- Apr 30, 2015
- 33
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- 4,530
A few months ago I upgraded by motherboard to an ASUS Z170-A, and I made the dumb mistake of not realizing my DDR3 RAM wouldn't work with it. So the night of installing it I made an emergency rush to Best Buy and bought 16 GB (2x8GB) PNY Anarchy DDR4 RAM. From what I've read online it's supposed to be decent RAM, but the problem is it's not compatible with my motherboard (according to the long list of compatible RAM in the manual.)
So the Z170-A motherboard comes with a feature called "MemOK!" with a button on the motherboard that will make it tweak settings to accommodate incompatible types of RAM. So using that button I've been able to launch my computer and use it ever since I installed the RAM.
The problem is every once in a while an issue will come up all of a sudden. I think there have been about two incidents with the computer freezing or blue-screening out of nowhere, and then there have been plenty of times where I will have been playing a game (usually CSGO) for a while and suddenly it just gives out. Usually the game (on steam) will just crash with no message or anything, but a couple times it had done the same computer freeze where I've had to completely restart the machine.
It seems obvious to me that my RAM, being technically incompatible with my motherboard, would be the cause of this. But before I spend the money on some RAM sticks that are compatible, I want to see if there could be any other possible cause for these issues. Is there a possibility I received a faulty motherboard? Or something messed up between the CPU and the motherboard? (The new motherboard install was part of my switch to an intel processor, i5 6600K, using Corsair H80i GT liquid cpu cooler).
If anyone has any thoughts on the causes of this issue I would greatly appreciate it. If you think it's just the RAM, please let me know and I'll start looking for new 16GB RAM in a compatible brand (any recommendations on that would be helpful too).
So the Z170-A motherboard comes with a feature called "MemOK!" with a button on the motherboard that will make it tweak settings to accommodate incompatible types of RAM. So using that button I've been able to launch my computer and use it ever since I installed the RAM.
The problem is every once in a while an issue will come up all of a sudden. I think there have been about two incidents with the computer freezing or blue-screening out of nowhere, and then there have been plenty of times where I will have been playing a game (usually CSGO) for a while and suddenly it just gives out. Usually the game (on steam) will just crash with no message or anything, but a couple times it had done the same computer freeze where I've had to completely restart the machine.
It seems obvious to me that my RAM, being technically incompatible with my motherboard, would be the cause of this. But before I spend the money on some RAM sticks that are compatible, I want to see if there could be any other possible cause for these issues. Is there a possibility I received a faulty motherboard? Or something messed up between the CPU and the motherboard? (The new motherboard install was part of my switch to an intel processor, i5 6600K, using Corsair H80i GT liquid cpu cooler).
If anyone has any thoughts on the causes of this issue I would greatly appreciate it. If you think it's just the RAM, please let me know and I'll start looking for new 16GB RAM in a compatible brand (any recommendations on that would be helpful too).
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