I think it's toast. Computer just froze then wouldn't even get to start up screen where you can enter the BIOS, until after like 5 tries.
Then i could get into windows but it would feeeze eventually and I could never get a memory check done. Only once I received a blue screen of death and it said something tried to acces read only memory.
Placed my only 8 gig module into another slot didn't help, in fact I haven't been able to boot up since then.
A few months ago I had an issue with some fucking old shit driver or software I installed due to my joystick but I think I resolved that. Besides I can't even get near to where windows would be running any drivers.
Am I missing something here or I really do have to buy another ram mode tomorrow?
Im not at home, but win10 has a built in memory checker, search for instructions.
Yu could also download Memtest+ and run this from a usb?
Why would you use a single RAM stick? Wouldn't you want to take advantage of multiple channels?
Haven't been able to get even to bios, tried cmos reset, other ram slots etc. Going to pick up a 2*4gb pack of the same type of ram today so even if I am wrong about the ram being the culprit I just end up with more ram.
And yes Dorsey, it was a bad decision all around.
Well that was weird.
New RAMs didn't solve it. Unfortunately I did not check the motherboard warning leds with the old one, but with the new ones, the "boot device" led was staying red. Machine wouldn't post so I was stuck.
After some googling, I tried disconnecting stuff one by one.
The one that worked was disconnecting my regular HDD with all my data... HOWEVER, after I thus got back to BIOS, I changed two things: remembering one of the Google finds, I have set DRAM speed fixed to 2400Mhz (speed of my new rams, old is 3200 but who cares). Also some boot help thing was enabled, set it to automatic.
Since then, for about half an hour now, everything wroks, including the HDD in question... I am using the two new RAM modules at the moment. I'll give it a couple of days to see if it dies this way, if not will also add back the old one, see if that was the culprit after all or not.
Quote from: Tamas on July 28, 2017, 03:22:48 PM
Well that was weird.
New RAMs didn't solve it. Unfortunately I did not check the motherboard warning leds with the old one, but with the new ones, the "boot device" led was staying red. Machine wouldn't post so I was stuck.
After some googling, I tried disconnecting stuff one by one.
The one that worked was disconnecting my regular HDD with all my data... HOWEVER, after I thus got back to BIOS, I changed two things: remembering one of the Google finds, I have set DRAM speed fixed to 2400Mhz (speed of my new rams, old is 3200 but who cares). Also some boot help thing was enabled, set it to automatic.
Since then, for about half an hour now, everything wroks, including the HDD in question... I am using the two new RAM modules at the moment. I'll give it a couple of days to see if it dies this way, if not will also add back the old one, see if that was the culprit after all or not.
if it's dual channel memory, it's highly likely your board will not boot with one stick.
In any case, putting 4+4+8 GB RAM sticks of different specs sounds like a lousy way to fix instability issues.
Quote from: DGuller on July 29, 2017, 12:45:33 AM
In any case, putting 4+4+8 GB RAM sticks of different specs sounds like a lousy way to fix instability issues.
Right now I have 4+4 in only. AFAIK pitting the faster 8 one in should be no issue assuming it's not faulty, especially as I have manually set memory speed to the slower's setting
Oh and the comp did boot with just one of the rams in.
Well it was the old RAM after all.
Put it in as 3rd module. Failed to boot. Removed it. Booted just fine.
Quote from: Tamas on July 29, 2017, 02:29:36 PM
Well it was the old RAM after all.
Put it in as 3rd module. Failed to boot. Removed it. Booted just fine.
It didn't fail because the RAM was bad, it failed because the motherboard was expecting matched pairs. I meant to say this earlier, but the only way that would work is if your motherboard supporting running in unganged mode.
Quote from: DontSayBanana on July 31, 2017, 02:00:47 PM
Quote from: Tamas on July 29, 2017, 02:29:36 PM
Well it was the old RAM after all.
