Random CTD while gaming - Possible motherboard-RAM compatibility issue?

[GodPleaseOhGodHelpMe]

Hello everyone.

I'll try to be as concise a I can, so feel free to ask for more info and I'll do my best to provide ASAP.

I bought a PC in February of this year. Up until mid June everything was perfect. Good temps, good performance, no lag, no crashes, gaming was great. After this date now some games crash after some minutes. There is no error message, nothing. I used to play these games for hours but now they crash within the hour. I tried low/high settings, reinstalled every game, reinstalled windows and nothing. I was thinking about updating my BIOS as a last ditch effort (since I saw in a forum that this helped them fix the CTD for 1 game) when I thought of checking my motherboard specs within their page. From this I found the following:

1. My RAM is 2x16 GB Corsair Vengeance DDR5 5200 MHz - model CMK32GX5M2B5200C40
2. My motherboard is a MSI PRO X670-P WIFI

After checking this motherboard's compatibility page I saw that my RAM did not appear within this list. Therefore, my RAM is not considered compatible with my motherboard.

I also noticed that although my RAM is supposed to have a speed of 5200 MHz, when I check task manager, it says that my memory speed is 4800 MHz instead. I don't know if this is right or not, or maybe some configuration I don't know about, but I'm assuming that number should be 5200 MHz instead.

Is it a compatibility issue? Should I still update my BIOS? I looked at 10+ different videos and pages talking about updating the BIOS and I'm honestly terrified of even attempting to do it. For some people this solved their crashes, for others now their PC won't get past POST!

My PC specs are listed below (OS is Windows 10 Education - 21H2):

CPU	AMD RYZEN 7 7700X (8 CORES) 4.5 GHz - 32MB + 8MB - AM5
GPU	GIGABYTE GEFORCE RTX 3060TI VISION OC 8GB, 3 FAN
Motherboard	MSI PRO X670-P WIFI AM5 - AMD - BIOS version 1.20
RAM	CORSAIR VENGEANCE BLACK 32GB/5200MHz 2X16GB - DDR5 - LED-RGB - INTEL XMP READY
SSD	KINGSTON 2TB SNV2S/2000G NV2 2280 - NVME PCIE
POWER STABILIZER	DELTA POWER 220VAC 8 TOMAS 950W
POWER SUPPLY	ANTRYX 850W KIRIN (GPX850S) 80 PLUS GOLD - MODULAR
LIQUID COOLING	ANTRYX TRITON EVO 240 WHITE ARGB (AWC-TE240W)

[svmlegacy]

3 minutes ago, GodPleaseOhGodHelpMe said:

I also noticed that although my RAM is supposed to have a speed of 5200 MHz, when I check task manager, it says that my memory speed is 4800 MHz instead. I don't know if this is right or not, or maybe some configuration I don't know about, but I'm assuming that number should be 5200 MHz instead.

CMK32GX5M2B5200C40 - JEDEC profile is 4800 MHz on this kit. 5200 MHz is only achieved via XMP overclock. This is normal and expected behavior.

 

4 minutes ago, GodPleaseOhGodHelpMe said:

After checking this motherboard's compatibility page I saw that my RAM did not appear within this list. Therefore, my RAM is not considered compatible with my motherboard.

This is likely unrelated to your issue.

 

A hardware issue is more likely to cause general instability and hard locks rather than crashes to desktop.

[UnusualDevices]

I recommend updating the bios. Updated bios usually contains bug fixes, though sometimes adds new features and optimizations.

For every person posting that updating their bios killed their pc, there are tens of thousands of successful bios updates happening.

You should have an ample, tested working UPS, of course, but it is basically foolproof and extremely fast and safe.

Then once updated, go back into it and enable XMP/EXPO/whatever so you get the faster ram speed.

 

I'm not saying this is the answer to your problem, just that I recommend doing it.

 

 

[BetteBalterZen]

Can you check the Event Viewer and see if any nvlddmkm errors are mentioned around the time of the crashes? 

[GodPleaseOhGodHelpMe]

12 hours ago, svmlegacy said:

CMK32GX5M2B5200C40 - JEDEC profile is 4800 MHz on this kit. 5200 MHz is only achieved via XMP overclock. This is normal and expected behavior.

 

This is likely unrelated to your issue.

 

A hardware issue is more likely to cause general instability and hard locks rather than crashes to desktop.

Thank you so much for this info! So my RAM speed is not sign of a problem, that's good. I hope RAM-motherboard compatibility is not the issue too. However that now leaves me without a clue about what's going on with my computer

11 hours ago, UnusualDevices said:

I recommend updating the bios. Updated bios usually contains bug fixes, though sometimes adds new features and optimizations.

For every person posting that updating their bios killed their pc, there are tens of thousands of successful bios updates happening.

You should have an ample, tested working UPS, of course, but it is basically foolproof and extremely fast and safe.

Then once updated, go back into it and enable XMP/EXPO/whatever so you get the faster ram speed.

 

I'm not saying this is the answer to your problem, just that I recommend doing it.

 

 

That's so good to know. I do have a UPS. The way I can test it is to just unplug it and see if my computer is still on after that, correct?

8 hours ago, BetteBalterZen said:

Can you check the Event Viewer and see if any nvlddmkm errors are mentioned around the time of the crashes? 

I just replicated the crash. I opened the game in question and played up until the moment of the crash (about half an hour in). I noticed the following:

-My GPU use spiked, from almost 0 to a 100 for the duration of the crash (about 5 seconds).

-I revised the Event viewer and saw no nvlddmkm error generated from this crash. I did find an error generated soon after the crash took place.

 

Unfortunately it's in Spanish but if you need it I can translate as much as I can.

[BetteBalterZen]

48 minutes ago, GodPleaseOhGodHelpMe said:

-I revised the Event viewer and saw no nvlddmkm error generated from this crash. I did find an error generated soon after the crash took place.

 

Unfortunately it's in Spanish but if you need it I can translate as much as I can.

 

Yeah the Spanish don't help me but I was actually just very curious about you may having a nvlddmkm error because so many have nvlddmkm errors the past 2-3 months. 

[UnusualDevices]

most ups have a test button but failing that, yes you can just unplug it. I wouldn't trust the test button really tho, once had a ups that told me everything was fine when testing but it failed to keep my system up during a storm.

[GodPleaseOhGodHelpMe]

Thanks everyone for your input.

 

It was the BIOS. I updated my BIOS to the latest version and now my games and programs no longer crash. I don't know exactly the relation between the two but it seems that was it. Hopefully it doesn't happen again.