Why would I suddenly have to increase memory voltage

azazl187 · 27 Apr 2021 at 08:35

Hi all.

I've been running 32gb (2x, 2x 8gb sticks) in my pc for a couple of years now and a couple of months ago I started getting random crashes, mostly when the pc is left idle.

This steadily got worse and worse until crashes and freezes would happen a couple of minutes after booting up.

I've replaced the PSU and done all the required testing such as reinstalling windows, installing windows on 2 different SSDs, updating bios, reset bios and cmos, ran memtests, removed overclocking, unplugged everything and ran as a bare system, try each ram stick individually in different slots, reseated CPU, repasted GPU and CPU and still I would get crashes.

In the end I just threw a curve ball in and enabled xmp1 in the bios and strangely the pc ran for much longer before crashing/freezing. I then decided to up the voltage on the ram in xmp1 to 1.3900v and the pc has been running for 10 hours without crashing.

Does anyone have any idea why this would be?
Is my memory on the way out?
Is my mobo faulty?
Is the memory controller in the CPU on the way out?

Specs are:

Cpu Intel i9 9900k
Ram 32gb gskill trident z f4 3200c16 8g tzr 2 packs of 2x 8gb.
Mobo Asus hero vi z390
PSU Asus 850w Thor
Cooler i115 Corsair platinum
GPU asus strix 1080ti oc

Thanks for reading.

azazl187 · 27 Apr 2021 at 09:22

One thing I haven't considered is doing the cooler up too tight. I've read that this can cause instabilities with ram. Maybe a very slight loosen might make all the difference

azazl187 · 27 Apr 2021 at 15:51

I should also make it clear that I have also left the bios at defaults without xmp selected at all so the ram runs at a slower speed and I would still get crashes. This seems really strange to me.

The pc has been running for over 20 hours now without crashes when ram set to 3200 and voltage at 1.3900v.

azazl187 · 27 Apr 2021 at 20:38

Ok so just had another crash frustratingly... Any ideas peeps?

azazl187 · 28 Apr 2021 at 06:27

MaXxBoulton said:
Memory control could be degrading

could be a sodding windows update. I remember when I have x99 after a windows update I couldn’t game at xml speeds for about 3 months

Thats the thing. I cant run it at standard speeds at standard voltage and I can seem to game for hours without an issue. The crashes happen when it's left idle or if I'm on the desktop

azazl187 · 28 Apr 2021 at 15:39

MaXxBoulton said:
defiantly ram? What error codes do you get is it a grad crash all the time if do you get blue screens.

have a look in the error logs and see what you can find. If it just at idle I can’t see it been ram most ram problems pop up with there loaded up with data

They are all windows hardware errors (whea). I've had 6 so far today

azazl187 · 28 Apr 2021 at 20:40

MaXxBoulton said:
We need a little more info than that. Post up some error reports and or error codes

it could be the cpu is degrading cpu the ram the motherboard it’s hard to point at one component without the parts to switch it out and test. The easiest way would be buy a 8gb ram stick and test.

Error logs will help but they dont tell you the problem. The error could point at ram but it could be the traces on the motherboard or the memory controller

I will add more info on the error when I can. At the moment I've stripped the system right down and downloaded memtest86. After I created the usb the system froze and I got the same hardware error bsod.

Memtest86 is currently running and I'm now hoping for an error as I'm only running the one stick of ram.

If it doesn't error then it has to be then CPU or mobo right?

azazl187 · 28 Apr 2021 at 20:49

Double post

azazl187 · 28 Apr 2021 at 21:00

MaXxBoulton said:
cpu errors can throw up errors in memtest.

Run a full test if you get errors run the same stick on the other channel and retest.
When testing remove all overclocks on cpu and ram, run spd not xmp

Yea I've removed anything like that. I've reset the bios and cmos before testing. I'm a bit lost with this one as I've been working on it almost 2 weeks now

azazl187 · 28 Apr 2021 at 21:02

Here is the crash as reported by who's crashed software

Who Crashed https://imgur.com/gallery/NekUCpt

azazl187 · 28 Apr 2021 at 21:34

MaXxBoulton said:
fingers crossed look like ram. Run the test with the stick in A1 or B1 then again in A2 or B2 if you get errors there is less chance it’s the board or control on the cpu.

but the only thing that will give you a 100% is replacement of hardware, buy a ram set or RMA the one you have

Edit: at any point did you have a silly cpu overclock like very high voltage’s or did you ever push the ram hard even just for a day?

I've overclocked the CPU before but not for long using the ai overclock setting on the board. The ram has ran at xmp1 1.3500v 3200 from day one.

3 passes and zero errors. I've put the ram in slot A2 as that's what the mobo manual advises to do with a single stick

azazl187 · 28 Apr 2021 at 22:02

MaXxBoulton said:
let it run all night if you can. Memtest need to run for a long time.

the auto OC crap dumps a massive amount of voltage in for only a small oc

I kept my eye on the voltage and it wasn't too bad. Yea I'll let it run all night and see what it says in the morning

azazl187 · 29 Apr 2021 at 07:01

The pc was left on all night. 8 passes on the config that crashes/freezes and zero errors.

Any ideas how I can test the memory controller on the CPU?

azazl187 · 29 Apr 2021 at 08:12

MaXxBoulton said:
Did you test just one stick? Test the other for a few hours.

there is a ram testing program that’s a lot faster than memtest but right now I can’t remember the name al have a look on my pc lattter

Is it not conclusive that it's not the ram as the system crashed with just that one stick and after testing it there were no errors?

azazl187 · 29 Apr 2021 at 20:02

Installed some different ram and got the crash. Installed Windows from a separate usb drive to a separate SSD and got the crash during the setup.

Looks like it's the CPU to me

azazl187 · 29 Apr 2021 at 22:49

Pulseammo said:
I had an X99 cpu that had a symptom where my PC wouldn't boot with the ram at stock settings (it used to be able to, but then it couldn't). Enabling XMP allowed it to boot. Tried different ram and the same happened, tried memtest and it came up clear. Eventually though the system just wouldn't boot at all, xmp on or off it didn't matter. RMA'd the CPU and everything worked fine again with the new one, pretty sure the memory controller had just packed in on it.

One other thing which I noticed very early on when those symptoms started was that I couldn't boot any other OS than Windows, even with XMP on. For instance any linux live USB would just hang the system. If you are going to RMA your CPU with intel DO NOT tell them that you've had XMP enabled. They count it as out of spec overclocking and there's been stories of them voiding warranties because of it.

Fair comment. Thanks for the extra info. your situation sounds very similar to mine

azazl187 · 1 May 2021 at 07:26

JasonM said:
Could be a PSU that's degrading.

Did you overclock your memory / increase voltage prior? If so you could have degraded memory.

It could also be a memory controller on the CPU?

The only true way to know is using a totally different memory and see if computer still crashes.

EDIT. Just read you installed different RAM and still crashing.

What I would do, I would put the CPU stock settings, then see what happens. If still crashing I would test with another PSU.

PSU has been swapped out and the issue persisted. I have anothwr CPU coming today so we will see what's up hopefully

azazl187 · 9 May 2021 at 12:18

Ah yes, i forgot about this thread. I ordered another CPU and that has resolved all issues that i had. No more freezes, crashes, BSOD and programs crashing and failing in the background.