Put it in as 3rd module. Failed to boot. Removed it. Booted just fine.
It didn't fail because the RAM was bad, it failed because the motherboard was expecting matched pairs. I meant to say this earlier, but the only way that would work is if your motherboard supporting running in unganged mode.
For 7 months I was using the comp. with a single RAM module.
Quote from: Tamas on August 01, 2017, 04:50:58 AM
Quote from: DontSayBanana on July 31, 2017, 02:00:47 PM
Quote from: Tamas on July 29, 2017, 02:29:36 PM
Well it was the old RAM after all.
Put it in as 3rd module. Failed to boot. Removed it. Booted just fine.
It didn't fail because the RAM was bad, it failed because the motherboard was expecting matched pairs. I meant to say this earlier, but the only way that would work is if your motherboard supporting running in unganged mode.
For 7 months I was using the comp. with a single RAM module.
Try again with only that module, I bet it will work.
It is true that IIRC once the de- and re-plugging of the HDD solved the booting issue I didn't try putting just the old supposedly faulty RAM back, I'll try if I can gather the willpower, thanks.
However, this Intel article would suggest that my mobo (asus z-170 pro gaming) should be able to handle 2 modules in dual channel mode and a 3rd in single channel:
https://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/support/boards-and-kits/000005657.html#flex
Quote from: Tamas on August 01, 2017, 09:37:18 AM
It is true that IIRC once the de- and re-plugging of the HDD solved the booting issue I didn't try putting just the old supposedly faulty RAM back, I'll try if I can gather the willpower, thanks.
However, this Intel article would suggest that my mobo (asus z-170 pro gaming) should be able to handle 2 modules in dual channel mode and a 3rd in single channel:
https://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/support/boards-and-kits/000005657.html#flex
There's a world of difference between "should be able to" and "is." Mismatched memory has almost always been a problem every time I've seen it done, especially if the mismatched memory is different in speed from the other/s.
alright thanks, I am going to test it a bit more then.
Quote from: Tamas on August 01, 2017, 09:37:18 AM
It is true that IIRC once the de- and re-plugging of the HDD solved the booting issue I didn't try putting just the old supposedly faulty RAM back, I'll try if I can gather the willpower, thanks.
However, this Intel article would suggest that my mobo (asus z-170 pro gaming) should be able to handle 2 modules in dual channel mode and a 3rd in single channel:
https://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/support/boards-and-kits/000005657.html#flex
might be a bios issue. do you have the latest one?
Heh, so far at least, it does work just with the old 8GB module. I'll see if it ends up freezing again but I wonder what was the original problem then? Well, I have already archived the most important files from the HDD in case that's the one that's dying.
Ok so I have managed to make the 3 module setup work. The duals are in B1 and B2 as recommended by the manual. This time, I put the lonely 8GB one to A1 - that's a bit harder to access due to the CPU than A2 that's why I was hoping A2 would work but it didn't.
Anyways, now I have BIOS manual-set to 2400Mhz RAM setting to match the slower two of the trio, and it seems to be working. CPU-Z telling me I have 16 gigs of RAM with frequency of 1205 which AFAIK matches as its supposed to be half of the frequency shown per CPU tick.
I'll test it and sleep on what to do, maybe I can return the new 4GB sticks and get a pair for the lone 8GB one, or just keep them AND buy the pair for the 8GB one.
I wouldn't buy a pair for a 8 GB one. Unless you have the exact same make and model, they would still be mismatched in some way, and that's always a potential PITA.
Quote from: DGuller on August 02, 2017, 08:55:44 AM
I wouldn't buy a pair for a 8 GB one. Unless you have the exact same make and model, they would still be mismatched in some way, and that's always a potential PITA.
I meant buying the exact same kind, obviously. But so far I saw no issue with the 3 card setup. Seems to be still applying dual mode to the 2*4gb pair as suggested by the Intel document above, so if there won't be any freezes I'll be fine this way I think.