Now I regret buying a single RAM card

[Tamas]

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?

[viper37]

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?

[DGuller]

Why would you use a single RAM stick?  Wouldn't you want to take advantage of multiple channels?

[Tamas]

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.

[Tamas]

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.

[viper37]

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.

[DGuller]

In any case, putting 4+4+8 GB RAM sticks of different specs sounds like a lousy way to fix instability issues.

[Tamas]

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.

[Tamas]

Well it was the old RAM after all.

Put it in as 3rd module. Failed to boot. Removed it. Booted just fine.

[DontSayBanana]

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.

[Tamas]

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.

[viper37]

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.

[Tamas]

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

[DontSayBanana]

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.

[Tamas]

alright thanks, I am going to test it a bit more then.