Hello! New here - having an issue that pops up incredibly randomly - I'm pretty sure that I've got a wonky stick of RAM, but I can't prove it. I am wondering if anyone has some additional investigative tips I should do before engaging direct with the vendor.
Picked up a nice bundle from Microcenter in March 2023, got it all installed, migrated data over - things worked generally great. However, I have an intermittent issue with everything stops, screen goes black, and the status LED on the motherboard goes orange (indicating DRAM).
I have two 16GB RAM sticks - one seems to be fine (I can run for a week with no issue). Adding the second in causes the issue generally at random. I've noticed it more when Google Chrome is doing something, but that's a poor data point because I use Chrome for virtually everything.
I've tried MemTest86 and let it run 6 full passes with no errors identified. I can run games for hours with no issue, then open up Microsoft Outlook and have everything die on me.
Anyone seen anything like this, and is it worth investigating or should I just talk to G.SKILL directly?
Main Equipment:
ASUS B650E-F ROG STRIX GAMING WIFI AMD AM5 ATX Motherboard
AMD Ryzen 9 7900X Raphael AM5 4.7GHz 12-Core Boxed Processor
G.Skill Flare X5 Series 32GB (2 x 16GB) DDR5-6000 PC5-48000
@TheKevinator
With the DRAM LED. I assume it sits on it for a while and then boots, or do you have to restart the PC? AM5 will have MRC off by default, it's going to train every time and it will take a little bit. If it's the former, sounds like it's just restarting.
RAM should BSOD rather than just black screen and restart. Answering that first question will tell us a lot more. I'd make sure you're on a new BIOS as a starting point with either AGESA 1.0.0.7b or c.
@PowerSpec_MikeW The system will boot, and I can use it for hours, and then it goes solid black. So far, it has never returned to the operating system, even after hours of waiting.
In short, the DRAM light turns on mid-use, the screen goes black, and I have to hold down the power button for 5 seconds to turn it off/on again (at which point, it will work fine for hours).
I am on the BIOS v1654 version (August 2023) which is 1.0.0.7c. I see there is a new BIOS with 1.0.0.8 - I will install that one.
Interestingly, it seems if I leave one of the sticks out of the second RAM slot, the system is very stable. I am going to see if I can swap the single sticks around and reproduce it. That may point to a defect in the RAM.
That's a good place to start. It sounds like something causes the system to restart and it hangs on trying to train the RAM. Sounds like it's centered around idle voltage, but if that's the case. It really shouldn't get better on a single stick.
Hey @PowerSpec_MikeW - I have been busy the last month or so and have not had time to deep dive on this until recently. I picked up a different set of RAM and have been experimenting. The following are my data pool:
This is on the latest BIOS and all updates on Windows 10. I've disabled any sort of automatic frequency determining and have it locked at ~3600MHz right now and that's helped stability. Any other thoughts?
I really love the performance of the system but the overall instability makes me quite unhappy with this combination.
I am also going to reach out to ASUS and see if they have any diagnostic tools.
Makes sense for the instability to increase in dual channel and with 2DPC configurations. 3600 is usually the default when the JEDEC profile is 4800 and you have 2DPC with dual rank sticks. It's a question of stability, which can be hard to achieve with 2DPC configurations with DDR5 at this time. You can load the XMP and walk the frequency down to 5600 or 5200. See if there's a point where it is stable. Testing with HCI or Memtestx86 are going to be a better way to determine that rather than just using it.
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