Random BSODs, Display Freezes and odd RAM behavior running Graphically Intensive applications - Need Help!

I'll give updating the BIOS a try and see if that helps, then I'll post my findings.

I've Tried The system with only one Stick of RAM already. The Stick I marked as possibly being faulty crashes the system frequently but the other stick works just fine.

Thanks,

- B

I'm on the Gigabyte website looking at my Motherboard.

I don't think I mentioned that my exact RAM type is not listed as being compatible with my Motherboard. For 2400 MHz RAM on the compatibility List PDF, the closest to what I have is F3-2400C10Q-32GTX while mine is F3-2400C10D-8GTX directly off the side of my RAM Stick. I don't think that matters much though , does it?

For the BIOS update, even though it's not very relevant, F7's description is "Update APU AGESA code for Carrizo support" and it was released on 2015/12/28. I'll download it and give it a go!

Thanks so much too!

- B

Okay, thanks Hellfire13 for helping me. I'll look into RMA-ing my RAM but i'm still going to update my BIOS first to see if that helps, since sending my RAM in will be a bit of a pain

On a similar note, depending on what G.Skill offers for RAM replacement, if they offer a refund, should I get another set of the same RAM sticks or go with a completely different brand? In the latter case, what would you recommend in the $50 range, which is roughly what I payed in the first place.

Also, this time around if I get new RAM i'll make sure not to make the same silly mistake of buying 2400 MHz RAM when my CPU only supports 2133 MHz, *face-palm*.

Thanks again!

- B

I successfully updated my BIOS from F6 to F7.
I once again ran some benchmarks with the Good RAM stick, and nothing unusual happened. Then I ran some benchmarks with the possibly faulty RAM stick and I got a BSOD which couldn't have said "Your RAM is Bad" more clearly, the error code was "MEMORY_MANAGEMENT".

I'll be RMA-ing my RAM as soon as possible!

Thanks,

- B

So, um, it's been a few weeks.

I've been running the system on the one stick of 4GB G.Skill TridentX RAM that works, *Phew*. The reason I hadn't RMA'd my RAM yet was because I need my desktop up and running because I depend on it, so a few days ago I ordered a Kingston HyperX Fury 2x8GB 1600MHz RAM kit off Amazon hoping to install that one and then RMA the bad RAM. I got the RAM today and was hoping to get a nice "16GB" beside the "Memory:" line in my BIOS.

Well, that sure didn't happen! The only thing that happened was absolutely nothing, the system wasn't even posting! This is much worse than what I had been having before which was BSODs in Windows, now I can't even boot and get any display output!

I decided to put the old G.Skill DIMM back in and the system booted perfectly - at least to the BIOS. The second it started loading Windows (About 2 seconds into the little dotty loading circle), Windows froze and gave me a glitchy, off center, incomplete BSOD, saying "IO1_INITIALIZATION_FAILED" I tried Startup Repair but that didn't work. I reset the BIOS to Optimized Defaults, I tried a recovery DVD, I tried just about everything I could, even booting into like 3 Linux Distros to backup my files. All my files are still on the Drive so at least I can recover them which is what i'm doing now. I Googled the BSOD error and the only thing people said was it could be bad Drivers or a Virus. But keep in mind that I bought an SSD about 1 month ago and did a FRESH reinstall of Windows, so it must be a hardware issue.

My RAM was still not working though. I started to do some testing of different DIMMs in different slots, I got one of the HyperX DIMMs to post but only in the DDR3_2 Slot and with the working G.Skill DIMM in the DDR3_1 slot. If I take out the G.Skill DIMM the system fails to POST even though the HyperX DIMM works fine and registers in the BIOS with the G.Skill DIMM. Half of the time, when the system has the G.Skill DIMM installed regardless of what else is installed, the system will POST instead of not POSTING but it will show any extra DIMMs physically installed as "Installed" but not "Enabled" I did TONS more testing of different DIMMs, together, in different slots, alone, etc. I even went as far as to take everything out of the case and unplug everything but the keyboard, mouse, display, and PSU from the Motherboard.

I started Googling as is typical of us humans, and found one thread on a forum about a guy who had a similar problem. Here's the link: http://forums.tweaktown.com/gigabyte/39835-ga-p55a-ud3-not-enabling-ddr3_1-ddr3_2-ram-installed.html
So basically the guy ended up finding some bent pins on the Socket for his CPU but he was using an Intel Chip and I am using an AMD chip. None the less, I took EVERYTHING apart and checked - Double checked - the CPU pins, RAM DIMMs and slots, all motherboard connectors, and basically everything else that made sense to look at.

