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AnotherCasualty
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Upgraded RAM from 16 GB to 32 GB and errors occured

Mon Jan 13, 2020 2:05 am

First, here are my PC specs (Built via the 2019 Summer Tech Report System Build)
1.) Ryzen 5 2600X
2.) Gigabyte X470 Aorus Ultra Gaming
3.) G.Skill Ripjaws V16 (2x8GB) DDR4-3200 *added 2x8GB more*

Installed the RAM before work, left the PC on for the rest of the day, until I came home later that night. Booted up Red Dead Redemption 2 and played for roughly 30 minutes. Decided to check my Motherboard manufacturer for any BIOS updates, or any updates pertaining to my motherboard. BIOS was up-to-date, updated a few things and the computer decided to blue screen.

Error!
1.) BSOD - ntfs.sys error (Rebooted)
2.) BSOD - Driver_IRQL_NOT_LESS or Equal (Rebooted)
Something felt off, because before I upgraded the RAM i have NEVER had ANY issues out of this PC, because it has been wonderful. I'm still debating if something went a bit wonky with Windows. So, I reformatted. Ran great for roughly 10 minutes, BSOD, again, Driver_IRQL. Reformatted, being sure it was a complete clean, nothing left behind. Success! No more BSOD, no more errors, etc.

I began surfing around and decided to run the Windows Diagnostic Tool, didn't find anything. Ran the Memtest however... and I flipped (I left it run for 8 Hours, 43 minutes, 32 seconds
Iterations: 3,
AdrsMode: 64 BIT
PASS: 2
ERRORS: 15!
Test 0-7 showed 0 errors.
Test 8/9/10 showed 14/1/0 errors
Lowest Error Address 0004fc68460 - 1276.4 MB
Highest Error Address 005fea006b8 - 24554.0 MB
Bits in Error Mask f00000000
Bits in Error - Total: 4 Min 1 Max 4 Avg: 2
Max Contiguous Errors: 1

I contacted Amazon where I bought the 2x additional RAM and spoke to someone over the phone. I explained the situation and they have sent me an e-mail stating to ask a question directly to the manufacturer to see what's going on. They also said "Well due to you building your own PC, it sounds like you have some incompatible RAM for your system." I replied to them that the RAM I bought is the same as the RAM that was originally placed into the PC to begin with, I just wanted to add more. When I'm able to get away from work, I'm going to remove all the RAM but one and start scanning each individual one, to see where the issues lie. If I'm not experiencing anymore BSOD or any type of abnormality, is this acceptable to leave as is? I'm by no means a PC GURU but I'm slowly learning so I can be more knowledgeable regarding these types of problems. I'm also going to send a separate e-mail to G.Skill and see what their opinion is as well. If all my RAM is showing errors, perhaps its within reason to get all of them replaced? Maybe? This forum has helped me so many times before and I love you guys and girls. I look forward to hearing from you!
 
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Re: Upgraded RAM from 16 GB to 32 GB and errors occured

Mon Jan 13, 2020 6:00 am

If you are getting BSODs in Windows and errors in Memtest, you either have a bad stick of RAM, or a bad memory slot, or your timings are too tight to run multiple DIMMs per memory channel. Try running Memtest with just the new sticks. This will tell you whether the problem is with the new sticks (or the slots they are in). If that passes, try reinstalling all 4 sticks but underclock the memory. If THAT works, then your combination of CPU/motherboard/RAM has a limitation on running at full speed with all 4 slots populated (and it is going to be really tough to pinpoint which component is the limiting factor unless you have spares of everything to swap in).

My guess is that the memory is actually OK, but the default memory timings are marginal with all 4 DIMM slots populated. This issue was pretty common back in the '00s, but seems to have gotten better in the past decade or so. It can still happen though...

(FWIW I've also seen motherboards which will underclock the RAM automatically if you fill all of the slots and leave the memory timings set to Auto.)
Nostalgia isn't what it used to be.
 
thecoldanddarkone
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Re: Upgraded RAM from 16 GB to 32 GB and errors occured

Mon Jan 13, 2020 11:15 pm

AnotherCasualty wrote:
First, here are my PC specs (Built via the 2019 Summer Tech Report System Build)
1.) Ryzen 5 2600X
2.) Gigabyte X470 Aorus Ultra Gaming
3.) G.Skill Ripjaws V16 (2x8GB) DDR4-3200 *added 2x8GB more*

Installed the RAM before work, left the PC on for the rest of the day, until I came home later that night. Booted up Red Dead Redemption 2 and played for roughly 30 minutes. Decided to check my Motherboard manufacturer for any BIOS updates, or any updates pertaining to my motherboard. BIOS was up-to-date, updated a few things and the computer decided to blue screen.

