PC games/apps crashing -> Memtest errors all 4 sticks of RAM?

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Colonel Sanders

Supreme [H]ardness
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Sep 26, 2001
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so my pc has been crashing (mostly while gaming, but tbf that's mostly all this pc does) frequently enough to start making me scratch my head. i didn't think it might be hardware related for a while as the crashes were 'benign' (no BSODS or hard locks, just the games closing without error message and Event Viewer showing game.exe faults.) did a format/reinstall of Windows with fresh everything and crashing continued so i busted out Memtest (yeah i should have done that first...)

i have 4 sticks of identical ram, 8gb x 4 3600mhz cl16 G.skill TridentZ. so first i ran Memtest without changing anything and got errors within about 10 minutes. i then removed two sticks and tested the other two, got errors within about 30 minutes. then removed those two sticks and tested the other pair. that pair errored within about 30 minutes also.

now i'm thinking this might be a motherboard or even CPU problem as it seems extremely unlikely at least 2 sticks of ram failed simultaneously... i'm hoping to be able to borrow some other RAM so i can rule out cpu or mobo but this is probably the trickiest intermittent pc issue i've had in the last ~25 years of pc builds. anyone have any thoughts?

oh, also nothing is overclocked. the ram is set to run its XMP profile, which had been working flawlessly for at least a couple years.
 
Check the ram voltage? Kind of weird for a working system to suddenly go wonky, but I've seen a few systems lately where ram voltage was low and all sorts of unstable, but pushing it up a notch helped a lot.
 
Try one stick and cycle through all 4 sticks. If all 4 are reporting bad then you for sure know it is wrongly reporting ( which I assume already it is)
I would myself just start with the basics:
Unplug and re-plug every cable on the MB and GPU taking care to ensure they are all seated well.
Clear your CMOS.
Still problematic unplug all SATA/USB and extra PCI cards, except boot drive and keyboard. I have been surprised often that a certain drive or USB device was wreaking havoc.
If all that makes no difference then I would try to unseat and re-seat the CPU with appropriate paste if needed. If it is fresh and well covered you can stay with the old. And as Zepher said check the pins. Does it drop in smoothy?
If that doesn't narrow it down then it most likely is a CPU memory controller (not likely) or a dying MB.
Finally make sure the PC is plugged into a good plug and it just isn't a matter of someone using the toaster or microwave. Houses can have very weak power setups so try another plug and test. Sometimes even a little space heater turning on can cause enough of a drain to knock a PC off line.
 
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well i ran memtest on a different pair of ram overnight and it had no errors, so it really does appear that i have at least two sticks of bad ram.
 
Colonel Sanders said:
well i ran memtest on a different pair of ram overnight and it had no errors, so it really does appear that i have at least two sticks of bad ram.
Click to expand...
Back in the DDR2 days, I had ram sticks that didn't like working in dual channel mode, would pass with flying colors on single sticks but fail when you added a 2nd.

Took me a minute to figure that out the first time it happened, did an RMA with Corsair at the time and got new sticks, all was well... For a few months until it did it again. lol

I also had memtest not fail on bad memory sticks, that one threw me into a loop, RMA the board, swapped processors and I ended up giving up that build 4 months later, it was when I used the ram in another machine that gave me the same issues that I realized the ram was bad, was pretty mad about that.
 
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