I've had my PC for five years and recently transitioned from two 8GB sticks of RAM to four. The two new sticks are a different brand, and everything was working well until today, when my PC refused to start with all four sticks in place. Each stick works fine on its own, but when I try to boot with all four, it just doesn't start. How can I diagnose and resolve this issue?
3 Answers
It sounds like your RAM sticks might not be compatible with each other. When mixing different brands, they often vary in timings, which complicates things. Most motherboards struggle to run four sticks at the same speeds they can handle with just two. I suggest going into the BIOS, disabling XMP, and running the RAM at its base speed. If that works, you can test different timings and speeds for stability. If it doesn’t work at the base speed, your sticks might just not be compatible. In that case, consider returning the new ones and getting a matched pair instead.
Considering your setup, an AMD Ryzen 5 3600x with a compatible motherboard, it might be better for performance and stability to upgrade to a 2x16GB RAM configuration instead of mixing the old and new sticks. If you still want to stick with 32GB without the hassle of compatibility issues, buying another set of Corsair Vengeance sticks would likely give you the best results. Just make sure to match the specifications!
You’ll need to look up the specifications for each RAM stick and your CPU to see what's supported. For instance, your motherboard might handle higher speeds with two sticks but struggle with four. If your new RAM has a lower speed than your old RAM, that could be why your PC won’t boot. Also, check the voltage and CAS Latency (CL) for each stick. Sometimes, adjusting these in the BIOS can help. If possible, you might want to think about just going for two larger capacity sticks instead of mixing brands.
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