Error!
1.) BSOD - ntfs.sys error (Rebooted)
2.) BSOD - Driver_IRQL_NOT_LESS or Equal (Rebooted)
Something felt off, because before I upgraded the RAM i have NEVER had ANY issues out of this PC, because it has been wonderful. I'm still debating if something went a bit wonky with Windows. So, I reformatted. Ran great for roughly 10 minutes, BSOD, again, Driver_IRQL. Reformatted, being sure it was a complete clean, nothing left behind. Success! No more BSOD, no more errors, etc.

I began surfing around and decided to run the Windows Diagnostic Tool, didn't find anything. Ran the Memtest however... and I flipped (I left it run for 8 Hours, 43 minutes, 32 seconds
Iterations: 3,
AdrsMode: 64 BIT
PASS: 2
ERRORS: 15!
Test 0-7 showed 0 errors.
Test 8/9/10 showed 14/1/0 errors
Lowest Error Address 0004fc68460 - 1276.4 MB
Highest Error Address 005fea006b8 - 24554.0 MB
Bits in Error Mask f00000000
Bits in Error - Total: 4 Min 1 Max 4 Avg: 2
Max Contiguous Errors: 1

I contacted Amazon where I bought the 2x additional RAM and spoke to someone over the phone. I explained the situation and they have sent me an e-mail stating to ask a question directly to the manufacturer to see what's going on. They also said "Well due to you building your own PC, it sounds like you have some incompatible RAM for your system." I replied to them that the RAM I bought is the same as the RAM that was originally placed into the PC to begin with, I just wanted to add more. When I'm able to get away from work, I'm going to remove all the RAM but one and start scanning each individual one, to see where the issues lie. If I'm not experiencing anymore BSOD or any type of abnormality, is this acceptable to leave as is? I'm by no means a PC GURU but I'm slowly learning so I can be more knowledgeable regarding these types of problems. I'm also going to send a separate e-mail to G.Skill and see what their opinion is as well. If all my RAM is showing errors, perhaps its within reason to get all of them replaced? Maybe? This forum has helped me so many times before and I love you guys and girls. I look forward to hearing from you!


Ryzen 2xxx series isn't the best with 4 sticks of ram at high clock rates. Testing each stick is a good start. If they pass start at 2400 and slowly move up.
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HP Pro x2 612- i5-4302Y, 8 gigs of memory, 256 ssd
 
Flying Fox
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Re: Upgraded RAM from 16 GB to 32 GB and errors occured

Mon Jan 13, 2020 11:52 pm

That's why I never boot to my real OS with new RAM until I memtest'ed it for at least overnight (it is getting longer nowadays as there are more gigabytes to cover).
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just brew it!
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Re: Upgraded RAM from 16 GB to 32 GB and errors occured

Tue Jan 14, 2020 5:35 am

Flying Fox wrote:
That's why I never boot to my real OS with new RAM until I memtest'ed it for at least overnight (it is getting longer nowadays as there are more gigabytes to cover).

This. I consider an overnight run (with 0 errors) to be the bare minimum these days for systems with 16GB+ of RAM. If I'm not in a hurry on the build, I'll let it run for a couple of days.
Nostalgia isn't what it used to be.
 
roncat
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Joined: Wed Dec 14, 2016 8:29 am

Re: Upgraded RAM from 16 GB to 32 GB and errors occured

Tue Jan 14, 2020 8:46 am

Likely as mentioned, your timings are too tight for 4 sticks. Optimized/best timings for 2 sticks will almost never work for 4.

It's why someone trying to squeeze out max memory performance on a two channel system will use a 16gbx2 configuration vs 8x4 to get to 32gb. 8x4 is cheaper, 16x2 is faster, all else being equal.

You can always try putting just the two new sticks in and running like that will all the original timings, and see if that works. That would show you if the new sticks are good. If they are good, it is 99% likely you have a memory timing issue.

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