Have I bought dodgy RAM?

eggyoke

eggyoke

eggyoke

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What am I missing here? I bought some Crucial Ballistix DDR4 3600Mhz RAM to upgrade my 16gb to 32gb. I could only buy second hand because they've stopped making them now. It's 16gb (2x8) with the exact code and speed as my current ram (also 2x8gb). The only difference is that mine are black and this is red (same model, Micron. BL2K8G36C16U4).

Specs:
i5 12400f
Gigabyte B660m DS3H AX
3070 Ti FE
16GB (2x8GB) 3600 Mhz DDR4 Crucial Ballistix

My old ram (6 months old) has been running perfectly in the A2 + B2 slots at 3600Mhz via XMP with no issue.

I put the new set into the A1 + B1 slots, turned power on, and noticed immediately the PC was hanging and restarted a few times. I eventually got into the BIOS and I saw the now 32 GB memory. I checked the memory information, it was the exact same memory as mine and so I selected XMP profile 3600Mhz and rebooted. The system hanged for over a minute but DID eventually boot into windows.

In task manager and CPU Z I noticed the memory was running at lower speed and timings. I was anticipating a potential problem with the RAM not working perfectly with my old set due to different manufacturing dates and fabrication differences etc. So following some advice online I tried running Gear 1 and Gear 2 but couldn't get the memory to run at XMP speeds, or get the system to boot normally because everytime I restarted it took 4+ minutes to start back up.

So I removed my ram and tried booting with just the new ram. It didn't boot. It just hangs, and doesn't let me get into the BIOS. So I reseated the sticks, made sure there was no dust or anything in the RAM slots, after about 6-8 minutes it eventually lets me into BIOS. So I turn off XMP and reboot. It cant get into windows, a blue screen appears saying there are errors everytime.

Is there anything obvious I'm missing? This happens a lot with me and PCs, there's always some little detail I miss. I mean, it's looking like faulty ram too me, but what's throwing me is that it DID boot as a 32gb despite lower speed.

Any advice would be much appreciated :)
 
tamzzy said:
run memtest at stock settings
www.memtest.org

Memtest86+ | The Open-Source Memory Testing Tool

Memtest86+ is an advanced, free, open-source, stand-alone memory tester for 32- and 64-bit computers (UEFI & BIOS supported)
www.memtest.org www.memtest.org
Click to expand...
Thanks for your help
:)


I ran memtest on the new kit and it passed with no errors.
I ran my old kit and that also passed.
I ran with all 4 sticks and it failed almost immediately.

What I've found is that slots A1 + B1 can't run together without an immediate error. A2 + B2 are perfectly fine.

I ran tests with only 1 stick in A1 + B1 separately, and they both passed with no errors.

So I don't know what this means. Is it a memory controller problem on the CPU? Or something wrong with the motherboard?
It's so confusing
:(
 
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do all 4 sticks run together (ie ddr4 2400) at stock?
if they do then probably voltage issue, or weak memory controller (requiring more voltage)
 
I have the same problem on my system - Running 2 x 8gb sticks of 4000MHZ Ram works fine, I can even drop the timings to CL16!!!! - As soon as I pop another 2 of the exact same sticks in, I have to drop the speed to 3666mhz max - I've compensated for this by having really low timings (even though the RAM runs at 4000mhz for both sets of two) It simply wont even boot at anything over 3666mhz, even with excessive voltages.

Its to do with stress on the Memory controller for my particular issue - I would try running them at 3200mhz with tighter timings :) (so you get the same throughput / latency)
 
Ive got 2 sets of ballistix 2x8 and 2x16 both 3600mhz c16, 2x8 kit ram fine with xmp, 2x16 i had to dump the memory voltage a tiny bit 1.37( was the smallest increment) to run xmp, got both in at the moment had to bump both the memory and soc voltage(memory controller), i would research the relevant voltages on your intel system and just give them a nudge to see if you can get it to work.
 
tamzzy said:
are you on the latest bios revision?
Click to expand...
God send! It seems this was the problem!

I ran more tests, even at stock speeds but it failed the 4 stick test everytime.

I updated to the latest BIOS (released last month) and I immediately noticed the boot process was snappier. I ran Memtest at stock speeds with all 4 sticks and it passed. I switched on XMP at 3600Mhz, 16, 18, 18, 38 and ran the test. It passed with no errors. The system boots quickly and with no issues.

Hopefully it's fine going forward. A rare win for me and PC stuff. Thanks for all the help guys, much appreciated :)
 
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