What Could Be Causing Repeated Crashes and Memory Test Errors?
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MellowCactus42
I'm troubleshooting an ongoing stability problem with a roughly five-year-old PC. It has experienced sudden black-screen freezes followed by shutdowns, frequent BSODs, and occasional black screens that recover after a minute or two. I've replaced the Ryzen 9 5900X with a Ryzen 7 5800X3D, the ASUS X570 motherboard with an MSI B550 board, the graphics card, and the power supply, but the problems continue. The system uses four 16 GB DDR4-3600 CL16 modules, and two of the modules were previously replaced through an RMA. MemTest86, booted directly from USB, reported errors with the original CPU. Testing the memory in a friend's computer produced errors with only two modules, while installing the newer CPU initially produced no errors. Later, however, every module failed testing with both CPUs. XMP was disabled during testing. Could faulty memory, the memory controller, motherboard slots, or something else explain these inconsistent results?
Answers
Try removing the graphics driver completely with DDU and then reinstalling it. After that, a clean Windows installation would help rule out system corruption. You could also boot a Linux live USB to see whether the crashes happen outside Windows.
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Since the memory behaves differently in another computer, retest the modules in your system with known-good memory from that machine if possible. Also make sure XMP is disabled while troubleshooting, because four DDR4 modules at 3600 MT/s can put extra strain on the CPU’s memory controller.
MellowCactus42: I tested with XMP disabled on both systems. Unfortunately, I can’t currently borrow the other computer’s memory for another test.
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Repeat the memory testing both with XMP enabled and with it completely disabled. If errors remain at default settings, that points more toward defective DIMMs, a motherboard or slot issue, or the CPU’s integrated memory controller rather than an overclocking profile.
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MellowCactus42: The memory test is already running from a USB drive, so Windows shouldn’t be involved in those errors. I was considering Linux next, but the memory-test results make the hardware situation more suspicious.