Memtest86 time going really slowly

[MCXL]

I've been having instability on my personal computer for a bit with blue screens that point at memory issues. So I downloaded the memtest and I've been running it, but for some reason the time doesn't pass correctly and it keeps telling me that my CPU clock is random numbers.

I took a short video of what I'm talking about: https://youtu.be/PuTj0pz_Nm0

The sleep test seconds each take 8 seconds to pass. I noticed this as well at the home screen where it starts counting down to automatically start, each one of a second was taking about a second to pass.

Could this be a symptom of something wrong with the board? I did not notice this with the first stick of ram that I tested. I don't know if this can be tied to ram though because my understanding is that timekeeping is set by the board chipset?

For reference, this is a Asus hero 8 rog strix. Up until recently this computer was completely stable. Been running it now for about 5 and 1/2 years.

[MCXL]

Follow-Up post, I have now tested all four sticks of RAM that were originally in my system. They are all g-skill Trident z neo 3600 16 GB kits.

Two of them passed, two of them failed.

Additionally, when taking the good memory and putting them in slots a2 or B2 on the board, it will not post with docp enabled. If I put them in A1 or B1 it will post with docp.

These two sticks of memory are from one 32 GB pair and have sequential serial numbers. The other two that are both testing with errors and a lot of them, are from another 32 GB pair.

What are the odds that two sticks of memory fail at approximately the same time? My inclination is to blame either something software related on the computer or at a hardware level higher such as the motherboard doing something to the ram. My gut feeling is that two sticks that have been in use now for coming up on 6 years. Both failing around the same time seems.... Extremely unlikely.

[David (PassMark)]

That slow tick time anomaly is pretty strange. But if the RAM is bad the effects are not predicable. Bad RAM can corrupt the BIOS code or the MemTest86 executable code, just as easily as it can corrupt the RAM being used for data.

I assume you saw some actual RAM errors during some of the tests? Or was it just slow clock ticking?

Data corruption is just more common as there is more RAM addresses available for data compared to the size of the MemTest86 executable code. Plus code corruption more often leads to a crash, not some subtle misbehavior like this.

[MCXL]

Yeah two of the sticks tested bad, with a whole bunch of errors (thousands on each before I just pulled the plug on the tests, because at that point it didn't matter the specifics for each. I took this picture mid test to send to a buddy... RMA time) most of them it looked like the final or second to last bit coming back wrong from what I saw. I tested each stick on its own in the manufacturer suggested first slot on the mobo.

I was thrown for such a loop by two of them failing that I put the first two sticks I tested back in the system and tested them again. Passed even while overcloced via their DOCP profile.

So yeah, somehow I have a 5.5 year old pair of sticks that have both gone bad possibly within a couple of weeks of each other? My inclination is maybe my mobo zapped them or something, because that seems extraordinarily unlikely.

As far as the slow clock tick goes, even with the memory on the system that passes the test it was doing this. the sleep test took like 35 minutes because of it (I disabled the test for my follow up runs because of that) otherwise it seems to run normally.

[David (PassMark)]

We'll have a look at the clock count down code.

Maybe there was some manufacturing flaw if you have two bad sticks. Or maybe the system config (voltages & timings) is right on the edge of working / not working.

[keith]

The slow clock countdown is likely related to the incorrect reported clock speed of 21018 MHz.

If possible, can you upload a copy of the MemTest86 log file under EFI\BOOT\ of the USB flash drive.