Is it normal that my RAM sticks are inaccessible due to a large CPU heat sink?

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darthdeus

darthdeus

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Jun 23, 2015
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I have i7-5820K on MSI X99A SLI PLUS, which came with a free CPU cooler Scythe Ninja Scnj-4000 4

Now I've been having issues with my RAM, and ran memtest86 only to find lots of errors. As usual, I wanted to test which module is causing the issue, so I opened up my case, and noticed that one of the modules is completely under the heat sink and can't be removed without the heat sink first.

In fact, most of the RAM slots on the motherboard are inaccessible. I only noticed this now after 2 years from buying this PC (I had it assembled in the store and haven't really touched it inside apart from adding HDDs and cleaning dust).

Is this normal? Is my heat sink too large? How do I test multiple combinations of slots/RAM modules when I'd have to remove the heat sink every time?
 
Solution
Zerk2012
If you have errors on the memory they usually need the whole set shipped back to them to be replaced as a matching set. Memory has a lifetime warranty.
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getochkn

getochkn

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Jul 2, 2006
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Well, if you had a store build it, and paid money to have a working system, I would bring it back to them to fix and find the issue. You could have been taking stuff apart and built on your own if you didn't spend that extra money and felt confident enough in building it yourself. Since you're not (and nothign wrong with that), then don't go poking around.
 
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darthdeus

darthdeus

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Jun 23, 2015
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The way it worked is that I picked the components as if I was building it myself, and they offered a free service to assemble it, without providing any additional warranty, which means I only have warranty on the components separately, not the system as a whole.

Another problem is that the case is quite heavy (nearly 20kg) and large in size, so I wouldn't want to bring it as a whole if at all possible anyway.

---

But anyway, I would like to build my next PC (or keep upgrading this one) myself, which brings me to my next question.

How should I test if this is a problem with the MB slot, or with one of the RAM sticks? So far I've only managed to test that if I remove the one that is accessible it doesn't fail anymore, which from what I've read either means the removed memory stick is broken, or the MB slot is broken.

Should I buy a small/cheap CPU cooler to make the MB slots more accessible while testing with memtest? Or is this too dangerous in terms of overheating the CPU?

Or alternatively, is it worth getting liquid cooling, which would both solve the problem of testing as it doesn't block the slots, and also make future RAM upgrades easier? Or should I rather stick with the Scythe Ninja 4 at the cost of removing/re-adding it a few times? Is that even good for the CPU to remove the heat sink once the thermal paste has been applied and it was stuck to it for a few years?
 
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darthdeus

darthdeus

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Jun 23, 2015
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It's working because I'm only using 8GB instead of 16GB, since I pulled out one of the sticks. I don't know however if the stick was faulty or if the MB slot was faulty.
 
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darthdeus

darthdeus

Honorable
Jun 23, 2015
29
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I was getting lots of different memory related errors, i.e. BSODs in Windows saying various paging errors, driver signature corruption at boot, and various memory corruption errors in Linux.

I ended up running a stress test (prime95) on the CPU, which it passed. Then I ran a GPU test with 3dmark just to be sure, there were also no issues. I also did chkdsk on all partitions and disks, some of which had some data corruption, but only on Windows.

After that, I ran memtest86+ from a bootable USB stick and it found 22 different errors. As per the documentation and interwebs, I pulled out one of my two memory sticks (2x8GB) and re-ran the memtest86+, which it then passed with no errors.

This lead me to believe (based on what I've read on the internets) that either the memory module I pulled out was faulty, or that the slot on the MB was faulty (or that they were misconfigured in BIOS, but since the issues started after a long time usage, I ruled that out after checking the timings in BIOS config).
 
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