Need help troubleshooting/upgrading my setup.

[Silvereyesll]

Budget (including currency): 15K INR

Country: India

Games, programs or workloads that it will be used for: Mostly Genshin Impact and maybe some Witcher 3. I also stream a few days a month (1080p)

Other details:
This is my current setup:

• Ryzen 5 3600
• MSI B450 Tomahawk Max
• 16 GB Corsair Vengeance LPX DDR4 3200MHz CL16
• INNO3D iCHILL X3 RED GeForce RTX 3060 Ti
• Gigabyte GP-P850GM power supply
• Samsung 970 Evo Plus 500GB (M.2) + WD Blue 250GB SSD
• Zebronics Zeb-Enyo Chassis
• 2x DeepCool CF120C fans
• Acer Nitro QG221Q 21.5" monitor
• Lenovo Ideapad M100 mouse
• HP GK320 keyboard
• TP-Link Nano AC600 USB Wi-Fi Adapter

The setup works fine, but tends to slow down a bit when opening a bunch of browser tabs or if I try to play a video on Twitch and play Genshin at the same time.

 

The motherboard may be damaged (I don't know for sure) since I can't upgrade the RAM. If I add another stick of RAM:

1. In dual channel, it doesn't boot at all and the RAM red light turns on.
2. In the wrong slots, it boots up, but shows the warning message.

Only RAM slots 1 and 2 seem to work - when I insert RAM in slots 3 or 4, refuses to boot up/post.

 

Not sure which part of my setup's causing this - the processor, the motherboard or the wifi adapter.

 

Honestly, any recommendations would be really helpful.

[that_potato_guy]

Update the bios if that doesn't solve the issue then it's definitely a hardware problem maybe the cpu maybe the ram slots maybe the motherboard. The slowing down problem is either you need more ram or the cpu is is fully or mostly utilised, check task manager for catching the issue. If you need more ram it's easy buy 2 16gb sticks if it's cpu then you can't do much, try closing the apps you aren't using or don't open too much tabs lol 

 

Wait you can buy the 5600 for cpu but you gotta update the bios for that too

 

 

Edited August 26, 2023 by that_potato_guy
Forgot the cpu

[Parsivan]

The only you can do is try to isolate the pieces to figure which is faulty. Put ram in the slots that work and run "mem test"

Not sure how to test the CPU and the motherboard without changing parts

 

 

One thing I do with my browser(firefox) I use an extension called "simple tab groups" which I can specify for each group that when they are not used dump the data from the RAM to save space. So look something similar for your browser.

[Silvereyesll]

Thanks for the suggestions.

I updated the bios recently to 7C02v3H (from link)

 

Checked inserting each single RAM stick I have into each of the 4 available slots:

1. Slots 1 and 2 work - BIOS and Windows boot (single stick)
2. Slots 3 and 4 refuse to even load BIOS for some reason. (single stick)
3. RAM in Slots 1 and 2 (non-dual channel) loads BIOS and both sticks are recognized, but throws up the "This is not optimized" warning message
4. RAM in Slots 1+3 or 2+4 (dual channel) does not load BIOS.

XMP is turned on now, but I tested all this before it was turned on.

Not sure how to check if the slot itself is faulty on the motherboard, or if it's one of those "CPU screws are too tight" moments (I did losen them by about a half-turn. but nothing changed)

 

@Parsivan Not sure what you mean by "mem test". I use Waterfox browser - this is what it usually sits at when I'm not playing:

 

If I am to upgrade, I'm guessing I'll have to change the motherboard first or the CPU too?

[Parsivan]

37 minutes ago, Silvereyesll said:

@Parsivan Not sure what you mean by "mem test".

MemTest86 - Official Site of the x86 and ARM Memory Testing Tool

It is used to diagnose problems with ram...thought it might help.

16GB is now the new 8GB. 8GB is too low for a gaming setup. If you want to upgrade, go for 32GB then you will not be needing to upgrade for long time. future proof