- Sep 18, 2016
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- 1,510
Just in case you don't read all the way through, I want to put out a huge thank you to all the experts on this forum for their opinions and advice that I found via google when I was looking up my problems. I am going to share my experience here to give that some context and also to reinforce some advice that might have otherwise been overlooked.
My PC was old, very old, and I decided to just start replacing components on a budget to get a more future proof solution to my computer needs. My first purchase started off at Memory Express ( wonderful place if you live near it ) where I got a AMD A6-7400 processor, ASUS A68KM-H motherboard, and a single stick of G.Skill Ripsaw 8GB 1600mhz ram for $200/cad. Now, I strongly advise researching this stuff instead of saying, like I did, "Hey, my AMD Athlon II X2 245 blows, $200 should be great!". The FM2+ socket motherboard I got is a performance dead end and tailored for people that want cheap and effective integrated graphics solutions, I.E. not me. Anyhow, I swapped motherboards, reinstalled, and beheld the performance increase.
After that I started getting antsy, the kind of antsy that makes you want to upgrade more, and more, and I let it go for a bit. Replaced a GeForce 740 with a GTX 950, which was a decent upgrade. Then I got the very real impression that the graphics card was severely capped by my processor, and true enough, it was a 1MB cache, single physical core relic. Better than the 245, for sure, but in many ways crippled in the same veins. Not the future proof processor I wanted. I turned around and replaced that with a AMD A10-7700k memory express had on sale for $86/cad.
Having read the reviews on the chipset I made sure to pick up a T2 Cool Master aftermarker heatsink/cooler. http://www.memoryexpress.com/Products/MX55850 . It seemed like the thing to do, reviews on the chipset ranted about how hot it ran. Now, installing the processor I kinda slipped, and it fell out of my fingers and into my chassis. I didn't think too much of it, on inspection it appeared fine, and on installation it worked perfectly.
A week later I got a bit antsy again. Now people will tell you that RAM speed doesn't matter for gaming, and I'm going to jump in and say that while results are inconclusive generally, they tend to favour the "It's irrelevant" camp. But you know what DOES help, going from a single stick to two sticks working in dual-channel mode! So I replaced both my 8 y/o power supply ( M/B caused my system to shut down once saying my powersupply surged and give it's age I decided a fancy 650 modular powersupply would be a wise investment anyway, EVGA one, they have really good brand reviews ) and got a two pack of Kingston HyperX 1600Mhz 8gb ram sticks for 16gb in total.
Here's where it gets fun. Motherboard recognized both sticks in the bios, but told me I had a total of 8GB of ram. Windows 10 said I had 16GB of ram, but only 7.94 was usable. I lost my proverbial shit. I googled left right and center, where could my problem be. BIOS settings, no, Windows settings, no, faulty stick, no. A bunch of you wise gentlemen said something about a bent pin on a CPU being a possible culprit, and you know, I thought that was ridiculous. How does that work? How could that be it without giving any other symptoms? But I tell you what, when I removed my CPU and checked it out, sure as hell exactly ONE pin was bent in right onto another pin, and I tell you, using tweezers to pull it back, and then running a debit card along the tracks between the pins (another tip I got from this site, thank you very much, brilliant tip ) fixed it up nicely. I used rubbing alcohol to clear the thermal paste, reapplied, and reseated it. Booted up, and now my RAM problem appeared gone, but even if I touched my computer it froze.
Yea, if I so much as pushed it an inch it locked up, and I had to reseat the CPU just to get it to boot again. Turns out I didn't seat it properly the first time, and any of the subsequent times. The locking bar for the CPU wasn't pulled far enough to properly seat the CPU for locking, and the Heatsink was pushing it in just enough to work, but any movement would jeopardize the setup. So, I had to reseat it.. uh... properly... I've been doing computer stuff for over 20 years, and built at least 6 machines from scratch. I'm living in noobie hour here.
So after I got that done, and reseated the heatsink in such a manner that it didn't put too much pressure on the cpu ( It appeared to matter, and god this heatsink/cooler <<edited by moderator>> sucks for mounting ). I booted up, gloated at my 16gb of ram, and then my computer froze. Couldn't go 15-60 minutes without a freeze. Temperatures, fine. Was it tied to any kind of activity? No, actually coincided with idle time, not usage. It would happen when I got up to get a drink, but be fine playing games for 20 minutes. Now, I googled a lot for this one, and a lot of the explanations for random freezing seem to point towards RAM. But my RAM WAS FINE! It was... sigh... I almost lost my sanity.... Till I went to my BIOS on a hunch from a tip I saw here. RAM Voltage - Auto - 1.65V. The chips I got are 1.5V sticks. Now, thanks to you genius' I know that RAM is designed to survive under 1.9V, but isn't designed necessarily to function under circumstances that are outside of it's voltage design parameters. Some RAM overclocks well, some doesn't. I don't know why my M/B defaulted to 1.65V. I saw that option before and sometimes it was 1.5, others 1.65, but it never seemed to matter before, but just to be proper, and just because SOME people here said overvolting ram can cause system stability issues, I forced it down to 1.5v.
I haven't had a system lockup since. Now, I want all of you to know that google searches for computer problems almost always come to this forum, and I don't know how many people you've helped that way, but you helped me. Thanks for the wisdom, the learning, and THANK YOU for not making me throw my PC out a window. Anyone having similar problems, I hope my testimony pushes you further towards a solution even it at first the solution seems like a long shot, or even a bit of a stretch. I've been there, and here I am now. Wiser and more humble.
