Diagnosing apparent memory issues

Pixel91 · May 30, 2021

Hullo!

after not having need of assistance regarding PC issues in a while, I have reached a point where another set (or sets) of eyes, would help me out. Figured this might be the best place to look for that.

I'm having frustrating crashing issues with my rig.

First, some data:

Ryzen 5 2600X

ASUS Prime X470-Pro

32GB G.Skill TridentZ 3600

Gigabyte RTX2070 Windforce 8G

BeQuiet StraightPower 11 550W

Everything ran smooth until a couple of weeks ago, when my issues started. I'm getting random crashes now. Just straight restarts, no errors, nothing, like pressing the reset button. Sometimes under high load, but more often than not it happens under low load. Just office stuff and Youtube.

I've already eliminated the Mainboard as the issue, as I've just last week replaced it with another of the same model, for another reason not related to the crashes.

The system passed multiple overnight runs of MemTest without issue. But running Prime95 with Large FFTs throws random rounding errors after less than 5 minutes. Seems to be memory related. There's no overlock on the system, but I've played around with clocks and timings, I also gave things a bit more voltage (both CPU and RAM) The system was actually less stable when I put more voltage on the IMC. Same symptoms, but MUCH more frequent, to the point of not even booting Windows completely on multiple attempts.

I've now put in my old set of G.Skill RipJaws 2666 that I replaced with the TridentZ about half a year ago. That is running Prime95 without errors and no crashes yet, for about a day. If it happens again with this set of RAM, I'll update.

Now I'd assume broken RAM...but the MemTest passes and the instability with higher voltages, confuse me. Is it the RAM? Or might it be the controller in the CPU? I don't have another system to cross-test things, so any further troubleshooting would involve ordering a replacement...but do I replace the CPU (with a 3600 probably, as those are quite affordable now), or the RAM?

I don't really want to start ordering things (or RMA'ing things, in case of the RAM, as it's only half a year old) without some additional input, so any opinions would be appreciated.