Still no luck.

My BIOS is up to date. I'm running BIOS default settings. I have nothing but CPU fans, keyboard, mouse, monitor, 24-Pin, and 8-Pin connectors plugged into the Motherboard, which is on the box outside of the case. The HyperX DIMMs are brand new and are on the Motherboards RAM compatibility list.

The problem can't be drivers since I'm not even using Windows. It can't be bad Motherboard RAM slots because the one working G.Skill DIMM works in all slots. It can't be the new HyperX RAM could it? It seems too rare for one person to get two totally different RAM kits at different times and have them both not work.

So my theories are, Bad Motherboard, bad RAM, bad CPU, and maybe even bad PSU, since those are basically the only things connected to the computer, and it really couldn't be the keyboard, mouse, display, case fans, or CPU cooler, could it???

Anyways, I truly apologize for my ranting and long drawn out explanations, but i'm really frustrated and disappointed, after almost a month of dealing with this issue and it also being my first computer build.
It would be great if I could get this fixed so I could use my computer again

Thanks,
- BHogervorst

Thanks for your quick response, I've been kind of waiting around for someone to help me and i'm glad I can get back to working on this!

As for mixing different RAM brands, I see what you mean. But if I use only the two 4GB G.Skill RAM DIMMs which are meant to be together, the system will almost never POST, and when it does, the BIOS says "Installed" but not "Enabled" for the one DIMM I know is bad. If I use only the Kingston HyperX DIMMs, the system will never POST no matter how the DIMMs are configured.

As for speeds, I didn't think about that too much but I know that if you have DIMMs that run at different speeds, all DIMMs installed will run at the speed of the slowest one, which in my case is 1333MHz.

My HyperX RAM DIMMs are advertised at 1600Mhz while my G.Skill DIMMs are advertised at 2400MHz but without manually overclocking them they run at 1333MHz so that's what I've been running them at since it's the optimized default setting.

I might as well add that I added 0.07 Volts to the DRAM voltage since people said that sometimes DIMMs don't work right because they don't have enough voltage. Despite doing that, nothing has changed though

Thanks for your help!
- BHogervorst

Okay so some more interesting things are happening. I've just booted up the computer because I wanted to try some other things out and maybe take some screenshots of the BIOS.

I have the one *for sure working* G.Skill 4GB DIMM in the DDR3_1 RAM Slot and one of the HyperX 8GB DIMMs in the DDR3_3 RAM Slot and the system almost always POSTs in this configuration. So in theory, when it does post, I should have 12GB of RAM showing up in the BIOS.

But most of the time, as normal, I only get the one G.Skill 4GB DIMM showing up. But about 15% of the time 12GB will fully register. But the odd thing is that when the 12GB do register, after about 2 minutes of the computer just idling (generally while I do research) it will completely freeze and require me to do a hard-shutdown. This has happened every time my 12GB register. But it never happens when I have only 4GB register.

The weirdest thing is that all this will happen without me ever changing how the hardware is configured, other than rebooting the system.

Thanks,
- BHogervorst

I have reset the CMOS several times with no luck. And sorry to be repetitive about the G.Skill RAM stick.

I have one very old power supply that doesn't work, but one from around the Windows XP era that does work but unfortunately it doesn't have the 4-Pin branch of the 24-Pin connector, only the 20-Pin and it has no CPU 8-Pin. The only other things it has are Molex and floppy connectors.

Thanks again!
- BHogervorst

Do you mean "msconfig" in Windows? If so, I can't get into Windows like I said because I think the RAM issue may have caused Windows to break and not be fixable - or maybe it was something else. Anyways, I can't get into Windows, I'm just working in the BIOS. I'd reinstall Windows on the SSD since I backed up all my stuff successfully but I don't want to install anything software related until I get the hardware issues sorted out.

EDIT: I've taken some screenshots of the RAM not being recognized in my BIOS. I'm not figuring out how to add those to a post though.

- BHogervorst

Okay, i'll look into an Image site so I can show an image.

And no problem about the Windows not working thing, it was kind of buried in my huge multi-paragraph post so you can't blame yourself for that.

