Question New 5600X build only work with 1 memory stick, no matter which. Faulty CPU memory controller?

[Hougy]

I bought a B550M Aorus Elite, a 5600X and 2x 8Gb of 3200 16-20-20-40 Netac Shadow RAM. All the other parts I'm keeping from my old PC (500W PSU, GTX 970, SSD).

When I do some things that requires higher stress like gaming and decompressing video the PC suddenly shuts down. I can make it happen consistently in around 3 minutes by playing this video

in 4k HDR AV1. My GPU doesn't have AV1 hardware decoder.

Surprisingly, when I remove one of the memory sticks, no matter which one, the PC is able to run the same video for hours. The slot I put the single stick or the 2 sticks don't matter, the results are the same. The CPU and memory were always tested in stock configurations (DDR4 2660 stock timings).

I ran Windows memory diagnostic tools and memtest86 and they didn't find problems.

I have until today to decide if I want to return it. Do you know what could be faulty and what could be tried? I'm really desperate here. What if I keep it but use only a single stick?

 

[VirtualLarry]

I watched that video set to 4K60, on my Pentium Gold 7505 laptop with 20GB DDR4 to the end. My laptop is only 1080P, and I couldn't select an 8K option. Playback was smooth.
Windows 11. Haven't explicitly downloaded and installed MS AV1 codec; maybe I should check if pre-installed.

I believe that it is "Tiger Lake" with baseline "Xe graphics".

 

[Shmee]

I would normally test the RAM and CPU thoroughly, but since you may not have much time on a return window, I would likely exchange the CPU for a replacement, and return the RAM and get a better kit. Gskill is often quite good with Ryzen CPUs, and they seem to have good support.

From what you told me, I would also be leaning toward a CPU memory controller issue, where it was not stable with your RAM and current settings.

 

[igor_kavinski]

From what you told me, I would also be leaning toward a CPU memory controller issue, where it was not stable with your RAM and current settings.

Go with G.Skill or Kingston RAM. First time I found out that Netac is a brand when I saw a Netac M2 SATA SSD in a cheap Gateway laptop.

 

[In2Photos]

Are you on the latest BIOS?

 

[Hougy]

I would normally test the RAM and CPU thoroughly, but since you may not have much time on a return window, I would likely exchange the CPU for a replacement, and return the RAM and get a better kit. Gskill is often quite good with Ryzen CPUs, and they seem to have good support.

From what you told me, I would also be leaning toward a CPU memory controller issue, where it was not stable with your RAM and current settings.

I tested them for like 8 hours in windows extended memory test and memtest86, an error was never found.

Could it be possible that the PC would work in dual channel if I choose other mode for the ram other than the default 2660 MT/s and the XMP profile advertised, both of which I tested and both quickly crash? What could I try?

What CPU tests should I try?

 

[Hougy]

I watched that video set to 4K60, on my Pentium Gold 7505 laptop with 20GB DDR4 to the end. My laptop is only 1080P, and I couldn't select an 8K option. Playback was smooth.
Windows 11. Haven't explicitly downloaded and installed MS AV1 codec; maybe I should check if pre-installed.

I believe that it is "Tiger Lake" with baseline "Xe graphics".

Just out of curiosity. If you want to replicate you need to go to youtube playback settings and tell youtube to always use AV1. Then you use the latest Chrome on an HDR monitor and choose 4K playback. It won't crash in your computer because it's not defective like mine

 

[Hougy]

I now ran AIDA64 and the PC crashed after 10 seconds twice. I ran all the tests at the same time. I will now test each one individually to see which ones causes the PC to crash

 

[VirtualLarry]

Then you use the latest Chrome on an HDR monitor

Are your GPU drivers up-to-date? What happens if you disable HW video playback accelleration in Chrome? Have you tried Firefox or Edge for playback?

 

[Hougy]

Are your GPU drivers up-to-date? What happens if you disable HW video playback accelleration in Chrome? Have you tried Firefox or Edge for playback?

They are up to date and I don't think the GPU is the issue because it's old and it has always worked. I don't think AV1 decoding use GPU hardware acceleration because it's an GTX 970. I'm not using video tests anymore because I found out that AIDA64 is a much more reliable way of making the PC crash.

