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DDR3 RAM Errors


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Hi everyone, I hope you're all well. I was hoping you could help me out with something. I have been having some problems with Windows 10 locking up, requiring a reboot (screen will just freeze up, no BSOD), at seemingly random times, though some have cropped up more than once (and therefore, seem less random): 

- ALT+Tabbing away from a fullscreen game of Minecraft: Java Edition
- On the Windows 10 shutdown screen or just before it gets there (after clicking shut down)

Anyways, I started to suspect memory might be the issue. I ran the Windows Memory diagnostic tool first, and it detected issues, but didn't have much to say about it. So I ran MemTest86 and it also identified several issues. The report is attached. My specs are as follows:

CPU: i5-3570k (no overclock)
Motherboard: Asus P8Z77-V (Rev 1.x)
RAM: Mushkin Blackline 991995 (996995) (2x4gb running usually at 1333MHz, but the test seemed to run at 1600MHz)
PSU: CoolerMaster 750W (relatively new)
GPU: AMD Sapphire Radeon Pulse 5600xt
SSD: 120gb SATA3 ADATA
HDD: 2tb Seagate

I am thinking the RAM is probably bad, given the test results, but I would like to determine if I need top replace more things. Depending on what people say, I might just bite the bullet and simply purchase a new motherboard, CPU, RAM and get a nice upgrade out of all this. I realize most of my system is quite old, but it seems to work quite well for me when it does work (it will go anywhere from 5 minutes to many hours without freezing up, even in games demanding 80+% GPU and much of the CPU). It's worth noting as well that my main PCI lane seems to also be broken (an unfortunate accident which involved kneeing the case, which put pressure on the DVI port of my GPU, crashing the computer instantly), so it's running on the secondary one, which seems to work much better. As you can see, this system has been through a lot! I am just getting back into gaming on a casual basis, especially with being indoors so much right now! I just want it to work reliably. I did have a hard drive fail on me a few years back, which caused a very similar freezing issue in Windows 7, but seemed to go away when I replaced it. At the same time, I also replaced my crappy 430W PSU (my old graphics card was slightly less power hungry than my new one), but it's possible it may have affected more things if that's in fact what brought down my HDD at the time. Lesson learned: don't use a crappy power supply that comes with the case! But all I can do now is learn from it and move on.

Please find the attached report. I realize I may have not provided you enough information, my apologies for that. Please let me know what I should provide or what tests I should run further and I will be happy to, I'm a bit new at troubleshooting.

Any help would be much appreciated.

All the best.

MemTest86-Report-20200411-102320.html

Edited by HelloWorld25648

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Generally speaking if you are getting errors on the memory and it is reporting a such in Memtest86, it could be few things. Having errors doesn't prove it is bad memory, just the memory is not working properly.

Likely causes:

  1. CPU overclock causing memory instabilities
  2. Wrong DRAM voltage - Mushkin websites says 1.5v for 1600Mhz
  3. Wrong Sub-Timings - Mushkin website says 9-9-9-24. But using the XMP profile should take care of both voltage and timings
  4. Memory overheating (bad airflow - This would happen after long up time once the sticks warm up.
  5. Bad memory slot on motherboard (very unlikely)
  6. Memory not seated correctly
  7. Bad Memory

So work your way through the list. Disable any CPU overclocks and make sure XMP is enabled so the voltage and frequency is set automatically. Re-seat the memory and if it still giving you errors you can try one stick at the time and see which one is bad or if it is in fact a DIMM slot issue.

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That memory is not listed in your QVL so could be issue, only Mushkin 1600 ram listed is a 2x2GB kit. You can still get lucky and get them to work by confirming a few things.

First insure you are running current BIOS, if not update BIOS.

Install, firmly seat, one stick only using slot A2, and run Memtest86, if you pass test, shutdown and pull that stick and test other stick in slot A2, make sure you seat sticks firmly and you hear the click.

If both sticks pass running single channel in slot A2, then memory is fine, and your motherboard seems to be supporting them in single channel. So now install both sticks in slots A2 and B2 and test in dual channel,.. if your lucky they will work fine.

If they do not pass testing than your motherboard, memory controller is not going to support that type module in dual channel due to the finicky behavior of Ivy Bridge 3rd Generation Processor. So using your QVL, replace memory with a 2x4GB kit listed and you will be good to go. :cheers:

Edited by Braegnok

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