Memory or board issue?

[carmik]

Just bought a used motherboard/cpu and memory from a bloke. The specifications are the following:

* CPU: AMX FX6300, stock fan
* Board: MSI 760GMA-P34 FX (MS-7641), BIOS V25.1 (although checking the site did not produce any such BIOS version)
* Memory: 2 DIMM sticks of Crucial Ballistix Elite (PC3-10700H, BLE4G3D1608DE1TX0, see also https://www.crucial.com/wcsstore/CrucialSAS/pdf/product-flyer/ballistix/productflyer-crucial-ballistix-elite-en.pdf )

For graphics I am using the onboard gpu

Just a single 2.5 HDD drive connected for the purposes of testing first this thing. The system was bought in 2013 with a single DIMM stick. A couple of months later a stick of the same type was bought.

I bought this used set (board, CPU, mem) and after installing Win 7 and later on 10, either through the upgrade or via a clean Win 10 install, I came upon a large number of BSODs. To complicate things further, there was a variety of stop codes. These were reduced with the clean Windows 10 install, but not gone. Opening the dumps with windbg, there were some references to an amd dll, but nothing too concrete.

At this point I changed power supplies to eliminate the possibility of having a faulty PSU. Right now I have a Corsair CX650 unit connected, with the same behaviour.

I also used hwinfo to monitor the system and DIMM temps, I believe that all looked good here, although not an expert in this area.

Feeling this was either a board or a memory issue, I started running a memtest. I allowed it to run for a single pass only, but with nothing concrete. Frustrated, I removed the second DIMM (let's call it dimm B). From that point onwards the system has been behaving without a hitch. I did notice that the memory did reduce by 4Gb (hence, dimm B was "visible" at start). Then I removed the "working" (let's call it dimm A) dimm and installed B in its place. This time the system did not boot at all!

I moved B from slot 1 to 2. Same result. Remove B and installed A back to slot 1. This time the system booted happily.

I took B to my son's rig, an Asrock B85M Pro4/i5 4590k system, from which I removed all memory and installed B alone. System booted up fine! This time I intend to leave it running prime95 (at the test maximum ram setting) and then memtest for 10 tests at least, as suggested elsewhere.

Two questions:

1) What else can I do to isolate the cause of the problem, in case dimm B passes prime95 and memtest tests on my son's rig?

2) Is there any chance I could present my "case" to Corsair and ask for an RMA of dimm B.

(Note: yes, it should be evident that I believe that memory problems are at play here. If someone can point alternatives, I'd be more than happy to hear them)

 

[DRagor]

From the tests you made on your machine, I would call dimm B dead. Then it worked on another mobo. Surprise. And rather unexpected twist. Well, as you test dimm B on son's machine, why don't you drop his ram onto your machine and do the tests? It would help to determine if your motherboard is okay.

 

[carmik]

Well, as you test dimm B on son's machine, why don't you drop his ram onto your machine and do the tests? It would help to determine if your motherboard is okay.

Well, I did run prime95 and 3 memtest86 (version 5.x) cycles but no issue was produced on my son's rig with the B DIMM. Following your suggestion, I installed his 8Gb G.Skill DIMM on the questionable motherboard, alongside the working DIMM A. Run prime95 for 2+ hours. Then I tried to open a firefox window while prime95 was running and BANG, hard reboot without even any BSOD dump...

So it seems it is a motherboard issue after all. Which is pretty bad, since the Crucial sticks are in guarantee, but the board ain't. I could return it to the seller, but I'd hate to do the return and search for another board (again).

I'd consider leaving the single Crucial stick alone on the system, it's rock steady like that.

 

[DRagor]

The reason I never buy motherboard with only 2 ram slots - if something goes bad, you're left with only one working slot, and that hurts.
Anyway, if one stick works, that gives you time to think about what to do next, with still working machine (even if performance is not good).

 

[carmik]

Got this RAM/board/2xDIMM combo for 100 euros, so I'm pretty sure I've got more that I bargained for I do agree with you here.

Bad thing is that there is no DRAM compatibility list for this board, and the BIOS installed (P10) seems to be newer than the latest available for download (P1). Go figure...

EDIT: I've added a slower / smaller 1Gb DIMM to reduce clocks and I'll watch out how that one goes...

 

[DRagor]

As for ram compatibility, there you go: https://www.msi.com/file/test_report/TR10_2887.pdf
As for BIOS, you got me there scratching my head too

 

[carmik]

Amazing you've managed to find the compatibility list!

Adding the slower 1Gb DDR1333 DIMM has made the system stable. I've now reinstalled DIMM B on the system and forced a 1333 speed. Hope it keeps fine there!

 

[DRagor]

So the ram was running originally at 1600 MHz or more? This could be it. The higher the speed above base, the more problems can appear, both on ram and motherboard side. Usually, if system works fine with lower speed but crashes at higher speed, you can try increasing voltage just a little bit to make it stable with higher speed (just make sure not to set voltage above stick specs).

 

[carmik]

So the ram was running originally at 1600 MHz or more? This could be it. The higher the speed above base, the more problems can appear, both on ram and motherboard side. Usually, if system works fine with lower speed but crashes at higher speed, you can try increasing voltage just a little bit to make it stable with higher speed (just make sure not to set voltage above stick specs).

Both crucial sticks were rated at 1600. And I did not O/C the board at all. Supposedly, 1600 ram was supported out of the box.

 

[DRagor]

Yes, it is often that DDR3 boards can run at 1600 MHz without any user change - but also it can cause problems when motherboard does not use correct settings.
One more thing to consider, is that you used 2 sticks not paired as a kit. This also often causes compatibility problems, even if sticks are identical (this could also be the cause of failure when you matched dimm A with your son's stick). Although that by no means could cause no-boot problem when using solely dimm B stick.