Random Crashes - Memory problem?

[LlamaWithARifle]

So I recently built a new computer.

Asus Formula VI
Intel I7 4770k
EVGA 760gtx SC
Corsair Vengeance Pro 1600mhz - CMY16GX3M2A11600C9
Corsair AX 760w PSU

Got it all set up with no real issues, installed windows 7 64bit fine, that night turned off the computer but in the morning I went to turn it on and it wouldn't boot. Unplugging the power and letting it sit for a minute or two seemed to do the trick. But from here on the system randomly reboots, could be an hour or two, could be less, no bsod or error messages, just shuts down and boots straight back up into a cycle of constant restarts.

Pull the plug and let it sit will once again get it to boot.

Tried various things, checking all connections are secure, disconnecting other hard drives, took out my gfx card, updated bios etc. Nothing would stop the random restarts.

Tried using one stick of ram in the A1 slot, still the same issue, tried using the other stick of ram in the A1 slot and the fans would spin up but wouldn't show the POST screen, the Q Code error this gave me was 53 - manual says " 50-53 - Memory utilisation error. Invalid memory type or incompatible memory speed." - I've been unable to replicate this error the next day.

The motherboard would detect the ram as 1333mhz, so I tried manually changing this to 1600 and fixing the ram voltage at 1.5v which is what my ram says. Would boot with both sticks like normal but getting the same random crashing followed by restart loop.

I unfortunately don't have any other ram suited for this motherboard so can't test if it is the ram or not. The ram I am using originally came out of my last build where it was working fine, no crashing what so ever.

Googling suggests it could even be a motherboard or cpu issue (though no one seems to get the random reboots and restart loops that I get), does anyone know of any way of testing without me having to buy new sticks of ram?

Edit - I checked this morning and the ram code I mentioned "CMY16GX3M2A11600C9" is not listed in the motherboard manual under the QVL list. Can incompatible ram cause these kind of problems that I have been having? Surely the motherboard would just see the incompatible ram and give me the Q code 53 straight away?

 

[David Bisset]

To test the RAM have you tried running memtest86+?
You can run it with only a single stick of ram in, trying each slot in turn to try and identify if one of the sticks is dead or if one of the slots is dead or something else.

Have you monitored temperatures of CPU, GPU etc? Maybe something is getting too warm and causing issues. If everything is staying nice and cool & the RAM is OK then I'd suspect a PSU issue but hopefully other people with have more advice.

As always, try to minimise the things that you're testing at once - keep hard drives unplugged while testing the RAM I'd say.

 

[LlamaWithARifle]

Thanks for the response.

I tried the ram in a different computer last night and ran memtest for 4 hours without any errors.

Temperatures seem fine, at 100% cpu and gpu reach abour 55c and 65c respectively.

Are there any easy ways of testing the PSU? I don't have a spare PSU and don't fancy buying a new PSU just to test it.

 

[Jonnygrunge]

Go to System properties, then Advanced tab, Startup and Recovery, uncheck automatically restart and it should display any BSOD. Alternatively download Who Crashed? and analyse the system dump file. This should give you a better idea of the root of the problem.