Need your ideas concerning weird memory problem

mwagen · January 15

Sorry this is long... I am running a MSi B560M Mortar, 11700k, and four sticks (32gb) of this memory: https://www.newegg.com/oloy-16gb-288-pin-ddr4-sdram/p/N82E16820821426?Item=N82E16820821426

The issue I've been having is that my pc will not shut down, it will always just automatically click back on like I've hit "restart" instead. This has persisted with windows 10 and 11. I tried removing my video card (Ventus 3080ti) and using the video output on the motherboard and the problem went away. It also went away when I tried a different gpu, so obviously I thought it was my gpu. However, when I tried my gpu in another system I was not able to replicate the problem.

I suspected it could be a memory problem when a few months ago my pc randomly crashed and I got a XMP error message, but nothing since. I also get weird artifacting in Chrome sometimes, but only Chrome. So I tried removing two RAM sticks and viola the shutting down problem went away. I then tried each RAM stick individually until I got one that wouldn't boot, the CPU led lit up red on the motherboard, so I figured I must have solved it by finding a bad RAM stick. However, I went through all of them individually again just to be sure; the next stick I tried booted but I did get a XMP error message, but otherwise every stick booted up and performed fine. However, when I moved the suspected bad one to a different slot and paired it with another supposedly good stick, then it didn't post again. Yet, when I tried it again then it was good... I also tried the suspected bad stick in another system and had no problems there either. I tried running a memory test with MemTest64 and got no issues but only ran it like 4 cycles.

I want to say it's that bad RAM stick but I can't be sure anymore. I'm currently typing this running that single module. It's just weird that removing/changing the gpu was another solution to the shutting down issue. So is it potentially a motherboard problem, like a power delivery issue? I don't know anymore and don't know what my next move should be.