And yes, I have physically shorted the CLR_CMOS Jumper and taken the battery out but I don't know what you mean by "move the jumper from pins 1 & 2 to pins 2 & 3." All I needed to do to reset my CMOS was short the two pins, but i'm sure they're somewhat the same thing or similar, right? Or was what your were talking about a different CMOS operation?

EDIT: I think this will work: http://imgur.com/a/UcSTo
There's two images, one if the MIT status with 1 G.Skill DIMM and 1 HyperX DIMM installed and one of the main BIOS screen.

Anyways Thanks again!
- BHogervorst

My Motherboard doesn't have a clear CMOS switch, the only CMOS related things on the board that I can reset are the physical battery and the 2-Pin jumper, which is what I've used in the past to clear the CMOS. I consulted my motherboards Manual and that one jumper appears to be the only way to clear the CMOS other than removing the battery.
For reference, my motherboard is a Gigabyte F2A88X-D3H Ultra Durable Board.

Also, I may have a way of getting my hands on a standard Power supply, or at least borrowing one. Is doing that still a good idea or is that problem ruled out.

Thanks,
- BHogervorst

Okay, i'll look into borrowing a PSU.

I think it might be a good idea to try doing Memtest86 on my RAM or at least whatever RAM I can POST with to see if it might be RAM errors. I'll hook up a DVD drive and try doing that for a few hours.

So you said it would be a good idea to test everything that might be the problem, but how would I exactly go about testing the motherboard and even CPU?
I know CPU stress testing works but I've heard people saying that since the memory controller is on the CPU, the CPU might run fine but the memory seems to be faulty even though it's actually the CPU memory controller. But that doesn't make a whole lot of sense.
And how would I get the motherboard tested? I've taken the whole computer out of the case and checked everything for shorts and I've found none. I've even gone so far as to wipe the whole thing down with a dry cloth in case thermal paste could have gotten on any connection points. I've also taken off the Chipset heat-sink and the heat-sink next to the CPU socket to clean them and they seem fine.

Also, since the HyperX RAM seems to never work, should I go ahead and RMA that to Amazon or just wait till I've tested everything else?

Thanks,
- BHogervorst

Hey, I was just double checking the compatibility for the HyperX RAM I bought, even though I already pretty much knew it was compatible. And it is on the compatibility list, it is DDR3 240-Pin blah blah blah...

But, on the physical packaging that the RAM came in and on Amazon's website, it says "16GB DDR3 - 1600 CL10 240 - Pin UDIMM Kit...". I know what all of that means except for the "UDIMM" part. I Googled it and apparently UDIMMs are different than DIMMs. But people say both DIMMs and UDIMMs work on AMD systems, however, I haven't seen anybody say that UDIMMs are compatible with DIMMs on the same board.

I've also looked at my G.Skill RAM and it doesn't say anything about being UDIMM.

So could this be a possible problem? Or is DIMM just a shorter way of saying UDIMM or RDIMM?

EDIT: So i've been doing some looking around in Memtest86, it's a cool program! I put in both my G.Skill DIMMs and of course one pops up in the BIOS and the other doesn't. But when I go into Memtest86 and look at the Memory info, Both DIMMs show up fine with 4GB each, so does this mean my motherboard might just be messed up? Or the BIOS update I did messed things up maybe? I'll try and see if I can get the HyperX DIMMs into Memtest86 next and see what happens.

EDIT: Still running the Memory test on the two G.Skill DIMMs, no errors yet. But on the total Memory line, it says "3.8GB (3824M)". Is this normal for Memtest86 or am I just mistaking something else for total memory or is this a problem with my RAM?

Thanks so much!
- BHogervorst

Okay so I did more research and found something new.

I was reading off this thread: http://www.tomshardware.com/answers/id-1729123/dimm-udimm-ram-compatible.html
But their answers of whether or not UDIMMs work with DIMMs is kind of confusing and all over the place. But it's pretty easy to see that UDIMMs are for servers I think, and DIMMs are for desktops and they are very different. If so, could it be possible that the one bad G.Skill DIMM could just be bad like I thought in the first place?

So was I really stupid enough to order UDIMMs instead of DIMMs? If so, I can easily return these, but should I buy another HyperX kit that doesn't say UDIMM since HyperX is so cheap and fits by budget really well, or should I do something else, assuming this is the problem at all.

Thanks a ton, I really hope that's the problem!
- BHogervorst