I've been dealing with some frustrating issues on my PC lately. It started with Firefox crashing frequently, and now I'm hit with BSODs about once a week. I noticed this after downloading a couple of games from Steam that needed repairs to run properly. To dive deeper into the issue, I decided to test my RAM sticks using MemTest. I removed all but one stick and tested them individually in different slots. To my surprise, three out of the four sticks showed errors almost immediately, no matter which slot I used. The fourth stick didn't show errors right away, but I realize now I should have tested it for longer than just a minute.
I sent one kit back for RMA two days ago and planned to return the last stick that seemed fine once I got the replacement since one of the two was faulty. However, I experienced another Firefox crash and ran MemTest again, only to find errors again this time. This has me wondering if there's an underlying issue with something else in my PC.
Right now, my PC is still usable, but I'd really like to resolve this issue. Just a heads up, two years ago, I had to RMA my RAM due to similar problems, and that led me to buy a second kit during the wait. Everything worked perfectly with the replacement back then, so I'm at a bit of a loss now. My setup includes a Ryzen 5800X3D, a MAG B550 Tomahawk Max WiFi board, and Ripjaws V DDR4 3600 RAM all from the same batch.
4 Answers
You might want to consider that the memory controller could be to blame, although you'd expect it to affect all sticks equally. Be sure to give all your RAM a thorough check, especially the fourth one you only tested briefly. It could be hiding some issues!
It seems unlikely that all your RAM sticks are failing at the same time, so I’d suspect it’s more likely an issue with your BIOS settings, motherboard, or CPU rather than the memory itself. Make sure your BIOS is up to date, and double-check that XMP and other overclock settings are disabled before testing your RAM again. If problems persist, it might be worth investigating the motherboard or CPU.
Do you have anything magnetic near your setup? It’s pretty rare for all sticks to fail simultaneously unless there’s some kind of external factor involved. I've never seen that happen before. If you've experienced power outages while your PC was running, that could potentially be a contributor to the RAM issues you're having.
First off, you should try looking at the dump files generated during the BSODs for a clearer idea of what's going wrong. If you can boot into Windows, check the C:WindowsMinidump folder for any crash logs. Zipping that folder and uploading it to a file-sharing service could really help us analyze the situation better. Just make sure to set up your dump type to Small Memory Dump if you haven't already! That way, you’ll have more consistent records for any future crashes.
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