Can a game cause faulty RAM?

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GamerJak

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Oct 25, 2016
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(Sorry if this is a repost, after I posted without an account the thread seems to have vanished)

Recently I purchased a gaming desktop PC (specs below) and encountered a bit of an odd problem. After a month or so of use, I noticed that only 3.98GB of the installed 8GB of RAM were available for use - 4GB were hardware reserved. CyberPowerPC tech support told me it was likely a problem with one of the RAM sticks, so I RMA'd the kit and when the new kit arrived, they worked fine - all 8GB usable. I decided to play some Star Wars The Old Republic that night and had no problems. However, 2-3 days later while playing Overwatch, the RAM dies on me (as in, IRQL_NOT_LESS_OR_EQUAL and MEMORY_MANAGEMENT blue screen errors, within five minutes of eachother). So I RMA the new kit, and the final replacement kit has worked fine ever since. I've not played Star Wars The Old Republic since then either, though. Note that during gameplay, all games run just fine on this computer, both before and after the issues.

So my question - can a game, specifically Star Wars The Old Republic, cause RAM to become faulty? Or was this just a coincidence?
Specs:
nVidia GeForce GTX 950
AMD FX-8320 CPU
8GB 1600mhz DDR3 RAM (1st and 2nd kits Rocksoul, current kit is Adata).
 
Solution
Luminary
"I see. So the program had absolutely nothing to do with this, at all?"

Correct.

You'll just have to take small steps in terms of upgrading over time if that is something you're interested in pursuing. A decent new PSU will run you between $50-60, and since you KNOW you already have a faulty motherboard that is another piece of hardware that can easily hover around $80 for a decent quality item.

As long as you're up and running for now that's the most important thing. If you're able to save up some money for replacement parts the folks here on Tom's will always be happy to help recommend upgrades once you're ready for them.
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Luminary

Luminary

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Nov 29, 2015
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"can a game, specifically Star Wars The Old Republic, cause RAM to become faulty? Or was this just a coincidence?"


That was almost certainly just coincidence.

If RAM is faulty it is typically because of an error with the hardware of the modules themselves or a power-surge that damages them. A program isn't going to damage the RAM modules.
 
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GamerJak

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Oct 25, 2016
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The RAM sticks are in different slots than the ones I had them installed in originally. I'm not sure about which stick died each time, but the whole setup is plugged into a surge protector.
 
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GamerJak

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Oct 25, 2016
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Now, I'm not sure how the BIOS and all of that works, but by any chance could opening a program cause the BIOS or mobo to incorrectly allocate too much power to the RAM or something of the sort?

If not, would a surge protector have protected the RAM, or are we talking about an internal power surge in the PC itself? If so, would I be safe by just having the RAM sticks in the other channel than the first 2 kits were in?


Oh, I see. If either of those were faulty, would I be experiencing other problems right now? If so, does that mean the PSU/mobo being faulty could be ruled out as the cause of my previous RAM kits becoming faulty since I haven't?
 
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Luminary

Luminary

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Nov 29, 2015
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"Now, I'm not sure how the BIOS and all of that works, but by any chance could opening a program cause the BIOS or mobo to incorrectly allocate too much power to the RAM or something of the sort?"

No, the BIOS flat out isn't a possibility. A faulty motherboard (as I've already stated above) COULD be an issue.

"If not, would a surge protector have protected the RAM, or are we talking about an internal power surge in the PC itself? If so, would I be safe by just having the RAM sticks in the other channel than the first 2 kits were in?"

If you have a cheap PSU then the internal power supply can still damage your hardware. On top of that, a strong enough power spike could also still do damage to your system even if you have a surge protector if the joule rating wasn't high enough. Having the RAM modules in the other slots isn't a factor for power failures.

Honestly the two primary possibilities for the behaviour you've described is either bad RAM modules or the faulty motherboard.
 
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G

GamerJak

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Oct 25, 2016
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I see. So the program had absolutely nothing to do with this, at all?

If so, that aside I'm unsure of the quality of the power supply as I bought the PC prebuilt (I have no idea how to build a computer, lol - just did my research on the parts listed, which were just the RAM, CPU and GPU) and having just gotten into anything even remotely technical where PCs are concerned, didn't know of how significant the role of the PSU was. I haven't had any problems in the past few months other than those two kits of RAM, though.
 
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Luminary

Luminary

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Nov 29, 2015
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"I see. So the program had absolutely nothing to do with this, at all?"

Correct.

You'll just have to take small steps in terms of upgrading over time if that is something you're interested in pursuing. A decent new PSU will run you between $50-60, and since you KNOW you already have a faulty motherboard that is another piece of hardware that can easily hover around $80 for a decent quality item.

As long as you're up and running for now that's the most important thing. If you're able to save up some money for replacement parts the folks here on Tom's will always be happy to help recommend upgrades once you're ready for them.
 
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Solution
G

GamerJak

Commendable
Oct 25, 2016
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1,510

I am still unsure about that however, mainly because there's been no problem with these sticks of RAM yet, or with anything else. Could it have been that the RAM kits were just shipped faulty? I've heard bad things about brands that weren't a particular few (mainly "Don't bother" "high failure rates" etc) and Rocksoul certainly wasn't among them. Or if they weren't, could the problem just be those RAM slots?
 
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Luminary

Luminary

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Nov 29, 2015
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Rocksoul isn't known to be a particularly good manufacturer of RAM, so yes that very likely could have been the problem. In addition, it also isn't unheard of for even the best manufacturers like Kingston or Crucial to have a bad pair every once in awhile.

Overall it is very likely that the problem was simply bad RAM modules from a unreliable manufacturer.
 
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GamerJak

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Oct 25, 2016
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I see. Thank you everyone for your help!
 
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