RAM crashing PC under specific circumstances

Madra98

Hey guys,

I was wondering if you could help me with this issue. So I picked up a second hand PC on Ebay - it had obviously been cobbled together from leftover bits 'n bobs in a shop, but it had some real promise. When I received it though I noticed the ram was garbage. The motherboard has 4 slots and they were 4x1gb sticks, all different brands and specs - one of them a brand I've never even heard of from China.

The PC ran okay, but in games like Skyrim I had some lag when strafing and looking around - which I assumed was a VRAM issue.

So I bought 4x2gb KINGSTON DDR3-1333 PC3-10600 240 PIN RAM sticks on EBAY.

It was just as I expected - the computer was lightening fast with the new RAM and Skyrim was stutter and lag free - for exactly 3 minutes. I mean exactly 3 minutes every time I try to play it. And Atilla Total War also. I get 3 minutes then the screen locks and a horrendous, ear-piercing shriek plays on loop. It is just in those 2 games, and when I put the old ram in again they are fine.

I've run memory tests and diagnostics, they all report the RAM is fine, it is up and running and there are no issues.

Any ideas as this is killing me, I got the RAM only to play Skyrim so this is a right kick below the belt as it is the only game that won't actually work with the new RAM.


PC SPECS:

Wind. Premium 7 Sp1
Intel Corporation DQ67OW (SKTH)
Core i3 2120
Nvidia GeForce 740 (ASUS 2gb Edit). DDR3
(currently) 8GB (4 X 2gb matched pairs) Kingston DDR3-1333

Lu Tze

Madra98 wrote: »

Hey guys,

I was wondering if you could help me with this issue. So I picked up a second hand PC on Ebay - it had obviously been cobbled together from leftover bits 'n bobs in a shop, but it had some real promise. When I received it though I noticed the ram was garbage. The motherboard has 4 slots and they were 4x1gb sticks, all different brands and specs - one of them a brand I've never even heard of from China.

The PC ran okay, but in games like Skyrim I had some lag when strafing and looking around - which I assumed was a VRAM issue.

So I bought 4x2gb KINGSTON DDR3-1333 PC3-10600 240 PIN RAM sticks on EBAY.

It was just as I expected - the computer was lightening fast with the new RAM and Skyrim was stutter and lag free - for exactly 3 minutes. I mean exactly 3 minutes every time I try to play it. And Atilla Total War also. I get 3 minutes then the screen locks and a horrendous, ear-piercing shriek plays on loop. It is just in those 2 games, and when I put the old ram in again they are fine.

I've run memory tests and diagnostics, they all report the RAM is fine, it is up and running and there are no issues.

Any ideas as this is killing me, I got the RAM only to play Skyrim so this is a right kick below the belt as it is the only game that won't actually work with the new RAM.


PC SPECS:

Wind. Premium 7 Sp1
Intel Corporation DQ67OW (SKTH)
Core i3 2120
Nvidia GeForce 740 (ASUS 2gb Edit). DDR3
(currently) 8GB (4 X 2gb matched pairs) Kingston DDR3-1333

What test did you run? Memtest from a bootable USB?

Did you try running it with only one stick at a time? And in different slots?

Madra98

Hi Lu,

I tried both the inbuilt memory test and MemTest86.

I've tried different slots but it's all the same. It's 99.999999% perfect. It just seems to be those two games.

TerrorFirmer

I know it's not the core issue but a GT740 is a very, very weak card and even in an older game like Skyrim is not the best performer. 4GB system ram is actually plenty for core Skyrim unless you have a lot of intensive mods installed. With regards the ram issue, could be a simple board compatiability issue if tests reveal nothing.

Lu Tze

Maybe try to manually set the ram settings/timings in the bios

Cuddlesworth

Create a linux mint live install on a usb using RUFUS

Install Google Stress App test by running this command in a terminal window "sudo apt-get install stresstestapp", then to run the app "stressapptest -W -s 3600".

K.O.Kiki

Do you get 3-minute crash in Windows desktop?
Or watching youtube / downloaded movie files?

How about other 3D games?

Madra98

I had a good look through my Skyrim mods - I thought I might find issue there (I have 83 mods installed) I found one mod that specifically asked Skyrim to draw on 4gb of ram. I disabled that but no luck. Still crashed.

So I tried Lu's advice, went into the Bios and after a good bit of trial and error all is fine with a few tweaked settings. Thanks, Lu.

Thanks also to all of you for taking the time to respond, it is highly appreciated.