PC Processors

[Jovakim]

Hello everyone.
I've been having problems with my build since 2019 (I've never done any overclocking). At first, my games used to crash very infrequently, so I procrastinated on this issue, and now it got much worse.

To describe the error itself: I get a black screen that lasts for a couple of seconds, and then the game closes. If the game is demanding enough, the crash WILL happen, and the time it happens will vary a lot.

When it comes to software, I tried every type of troubleshooting I could think of these past few years, but nothing worked.

Recently I decided to run Prime95 and Memtest86. Both of them presented multiple errors. With Prime95 I managed to replicate the black screen for the first time outside of a game. The test itself had terrible results: after only 8 minutes of testing, most threads presented errors. The temperature on my CPU is fine though.
Prime95 errors
Memtest86 errors
Temperatures while gaming
Temperatures running Prime95

I tried an old GPU I have here (a GTX 570) and the problem persisted. And that's the only part I'm able to test. I don't know of any specialist in town that might have something compatible for testing.

Back in October of 2018, I bought my current MOBO, my CPU, and my RAM.
My PSU is by far the oldest part of my pc, and the one I'm most suspicious of!

This year is the last one I have to ask for my CPU warranty. But I'm very worried that it might be something else. If I had any reassurance that it was the PSU or even the RAM, I would buy a new one for sure! Any advice?

My Specs:
CPU: AMD Ryzen 7 1800X
GPU: GeForce GTX 970 EVGA
RAM: 1x Kingston HyperX Fury 8GB 2400MHz DDR4
MOBO: MSI B350M GAMING PRO
PSU: Corsair TX750 V2
OS: Windows 10 (64 bit)

[elstaci · Accepted solution]

Did you run MEMTEST86 during boot up?

If you have that many errors after running MEMTEST86 then you have one or more defective RAM Modules.

Best way to find out which RAM is bad is running MEMTEST86 with one Ram stick in place. If it shows one or more errors means that RAM stick is bad.

MEMTEST86 should show ZERO errors when you run the test.

Could also be a bad DIMM slot on your motherboard. So if all RAM sticks check good, try one good Ram stick in all of the other DIMM slots to see if one of the slots is bad.

I my case when I had one of four RAM Module bad, I used to have many BSODs even when upgrading Windows or doing an In-Place Repair or installing software.

I ran MEMTEST86 during boot up and immediately started getting 1000's of errors. Remove 2 of the 4 sticks and ran the test again. Both checked good. Then ran the other 2 sticks and again had 1000's of errors almost immediately. Finally found one bad Ram stick and removed it. Immediately I had no more BSODs and was able to install software without any issues.

[Jovakim]

Hello, elstaci.
So, I did ran Memtest during boot-up last time.
You might have missed that I only have one (x1) RAM stick of 8GB. I can try putting it on another DIMM slot and re-run the test later tonight.

Cheers.

[elstaci]

I didn't realize that MEMTEST86 was able to print out a report of the results so I thought maybe you ran it a different manner.

If you only have one stick, yes try A2 slot and see if you continue to get errors. If you do than you have a bad RAM stick.

I believe most RAM Manufacturer give a limited lifetime warranty on all their Ram modules. So you should be able to get a free replacement from Kingston.

But if you can afford it and is within your budget I suggest you add more RAM memory so that your computer will be faster plus most games run better with at least 16GB of System RAM memory installed.

See if Kingston can give you a discount on a 2 stick 8gb RAM set (16GB) instead of replacing the bad RAM module. If the RAM is bad that is.

If you do decide to add more RAM and purchase a Ram Memory kit make sure you look at your Motherboard's QVL list to make sure it is compatible with both your processor and Motherboard. You can also check Kingston website to see if the set is compatible or not.

EDIT: Changed DIMM slot from B2 to A2 to test RAM Stick.

[Jovakim]

That's it, I've finished the test on the other RAM slot, and the results were even worse than before. I was a dummy and missed the option to save the report this time, but the error count was 59.

Since my mobo only has 2 DIMM slots, that's both of them tested. So, the RAM is the most likely culprit then?

I'll see what I can do about the warranty, I just hope they don't take too long with that.

[JoltCola]

Yeah you got bad RAM.

[Jovakim]

I have bad news... I received my new RAM today, installed them, restored the bios to its default, and yet my games are still crashing!

Then I decided to run Prime95, and unlike the previous time, I had no errors after an hour.

I'll be running Memtest later when I go to bed, but it's obvious that there's something else causing problems. I bet that it still is the PSU.

I'm getting desperate here guys, what should I do?!

[elstaci]

just curios bu try seeing if your hardware is able to run the latest games by going to one of these gaming site:

https://www.systemrequirementslab.com/cyri

https://www.pcgamebenchmark.com/

https://www.game-debate.com/can-I-run/

https://technical.city/en/can-i-run-it

Any of the above links might be able to isolate your issues with games crashing. It will let you know if your Computer has the hardware to run today's games and at what resolutions and the proper driver installed.

Note: It is possible you don't have enough RAM to run some of these games. The above links should show that I believe, not sure though.

Check Window's Event Viewer under Errors and see what errors corresponds to your crashes and what file is at fault.

[Jovakim]

I'm back from doing some testing, and I think I'm satisfied now. I believe I found what else is the problem.

With this new RAM, I noticed that a couple of games stopped crashing, so I find it safe to assume that the old one was indeed malfunctioning.
Then I decided to swap yet again to my old GTX 570 to do some testing, and to my surprise, everything works now! It's been two days without crashes.

So that's it then. Both RAM and GPU were the problems, and I'll finally stop blaming my PSU for everything. I'll be spending much more cash than I'd like to right now, but it is what it is.

Thanks a lot for the help, Elstaci and JoltCola.