Could my RAM problem be PSU related?

[Veisenberg]

I have an ongoing problem with my RAM that I posted about a few weeks ago - Anyone able to help me with a memory issue? - CPUs, Motherboards, and Memory - Linus Tech Tips

 

One of the things that has crossed my mind is, is enough power getting to my motherboard on start up? Could my RAM problem be a PSU issue?

 

How do PSU's work? Is the voltage needed by the board and other components instantly available as soon as you turn on a PC?

 

My specs if needed:

 

Board: Asus rog strix f gaming

CPU: R5 3600

RAM: Klevv Cras X RGB (4x8GB 3600MHz)

PSU: Corsair RM 850

GPU: Asus TUF 3080 10GB

 

Cheers.

 

[BetteBalterZen]

Did you try updating your BIOS as suggested by Sarra in your original thread? I would suggest the same. 

[Veisenberg]

3 minutes ago, BetteBalterZen said:

Did you try updating your BIOS as suggested by Sarra in your original thread? I would suggest the same. 

I have the latest bios for my board. Should I try rolling back to an earlier bios?

[BetteBalterZen]

1 minute ago, Andy-Aech said:

I have the latest bios for my board. Should I try rolling back to an earlier bios?

I would not suggest that unless you have specifically read or been told that it would fix it. But sure, you could always try. I honestly suspect either your CPU or motherboard have a hardware fault since you are on latest BIOS and have confirmed all sticks work. But lets see what others have to say.

[Veisenberg]

Just now, BetteBalterZen said:

I would not suggest that unless you have specifically read or been told that it would fix it. But sure, you could always try. I honestly suspect either your CPU or motherboard have a hardware fault since you are on latest BIOS and have confirmed all sticks work. But lets see what others have to say.

Alright mate. Thanks for replying 

[BetteBalterZen]

1 minute ago, Andy-Aech said:

Alright mate. Thanks for replying 

You are welcome 

[paddy-stone]

I had a look at your previous thread, and one thing stood out to me. When you were asked if you tested the RAM you replied that you had tested each stick in each slot.... but you never mentioned memtestx86. So did you run memtestx86 or not? if not then I would suggest you do that as it could be a fault in one stick that's causing all your problems. I had this before, about 15 years ago with some expensive RAM sticks, I RMA'd them and got replacements, but in the end I sold those brand new sticks and went with a different vendor... never had a problem again.

[Veisenberg]

35 minutes ago, paddy-stone said:

I had a look at your previous thread, and one thing stood out to me. When you were asked if you tested the RAM you replied that you had tested each stick in each slot.... but you never mentioned memtestx86. So did you run memtestx86 or not? if not then I would suggest you do that as it could be a fault in one stick that's causing all your problems. I had this before, about 15 years ago with some expensive RAM sticks, I RMA'd them and got replacements, but in the end I sold those brand new sticks and went with a different vendor... never had a problem again.

I did yes. 3 passes and no errors.

 

I was thinking about just returning the sticks for a different set but I didn't want to get another kit and find out the problem wasn't with the RAM.

[paddy-stone]

2 minutes ago, Andy-Aech said:

I did yes. 3 passes and no errors.

 

I was thinking about just returning the sticks for a different set but I didn't want to get another kit and find out the problem wasn't with the RAM.

Yeah, I wouldn't RMA them unless I knew there was a fault. 

 

Do you have any other hardware on your PC, like USB external drives or anything? if so unplug them for testing. I would strip the PC down to barebones for more testing personally. Also have you looked at the specs for your mobo, some mobos have a limit on frequency for 4x ram sticks IIRC, so stepping down the frequency might help too, at least for testing purposes anyway.

If the problems only started when you added 2 more sticks, then I would say the above might be the problem RE the frequency limit for 4 sticks, usually the vendor specifies a max frequency for OC, but that IIRC is for 2x sticks, so might have to dig into it a bit to find out.

 

eg, this is for my mobo

 

Quote

Intel^® Z590 Chipset

MEMORY

• 4x DDR4 memory slots, support up to 128GB¹
• Supports 1R 2133/ 2666/ 2933 MHz for 10th Gen Intel^® CPU (by JEDEC & POR)
• Supports 1R 2133/ 2666/ 2933/ 3200 MHz for 11th Gen Intel^® CPU (by JEDEC & POR)
• Max overclocking frequency:
  • 1DPC 1R Max speed up to 5333 MHz
  • 1DPC 2R Max speed up to 4700+ MHz
  • 2DPC 1R Max speed up to 4400+ MHz
  • 2DPC 2R Max speed up to 4000+ MHz
• Supports Dual-Channel mode
• Supports non-ECC, un-buffered memory
• Supports Intel^® Extreme Memory Profile (XMP)

1. Please refer to www.msi.com for more information on compatible memory

 

[Veisenberg]

8 minutes ago, paddy-stone said:

Yeah, I wouldn't RMA them unless I knew there was a fault. 

 

Do you have any other hardware on your PC, like USB external drives or anything? if so unplug them for testing. I would strip the PC down to barebones for more testing personally. Also have you looked at the specs for your mobo, some mobos have a limit on frequency for 4x ram sticks IIRC, so stepping down the frequency might help too, at least for testing purposes anyway.

