Random BSOD and boot failures - suspect RAM

[£15]

So it was the CPU.

I installed the new CPU, a Ryzen 3 3200G (it was the cheapest/easiest purchase) and have just finished installing it. Installed both sticks of RAM. The PC booted. I went into the BIOS, loaded default settings and re-booted. Here I am!

Next step to RMA the processor and whether to do it via AMD or the retailer...I'm leaning towards the retailer and it might be easier and possibly not require a long turn around and testing that I expect AMD to do. Anyone got any experience of RMA via AMD?

I've gone ahead and organised a replacement through the retailer. Should be here tomorrow. They initially offered a refund and I was tempted as I thought I may be able to buy it again and reset the clock on the manufacturer's warranty, but the price has gone up since I bought it and the price I paid was only a few quid more than the 3700.

I now have a 3200G I don't need...

 

[wookiee87]

i may have missed something here, but your screen shot above shows both modules working but only running at 2400mhz (1199mhz x2), your ram should be at 3600mhz which would show up in cpu-z as (1799-1800mhz x2), either the 3200g cant run at that speed or your memory still could be the problem.

a quick thing to check is to enable xmp in the bios but manually set the ram speed to 3200mhz just to make sure both sticks run at a faster speed than 2400mhz as reported above, if the ram wont run at 3200mhz with the 3200g then the ram is the issue still and a replacement 3800x wont fix the problem.

 

[£15]

The RAM defaulted to those speeds the first time around and it was when I started to try to get them up to advertised speeds that the issues started. I'll give it a go...

A-XMP enabled, but with memory speed manually set to 3200MHz. No problems so far...touch wood.

 

[wookiee87]

ah you can hit 3200mhz which is good but your timings are horrible even at 3200mhz they should be around 16,18,18,18,36 so to be at 20,19,19,39 something isn't right, look closely at cpu-z and it will show that your ram can clock upto 1798mhz which is (ddr4 3600mhz) via xmp and use memory timmings of 19,19,19,39

i wouldn't try to enable full xmp as i don't think the 3200g will take that, it's a good sign that the ram will clock up and remain stable but those timings need to be lowered otherwise the benefits of high speed ram are negated, don't forget 3rd gen ryzen loves fast speed and low latencies when it come to ram.

try to drop the timings down if you can and alter the comand rate (cr) from 1 to 2 as that can help stabilise iffy ram. Run the built in ram benchmark of ryzen dram calculator 1.7.3

https://www.techpowerup.com/download/ryzen-dram-calculator/

its a great tool to test ram for stability and to get the most out of your ram, it will also show errors if things are being pushed too far so it should be easy to find where you can go before you damage something (ie up the voltages too far to get stability (ram or cpu))

as a rough guide look at the following thread from around page 10 ish onwards, we use dram calculator to tune in our kits of ram and have results for you to aim at (you wont hit the exact as were refer to cl14-16 kits which are very fast, but it will give you a good baseline)

https://forums.overclockers.co.uk/t...-to-8-pack-ripped-edition-32gb-kits.18885405/

 

[£15]

I did inadvertently run at full XMP as I forgot to override to 3200MHz. It wouldn't boot and the mobo fault LEDs reported VGA fault.

 

[wookiee87]

I did inadvertently run at full XMP as I forgot to override to 3200MHz. It wouldn't boot and the mobo fault LEDs reported VGA fault.

may i ask is the bios up to date or have you just plugged and played out of the box?

 

[£15]

BIOS updated. The timings were set automatically when I chose 3200MHz.

 

[wookiee87]

BIOS updated. The timings were set automatically when I chose 3200MHz.

ah ok and thats what the board set the timing's too, try going back in and set xmp again to 3200mhz but change the ram timings to 16,19,19,19,39 with a 2t command rate and see if the pc boots, if so you should be good to enable full xmp with the 3800x when it arrives but manually set ram timmings just in case the auto xmp isn't working right

 

[Nasher]

If it keeps crashing just knock the CL up a notch (leave others the same). That seemed to fix it for me.

Ram not stable on XMP is a pretty common problem :/

 

[£15]

New 3800X arrived this afternoon. Installed. BIOS reset. Booted! \o/

So it would appear it was the CPU all along.

Tweaking memory now. Running at A-XMP 3600.

 

[wookiee87]

New 3800X arrived this afternoon. Installed. BIOS reset. Booted! \o/

So it would appear it was the CPU all along.

Tweaking memory now. Running at A-XMP 3600.

thats really good news to hear that the ram is working at xmp and at 3600mhz, i would have a look and set a manual cl of 19 instead of 20, and also change the tRC from 82 to around 65 ish, it will decrease the latency between the ram and the cpu,not enought for the naked eye to see but benchmarks and a handful of games will see a slight increase 1-5fps ish, or they will feel snappier than before.

if the above changes don't work and the pc fails at the post stage, just revert back to what you have in the screen shots above and call it a day

 

[£15]

I'll give that a go, wookie.

I ran memtest and Windows Memory tool last night and there were no errors. So it's looking like I'm finally sorted.

Thanks so much to everyone that chipped in and walked me through the whole process.