, uninstalling all of the Asus bloatware fixed the problem. 

 

Sounds like when you switch to software that's process-intensive it'll crash - I strongly recommend trying to re-seat your new RAM memory kit and see if that makes a difference. 

 

Some other troubleshooting steps you may have missed:

 

• Have you updated to your latest drivers?
• Did you run Memtest?
• Have you tried booting into Safe Mode and seeing if it still crashes?

Give these a shot. If all else fails, give Windows a re-install. Last resort is to RMA that kit of memory for a new one.

[Gargamel17]

10 minutes ago, unclewebb said:

@Gargamel17 Are you undervolting your CPU or running it at default voltage? Did you try testing one memory module at a time? Computer memory can fail at any time. It happens. Just make sure that you are not doing anything to your computer like undervolting. Some people reduce the CPU voltage too much and then blame the memory when they lose stability. 

I am not undervolting it, i haven't done anything in terms of clocking or anything - everything is default.

 

Haven't tried using only one, can give that a go! Thanks!

[Gargamel17]

13 minutes ago, Nathanpete said:

That is a very common, if not the most common BSOD's, and there are so many damn causes that I am afraid I can't help you anymore. I am going to suggest that your RAM isn't actually the problem unless it was damaged recently. You RAM is only a couple months old and most RAM lasts a very long time, but I'm not going to downplay @unclewebbjust yet. If it was a problem you would have had BSOD's within days of you installing the new RAM. Something else is likely going on, and unfortunately swapping in your old RAM seems to have fixed the issue. 

 

My experience with diagnosing blue screens is very inadequate and I'm afraid I can't help you anymore. 

Yes, it's a very weird issue. I thank you for your time!

[Gargamel17]

4 minutes ago, ministrsinister said:

I know it sounds rudimentary, but good practice with any new laptops is to completely re-install Windows 10 just to clean it of all the unnecessary stuff the manufacturer loads onto your PC. Lenovo in particular loves to jam their in-house software down your throat, so I wouldn't be surprised if there's some sort of conflict going on with that. I had a similar issue on an old Asus laptop, uninstalling all of the Asus bloatware fixed the problem. 

 

Sounds like when you switch to software that's process-intensive it'll crash - I strongly recommend trying to re-seat your new RAM memory kit and see if that makes a difference. 

 

Some other troubleshooting steps you may have missed:

 

• Have you updated to your latest drivers?
• Did you run Memtest?
• Have you tried booting into Safe Mode and seeing if it still crashes?

Give these a shot. If all else fails, give Windows a re-install. Last resort is to RMA that kit of memory for a new one.

The Lenovo bloatware thing sounds really plausible, trying to avoid reinstalling but it seems like it's the only way at this point... 

 

Want to point out though that it BSOD's whether i am playing heavier games or typing a Word-document...

 

I have all the latest drivers, i did Windows Memory diagnostics, have reseated but actually haven't booted into Safe Mode yet... Silly me, i'll try that first.

I will try these methods within a few days and get back to you! Thanks!

[unclewebb]

@Gargamel17 Have you ever done any Prime95 memory testing?

 

https://www.mersenne.org/download/

 

On a 12 thread CPU, I would run 6 threads of the Prime95 Large FFTs test. On a 4 core - 8 thread CPU, running 4 threads of Prime95 is good enough. No need to run a full load test like this on a laptop.

 

 

This test uses a big chunk of memory.

 

 

Test one memory stick at a time and make sure they are both stable individually before trying them both together. 

 

Are your BSOD more likely to occur while in game or while there is hardly any load on the CPU? You can also test your previous memory. The Windows memory test is pretty light duty compared to some Prime95 testing. 

[ministrsinister]

Just now, Gargamel17 said:

The Lenovo bloatware thing sounds really plausible, trying to avoid reinstalling but it seems like it's the only way at this point... 

 

Want to point out though that it BSOD's whether i am playing heavier games or typing a Word-document...

 

I have all the latest drivers, i did Windows Memory diagnostics, have reseated but actually haven't booted into Safe Mode yet... Silly me, i'll try that first.

I will try these methods within a few days and get back to you! Thanks!

No problem, hope I can help you troubleshoot! 

 

Honestly, the Windows memory diagnostic tool is not very useful - it doesn't really provide any meaningful information outside of a loading bar. @unclewebb suggests Prime95 which is another great utility to stress test your hardware. Run that for around 15-20 minutes, or try Memtest overnight and see if it has any errors. Then you'll know if you need to return your memory kit or not 

[Gargamel17]

1 hour ago, unclewebb said:

@Gargamel17 Have you ever done any Prime95 memory testing?

 

https://www.mersenne.org/download/

 

On a 12 thread CPU, I would run 6 threads of the Prime95 Large FFTs test. On a 4 core - 8 thread CPU, running 4 threads of Prime95 is good enough. No need to run a full load test like this on a laptop.

 

 

This test uses a big chunk of memory.

 

 

Test one memory stick at a time and make sure they are both stable individually before trying them both together. 

 

Are your BSOD more likely to occur while in game or while there is hardly any load on the CPU? You can also test your previous memory. The Windows memory test is pretty light duty compared to some Prime95 testing. 

Thank you for this! Will do this test within a few days, i'll let you know how it goes!

[Yellochicken]

I have the exact same issue with two Lenovo Legion T530-28APR (ryzensystem)  and two pairs of new Corsair Vengace 16G each. Problems arose instantly after installing the new ram. The computers won't run more than a minute or two before bluescreen. However It passes the memory diagnostics...
I have two identical machines (my kids machines) and 4 identical RAM sticks, and I get the same problem on both machines. Updating BIOS didn't help. Wierd thing is that one of the sticks seem to work better than the others and can last a 2 minutes and one of the sticks will crash before login screen.

What is new in the systemlogs are this kind fo warnings
BTHUSB 34:
"The local adapter does not support an important Low Energy controller state to support peripheral mode.  The minimum required supported state mask is 0x2491f7fffff, got 0xffffffff.  Low Energy peripheral role functionality will not be available."

and these:
DistributedCOM 10016

"The application-specific permission settings do not grant Local Activation permission for the COM Server application with CLSID ****** and APID ***** to the user DESKTOP******* SID (********)  from address LocalHost (Using LRPC) running in the application container Unavailable SID (Unavailable). This security permission can be modified using the Component Services administrative tool."

 

and these: 

Kernel-PnP 219:
"The driver \Driver\WudfRd failed to load for the device ROOT\SYSTEM\0001."

I don't se how new ramsticks will cause these warnings but they dissapear when I change back to the old ramsticks and reappear when I try the new ones again.

I guess I will return the ramsticks and try som others... My guess is that this is some wierd Lenovo voodo OEM-shit related to the motherboard having useless drivers.