If the problems only started when you added 2 more sticks, then I would say the above might be the problem RE the frequency limit for 4 sticks, usually the vendor specifies a max frequency for OC, but that IIRC is for 2x sticks, so might have to dig into it a bit to find out.

 

eg, this is for my mobo

 

 

Yeah I thought that too and did exactly that. But as I say in my other post if I run the RAM at anything other than 3600MHz I get BSOD errors. Even disabling DOCP and letting the RAM run at 2666MHz causes BSOD. Also I can put 3 sticks in and everything runs fine. As soon as I install the 4th stick I get the problems mentioned. Which is why I was toying with the idea that it might be power related.

[paddy-stone]

2 minutes ago, Andy-Aech said:

Yeah I thought that too and did exactly that. But as I say in my other post if I run the RAM at anything other than 3600MHz I get BSOD errors. Even disabling DOCP and letting the RAM run at 2666MHz causes BSOD. Also I can put 3 sticks in and everything runs fine. As soon as I install the 4th stick I get the problems mentioned. Which is why I was toying with the idea that it might be power related.

Sorry I didn't see that you'd previously mentioned it... this is why they have a rule about reposting the same faults, as it can get complicated for everyone concerned.

Did you try all slots with a known working ram module? it could be a faulty mem slot. It could also be that even though the modules are the same brand/speed etc they are not matched, so not guaranteed to work together. You might have to manually set the voltage and timings etc to try and get them to work... it can be very finicky.

 

Personally speaking I would maybe have just sold the kit you already had, and then got 2x16GB modules instead, which are tested to work together. Can you return the kits and get most of your money back? or would it be a massive hit?

[Veisenberg]

8 minutes ago, paddy-stone said:

Sorry I didn't see that you'd previously mentioned it... this is why they have a rule about reposting the same faults, as it can get complicated for everyone concerned.

Did you try all slots with a known working ram module? it could be a faulty mem slot. It could also be that even though the modules are the same brand/speed etc they are not matched, so not guaranteed to work together. You might have to manually set the voltage and timings etc to try and get them to work... it can be very finicky.

 

Personally speaking I would maybe have just sold the kit you already had, and then got 2x16GB modules instead, which are tested to work together. Can you return the kits and get most of your money back? or would it be a massive hit?

Bought both kits from Amazon. They'll help me with the last kit I bought but not the second. Not too much of a hit. I'll return them and hope the new kit doesn't give me any problems.

[SavageNeo]

Could be the IMC in the cpu not being good enough. Ryzen 3000 does not play very well with 4 stick, because it is harder for IMC to run them. Having a good IMC is all luck. Like cpu silicon, IMC also varies a lot between the same exact models, so oyu could have gotten a bad IMC (bad luck)

Also could be the motherbaord memery topology. or both

[Veisenberg]

1 hour ago, SavageNeo said:

Could be the IMC in the cpu not being good enough. Ryzen 3000 does not play very well with 4 stick, because it is harder for IMC to run them. Having a good IMC is all luck. Like cpu silicon, IMC also varies a lot between the same exact models, so oyu could have gotten a bad IMC (bad luck)

Also could be the motherbaord memery topology. or both

I'm not going to lie I don't know too much about the inner workings of my CPU's IMC, but I did actually think about it being something to do with that. I just didn't entertain it further because once I get the dram light from cold start, I just have to press the reset button on my case, and it passes post, boots into windows, and everything is golden.

 

 

[paddy-stone]

22 hours ago, Andy-Aech said:

I'm not going to lie I don't know too much about the inner workings of my CPU's IMC, but I did actually think about it being something to do with that. I just didn't entertain it further because once I get the dram light from cold start, I just have to press the reset button on my case, and it passes post, boots into windows, and everything is golden.

 

 

 

When it reboots it might be automatically downclocking the frequency or using JEDEC frequency default of 2133Mhz IIRC, but could be wrong, that might be when the PC reboots itself due to not passing POST.

23 hours ago, Andy-Aech said:

Bought both kits from Amazon. They'll help me with the last kit I bought but not the second. Not too much of a hit. I'll return them and hope the new kit doesn't give me any problems.

You could try running them a bit looser timings etc. Might be worth asking in the memory forum how you'd go about getting the 2 kits to match up. I'd offer to help, but that's beyond my knowledge as I only ever run 2 sticks that are matched. If you don't want to, I totally understand and hope you have no probs with the new kit

 

[freeagent]

I have that board, and I checked the QVL for you. There are no listings for Klevv at 3600MT/s, so the ram you are running is not supported, or if it is, you are running 4x8 and there is a set on there that is only rated for 2x8. I would pull 1 set and clear the cmos and try running just the one pair. If it runs power off the system, clear the cmos, and inset the second pair and see if your problem goes away.

[Veisenberg]

Just a quick thanks to everyone who attempted to help me out. I gave up and sent both kits back and bought a 32GB (2x16) Corsair vengeance RGB RS kit. Everything works perfectly again. I guess my CPU just didn't like 4 sticks.

 

Thanks again though guys.