My PC was old, very old, and I decided to just start replacing components on a budget to get a more future proof solution to my computer needs. My first purchase started off at Memory Express ( wonderful place if you live near it ) where I got a AMD A6-7400 processor, ASUS A68KM-H motherboard, and a single stick of G.Skill Ripsaw 8GB 1600mhz ram for $200/cad. Now, I strongly advise researching this stuff instead of saying, like I did, "Hey, my AMD Athlon II X2 245 blows, $200 should be great!". The FM2+ socket motherboard I got is a performance dead end and tailored for people that want cheap and effective integrated graphics solutions, I.E. not me. Anyhow, I swapped motherboards, reinstalled, and beheld the performance increase.
After that I started getting antsy, the kind of antsy that makes you want to upgrade more, and more, and I let it go for a bit. Replaced a GeForce 740 with a GTX 950, which was a decent upgrade. Then I got the very real impression that the graphics card was severely capped by my processor, and true enough, it was a 1MB cache, single physical core relic. Better than the 245, for sure, but in many ways crippled in the same veins. Not the future proof processor I wanted. I turned around and replaced that with a AMD A10-7700k memory express had on sale for $86/cad.
Having read the reviews on the chipset I made sure to pick up a T2 Cool Master aftermarker heatsink/cooler. http://www.memoryexpress.com/Products/MX55850 . It seemed like the thing to do, reviews on the chipset ranted about how hot it ran. Now, installing the processor I kinda slipped, and it fell out of my fingers and into my chassis. I didn't think too much of it, on inspection it appeared fine, and on installation it worked perfectly.
A week later I got a bit antsy again. Now people will tell you that RAM speed doesn't matter for gaming, and I'm going to jump in and say that while results are inconclusive generally, they tend to favour the "It's irrelevant" camp. But you know what DOES help, going from a single stick to two sticks working in dual-channel mode! So I replaced both my 8 y/o power supply ( M/B caused my system to shut down once saying my powersupply surged and give it's age I decided a fancy 650 modular powersupply would be a wise investment anyway, EVGA one, they have really good brand reviews ) and got a two pack of Kingston HyperX 1600Mhz 8gb ram sticks for 16gb in total.
Here's where it gets fun. Motherboard recognized both sticks in the bios, but told me I had a total of 8GB of ram. Windows 10 said I had 16GB of ram, but only 7.94 was usable. I lost my proverbial shit. I googled left right and center, where could my problem be. BIOS settings, no, Windows settings, no, faulty stick, no. A bunch of you wise gentlemen said something about a bent pin on a CPU being a possible culprit, and you know, I thought that was ridiculous. How does that work? How could that be it without giving any other symptoms? But I tell you what, when I removed my CPU and checked it out, sure as hell exactly ONE pin was bent in right onto another pin, and I tell you, using tweezers to pull it back, and then running a debit card along the tracks between the pins (another tip I got from this site, thank you very much, brilliant tip ) fixed it up nicely. I used rubbing alcohol to clear the thermal paste, reapplied, and reseated it. Booted up, and now my RAM problem appeared gone, but even if I touched my computer it froze.
Yea, if I so much as pushed it an inch it locked up, and I had to reseat the CPU just to get it to boot again. Turns out I didn't seat it properly the first time, and any of the subsequent times. The locking bar for the CPU wasn't pulled far enough to properly seat the CPU for locking, and the Heatsink was pushing it in just enough to work, but any movement would jeopardize the setup. So, I had to reseat it.. uh... properly... I've been doing computer stuff for over 20 years, and built at least 6 machines from scratch. I'm living in noobie hour here.
So after I got that done, and reseated the heatsink in such a manner that it didn't put too much pressure on the cpu ( It appeared to matter, and god this heatsink/cooler <<edited by moderator>> sucks for mounting ). I booted up, gloated at my 16gb of ram, and then my computer froze. Couldn't go 15-60 minutes without a freeze. Temperatures, fine. Was it tied to any kind of activity? No, actually coincided with idle time, not usage. It would happen when I got up to get a drink, but be fine playing games for 20 minutes. Now, I googled a lot for this one, and a lot of the explanations for random freezing seem to point towards RAM. But my RAM WAS FINE! It was... sigh... I almost lost my sanity.... Till I went to my BIOS on a hunch from a tip I saw here. RAM Voltage - Auto - 1.65V. The chips I got are 1.5V sticks. Now, thanks to you genius' I know that RAM is designed to survive under 1.9V, but isn't designed necessarily to function under circumstances that are outside of it's voltage design parameters. Some RAM overclocks well, some doesn't. I don't know why my M/B defaulted to 1.65V. I saw that option before and sometimes it was 1.5, others 1.65, but it never seemed to matter before, but just to be proper, and just because SOME people here said overvolting ram can cause system stability issues, I forced it down to 1.5v.
I haven't had a system lockup since. Now, I want all of you to know that google searches for computer problems almost always come to this forum, and I don't know how many people you've helped that way, but you helped me. Thanks for the wisdom, the learning, and THANK YOU for not making me throw my PC out a window. Anyone having similar problems, I hope my testimony pushes you further towards a solution even it at first the solution seems like a long shot, or even a bit of a stretch. I've been there, and here I am now. Wiser and more humble.
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