RAM GAVE ME BLUE SCREEN!?

YoLige · April 1

A LIL BACKSTORY - I've been wanting to get into 3D design, video editing, and other media design programs as well lately. I already have good RAM (G.Skill Trident Z Neo 32 GB (2 x 16 GB)), and I thought why not get another set and fill all 4 slots and not have to worry about not having enough memory. I understand I don't necessarily need it but I'm in a position where I can spend the money on more RAM.

THE MAIN thing is when I installed the RAM, my PC booted up fine and all was well until some programs would randomly shut down all in unison, and that would happen every few minutes or so. Then my PC would just crash and I'd get the blue screen of death. Then I'd turn the PC back on and it would boot and run Windows fine then 5-10 minutes later it would just crash again and I'd be rewarded with another blue screen. The same thing kept happening till I turned my PC off, unplugged it, and took out the RAM I had just installed and now my PC has been fine ever since. The thing is though, I want that RAM in my PC. I haven't tried to install it again, so I wanted to come here for some advice/help.

PC parts list here -> https://pcpartpicker.com/list/HfLKQP

I thought it could be something to do with the PSU?
(not sure if this is necessary information but I've got the PC internals, mouse, keyboard, and 2 monitors plugged in. - just in case it has something to do with PSU that's what's plugged in.)

Tetras · April 1

Are you enabling XMP? I don't know how good the memory controller is on the 12700K with DDR4, but you could try knocking it down to 3200, or just use 3600 with board timings. You could also try bumping up the voltage on the sticks a bit.

YoLige · April 1

Ignore that lol

RONOTHAN## · April 1

First things first, is the RAM actually the same? Just because the model number is the same does not mean that they didn't change what the memory ICs are on board, and different ICs can cause compatibility issues. Memory manufacturers chance the memory IC depending on what they have on the floor that day, and since the IC is the primary factor that determines memory compatibility, the ICs changing would mean that the same model number isn't guaranteed compatible with itself, especially when bought over a year apart. You can check this by pulling the sticks out and looking at the code right above the barcode:

Spoiler

That number tells you which memory IC is on each stick, specifically the last 5 characters. The 5th from last tells you the density (S is 16Gb per die, 8 is for 8Gb per die), the 4th from the last IIRC is the bus width per die (8 is for x8 memory chips, which every kit from G.Skill should hopefully be), the 3rd from last is the DRAM manufacturer (1 is Samsung, 2 is SK Hynix, 3 is Micron). the 2nd to last is AFAIK meaningless, and the last is the actual die revision. In the screenshot above for instance, that would make it 16Gb Hynix A die, while something ending in 8810B is Samsung 8Gb B die (the proverbial "good stuff" for DDR4).

If your sticks don't all have the same IC revision, that could be causing the issue here. One thing that can help mitigate that is by putting each memory kit in its own channel, as each channel should train somewhat independently and can therefore help in mixed memory situations, though you might just be stuck returning the kit and just doing 2x16GB instead.

If they are by some miracle the same IC, do a BIOS update. Since you are running 12th gen, I'm guessing you're running the same BIOS that you had initially, and since the initial Gigabyte DDR4 BIOS revisions were quire terrible for memory compatibility, that might be one of the issues you're running into.