One of the Ram stops working after restarts/shutdown

[Ren Hiyama]

Hi there, I built a new pc 2 months ago, from last month I have been facing issues like one of the ram not running. Got a Corsair 5200 mhz (oc) DDR5 ram 16GB x 2.

Thought it was a windows only problem, turned out it happens on linux too. One of the ram wont show up in total ram available in task manager across boots/sleeps.

Also sometimes my pc takes lot of time (like 1 minute) to boot up, theres yellow led lights showing on the motherboard, but my pc does boot after such a long time. My ssd shouldnt be at fault, I got samsung 990 pro so it must not be any problem.

I have tried reseating my ram, swapping them both, a lot of times. Sometimes it boots up with 32gb, sometimes 16gb (only one works). Please help me!

My processor incase its needed: i7 14700k, cooled by air cooler.

Motherboard: Gigabyte Z790M AORUS ELITE AX (rev. 1.1)

 

I would prefer not going back to the shop if possible, it takes a whole day to go there and come back. Think of it as a last resort. The shopkeeper did sell me genuine parts (as far as I can tell.) and is a reputed seller.

 

I also found out that a hard shutdown (long press the cabinet button) and then starting pc takes time to boot, but results in 32gb. Restarting windows after that boot and it shows 16gb.

My pc works perfectly fine across multiple restarts, tested with single ram (both ram test one by one) on both A2 and B2 slots. Do I need to get a bios update?? (I need to buy a new pendrive if that's the case, and worry whether it wont brick my pc or something...)

[RONOTHAN##]

7 minutes ago, Ren Hiyama said:

I got samsung 990 pro so it must not be any problem.

It's probably not the issue here, but that SSD is very much known to have issues in some instances:

https://www.pcgamer.com/the-damage-has-been-done-to-samsungs-sickly-990-pro-ssds-despite-the-new-firmware-fix/

https://eu.community.samsung.com/t5/computers-it/2tb-990-pro-dying-faster-than-it-should-despite-new-firmware/td-p/8523681https://www.theverge.com/2023/2/7/23589116/samsung-ssd-990-980-pro-m2-health-failing-defective

 

9 minutes ago, Ren Hiyama said:

Do I need to get a bios update??

Probably. This issue is more described as dropping memory channels, which the most common causes are too high memory speed (not the case at 5200, I'd expect this at something closer to 7600+ if it happens at all) and a bad BIOS revision. 

 

13 minutes ago, Ren Hiyama said:

(I need to buy a new pendrive if that's the case, and worry whether it wont brick my pc or something...)

The motherboard has BIOS Flashback, so if something does go wrong, you can reflash the BIOS despite not being able to turn on the system. There really isn't that much risk with this. If you're gonna have to buy a new flash drive to do this though, get one of the old USB 2.0 or USB 1.1 drives as they tend to work better with BIOS Flashback than the newer USB 3.0 versions. 

[Ren Hiyama]

1 minute ago, RONOTHAN## said:

The motherboard has BIOS Flashback, so if something does go wrong, you can reflash the BIOS despite not being able to turn on the system. There really isn't that much risk with this. If you're gonna have to buy a new flash drive to do this though, get one of the old USB 2.0 or USB 1.1 drives as they tend to work better with BIOS Flashback than the newer USB 3.0 versions. 

So I dont need to worry about bricking my motherboard right? Nice. I'll get a cheap usb that meets the slow spec and low storage.
But are you sure that a bios update should be able to fix this? Also I can still reproduce this problem on stock non OC speeds - 4800 mhz.

[Ren Hiyama]

6 minutes ago, RONOTHAN## said:

It's probably not the issue here, but that SSD is very much known to have issues in some instances:

https://www.pcgamer.com/the-damage-has-been-done-to-samsungs-sickly-990-pro-ssds-despite-the-new-firmware-fix/

https://eu.community.samsung.com/t5/computers-it/2tb-990-pro-dying-faster-than-it-should-despite-new-firmware/td-p/8523681https://www.theverge.com/2023/2/7/23589116/samsung-ssd-990-980-pro-m2-health-failing-defective

Ah, I knewingly brought that ssd  but it looks like I am not affected luckily.

[RONOTHAN##]

1 minute ago, Ren Hiyama said:

So I dont need to worry about bricking my motherboard right? Nice. I'll get a cheap usb that meets the slow spec and low storage.

A brick is still technically possible, but the odds are so low that they're practically zero. BIOS Flashback has personally saved me before from a failed flash (my fault, not the board's), though the best practice is still to avoid the situations where you're likely to run into a failed flash (don't do an update in a thunderstorm, for instance, or some other time where you're likely to lose power, and do a Clear CMOS before doing the update in case there's any settings in the BIOS that may cause instability and crash the update). 

 

4 minutes ago, Ren Hiyama said:

But are you sure that a bios update should be able to fix this?

No, but right now it's the most likely cause of the issue and also a relatively easy fix, especially since the alternatives are that you have a faulty CPU or motherboard. Also, are you using a contact frame? That could in some rare instances cause issues like this. 

[Ren Hiyama]

15 minutes ago, RONOTHAN## said:

No, but right now it's the most likely cause of the issue and also a relatively easy fix, especially since the alternatives are that you have a faulty CPU or motherboard. Also, are you using a contact frame? That could in some rare instances cause issues like this. 

I probably don't know about that part. Is it that black socket thingy costing like $40-50 that basically covers the nearby cpu area and helps in mounting heatsink?? I dont think I paid for that, and I dont remember the technician adding that.

[RONOTHAN##]

21 minutes ago, Ren Hiyama said:

Is it that black socket thingy costing like $40-50 that basically covers the nearby cpu area and helps in mounting heatsink??

Yeah, it's that thing. 

[Ren Hiyama]

12 hours ago, RONOTHAN## said:

Yeah, it's that thing. 

Yup, I dont have it.

[Ren Hiyama]

Guess what? Gigabyte Does have a BIOS update (its just the next update from my current one - june 2023, and the bios update fixes was in August 2023).
I searched online about SPD write protection bugs, and found this post: link

 

It looks like that user has a similar motherboard, mine's just the microATX version of his? This raises the chances of getting fixed by BIOS up by 90% now! Cheers!