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[dylanjmcdonald]

CPU: Ryzen 9 3900X

GPU: Radeon 5700 XT

Motherboard: MPG X570

RAM: Patriot Viper Steel 16GB 4133MHz

Hoping for some help determining if this is a CPU or RAM situation and looking for the best course of action.

I started encountering some freezing issues randomly with Windows 11 (usually while gaming, browsing, watching videos). I realized I hadn't upgraded my BIOS in quite some time, so I upgraded to the latest version. The freezing seemed to have been fixed, but still not performing all that great - still noticing stuttering and weird mouse movement while browsing. I also noticed that all my RAM configurations were reset and was running at 2133MHz. I went through the whole process of figuring out the voltages and timings for running my RAM at at 3600MHz. After updating these settings the freezing started again. Ok, so now I'm finding out that's it's probably the RAM settings aren't meshing with the CPU or Windows 11. Not sure why the settings worked on Windows 10 but not 11. I set all the RAM configurations I changed in the BIOS back to "Auto" except I changed the RAM speed to 3200MHz and FCLK to 1600MHz. No freezing so far.

I'm not worried about getting absolute performance out of my hardware - I'm just hoping someone can reassure me that overriding the RAM speed and leaving the rest of the settings to "Auto" will not be problematic. Better yet, if someone has a similar setup and can recommend performant/stable settings that would be great.

If anything else hopefully this will help someone else experiencing random freezing issues in Windows 11.

[MADZyren · Accepted solution]

I have a 3000-series Ryzen and X570 series MB. At one point some time ago a new BIOS was released and there was a warning that it changes the structure of the BIOS and you should probably set everything to default before updating and adjust settings back to how you want them after the update. For instance I use tuned memory subtimings and if I recall right, when I tried re-applying them from a saved BIOS profile, it was all gibberish and I had to do it all manually.

Different BIOS versions might differ by how tight memory timings work, so this might be the reason for your problems. You could try https://www.techpowerup.com/download/ryzen-dram-calculator/ to figure out tighter timings if you want or just leave it to XMP, raise voltage to 1.375V-1.4V and see what is the fastest stable clockspeed that works fine. Notice that subtle memory instability does not necessarily lead to BSOD's, but can cause many kinds of strange behaviour. Setting RAM speed manually and FLCK to half of that manually is perfectly fine. That is how I use it all the time.

Just in case, after the bios update, if you encounter issues even with lowerer memory clocks:

- Set BIOS to default, save changes on exit. Restart computer, go to windows and shutdown.
- Unplug computer from wallsocket, short clear cmos pins or remove cmos battery for 10-15 seconds and then put back in
- Restart computer, access bios (might ask you to press F11), set XMP, SAM, virtualization and whatever you use. Save changes on exit and restart.

If doesn't work, set bios to default, flash BIOS to latest version (even if you already have). Restart and go to Windows, restart and go to BIOS, set your settings and restart.

Notice also that flashin BIOS, resetting it and all that can change virtualization setting which is required by certain Windows security functions to work and if you change it, computer might have to 'adjust' itself to work with new setting which takes time. I think Win11 might not even work without it being on or was it that Win10 defaults that feature off and Win11 sets it on by default. Anyway... Set virtualization on from BIOS (SVM). Also check you have firmware TPM enabled (and XMP and SAM and what else you use).

If problem persists:

run command prompt (cmd) as admin and type:

chkdsk /F to check and fix disk errors
sfc /scannow to check and fix system file corruptions

If doesnt' work, I would probably reinstall Windows.