Problems with RAM, trying to understand what is happening

[kunotty]

Hello, I have had problems with my RAM for a long time and I would like to find an answer to 2 questions

my PC is a B450m Steel Legend, Ryzen 7 2700, 2x8gb Asgard Loki 3200mhz (the same problems happen in stock or xmp for that reason I'm testing at 3200mhz 1.35v)


problems I have, BSOD, tabs crashing, games closing, apps closing, (W7 and W10)

explanation 1, I did a lot of tests on memtest86 I had problems in Test 8 [Random number sequence], a few months ago I did a few tests and had 1 or 2 errors in test 8, in the last few days I did several tests on the same days that I had problems using Windows , in one test I did 25 passes in test 8 and had errors in 13 of them, then I turned off the PC and did 30 again in test 8 with 0 errors, on other days I did all these other tests without any errors, just test 8, 17pass, 17pass, 6pass, 41pass, and finally I passed 10 in all tests and no errors

Question 1, how is it possible to fail 13 passes out of 25 and nothing happens in the others? If the RAM is bad and giving problems for several days in a row on Windows, shouldn't the error frequency in test 8 be higher?


explanation 2 (more out of curiosity as it doesn't make sense what happened) a long time ago I had the problems more constantly, I reinstalled the video drivers every few days and that helped to improve, I stopped messing with the drivers and for a while 3 months I only had 1 or 2 errors per month, after that I needed to install an audio driver and the problem returned more constantly, it was increasingly clear that it was something related to Windows as I had not found any error with memtest86, aida64 and prime95

Question 2, if the problem is in memory as we saw in explanation 1, why would changing the drivers influence the problem so much if the problem is in memory? it doesn't make sense

here are the tests that I had errors in, the first two are the old ones, the last one is from the last few days (they are all "bits in error 63, what is that)

https://i.imgur.com/7w3ll5z.png

thanks for trying to help me

[David (PassMark)]

See this page to start with
https://www.memtest86.com/troubleshooting.htm

The test report you posted shows a single bit error. So this is almost sure to be a RAM error.

Different results on different days might be the result of a different test environment. e.g. ambient temperature slightly hotter. And if the memory cell is right on the knife edge of failure then there is a certain amount of true randomness that creeps in. For example maybe your voltage regulation for the RAM isn't a rock solid 1.35V. Maybe it cycles between 1.33V and V1.37 volts in a 50hz sine wave matching the mains input. Then different voltage levels would be in use from time to time when this memory cell is used. There are lots of effects like this. i.e. it's somewhat random.

Similar story with Windows crashing. It's random. You don't really know which bit of software is using each memory cell from one second to the next. Sometimes the bad memory cell might not be used for anything important. At other times it might be storing some critical kernel code. So failure effects are random.

Asgard Loki isn't one of the well known brand name RAM suppliers. You know it is bad, as they don't even have a functional web site.

In short: Just replace the RAM. And use brand name RAM next time.

[kunotty]

See this page to start with
https://www.memtest86.com/troubleshooting.htm

The test report you posted shows a single bit error. So this is almost sure to be a RAM error.

Different results on different days might be the result of a different test environment. e.g. ambient temperature slightly hotter. And if the memory cell is right on the knife edge of failure then there is a certain amount of true randomness that creeps in. For example maybe your voltage regulation for the RAM isn't a rock solid 1.35V. Maybe it cycles between 1.33V and V1.37 volts in a 50hz sine wave matching the mains input. Then different voltage levels would be in use from time to time when this memory cell is used. There are lots of effects like this. i.e. it's somewhat random.

Similar story with Windows crashing. It's random. You don't really know which bit of software is using each memory cell from one second to the next. Sometimes the bad memory cell might not be used for anything important. At other times it might be storing some critical kernel code. So failure effects are random.

Asgard Loki isn't one of the well known brand name RAM suppliers. You know it is bad, as they don't even have a functional web site.

In short: Just replace the RAM. And use brand name RAM next time.

Thank you very much for the comment, I think the RAM is not the best but it is still decent I just had bad luck, about bits in error 63, would it be possible to add this bit 63 to the blacklist?

[Richard (PassMark)]

You cannot blacklist a single bit, but a range of memory. See the following page, https://www.memtest86.com/blacklist-...emorylist.html. However, this only really works if the bad memory is in a consistent location. Which doesn't look like it from your screenshot.

We recommend replacing the RAM, most reputable manufacturers would replace the RAM for free.