But now I found a repair store near me that will test it, so it's not in my hand anymore for now

 

[Hougy]

I ran each of the AIDA 64 tests and none of them alone made the PC crash after 5 minutes. As I said, if I ran all at the same times it crashes in 10s twice.

I then removed one of the sticks and ran all 6 tests and it doesn't crash after 20 minutes.

Is the Ryzen 5000 memory controller on the CPU always and not the motherboard?

 

[igor_kavinski]

Is the Ryzen 5000 memory controller on the CPU always and not the motherboard?

Both Intel and AMD CPUs have IMCs (integrated memory controllers). Memory controller used to be in the Northbridge chip of the motherboard before AMD K8 and Intel Nehalem CPUs.

If you still had your PC, you could have tried loosening the timings in the UEFI/BIOS to CL17 or CL18.

 

[DAPUNISHER]

Let us know what the shop says.

As far as your own troubleshoot, did you ever test the system with the ram at 2133MHz?

 

[Hougy]

Both Intel and AMD CPUs have IMCs (integrated memory controllers). Memory controller used to be in the Northbridge chip of the motherboard before AMD K8 and Intel Nehalem CPUs.

If you still had your PC, you could have tried loosening the timings in the UEFI/BIOS to CL17 or CL18.

Let us know what the shop says.

As far as your own troubleshoot, did you ever test the system with the ram at 2133MHz?

I didn't know I could try even more relaxed timings and frequencies. I thought the default 2660 MHz JDEC frequency and timings were guaranteed to be stable

 

[In2Photos]

Are you on the latest BIOS?

Did you get a chance to check your BIOS version?

 

[Hougy]

Did you get a chance to check your BIOS version?

It's the latest stable BIOS, Windows 11 wouldn't even install without it. I also installed the latest chipset software

 

[Hougy]

I already told aliexpress that I want to return the motherboard + CPU kit and want a full return. The legislation of my country says that we have the right to return it for free and get a full refund, even if it's working, as long as it's been less than 7 days. But aliexpress doesn't obey the law and they offered to let me keep it and receive 1/10 of the price I paid back. I'm not sure if I can force them to follow the law, I will investigate.

If I end up keeping it, I think a kit with this problem is tolerable and worth around 100 USD less than if it weren't defective

 

[igor_kavinski]

You must have gotten a really good deal to have gone with Aliexpress for a new build. I got my i7-5775C and mobo from there. Had tons of headaches and it all ended with Kingston 1866 MHz RAM. My Corsair RAM refused to play nice so now it's collecting dust.

 

[Hougy]

You must have gotten a really good deal to have gone with Aliexpress for a new build. I got my i7-5775C and mobo from there. Had tons of headaches and it all ended with Kingston 1866 MHz RAM. My Corsair RAM refused to play nice so now it's collecting dust.

I don't really like Aliexpress for this kind of product but here it's almost half the price compared to buying from local stores, so I thought it was worth the risk.

I didn't really understand what you meant. The kit you got from Aliexpress turned out to be ok and the RAM you bought locally was the problem?

 

[Hougy]

I watched that video set to 4K60, on my Pentium Gold 7505 laptop with 20GB DDR4 to the end. My laptop is only 1080P, and I couldn't select an 8K option. Playback was smooth.
Windows 11. Haven't explicitly downloaded and installed MS AV1 codec; maybe I should check if pre-installed.

I believe that it is "Tiger Lake" with baseline "Xe graphics".

I'm almost sure Tiger Lake has hardware AV1 decoder on the GPU. Maybe it wouldn't run smooth if it was using software AV1 decoder, but maybe it would because 8-bit SDR is 4x less CPU intensive than 10-bit HDR. My 5600X drops 80% of the frames

 

[igor_kavinski]

I didn't really understand what you meant. The kit you got from Aliexpress turned out to be ok and the RAM you bought locally was the problem?

Corsair RAM was working fine with my i7-3770. It just didn't like the Gigabyte mobo I got from Aliexpress so I had to buy new Kingston RAM.

 

[Hougy]

Corsair RAM was working fine with my i7-3770. It just didn't like the Gigabyte mobo I got from Aliexpress so I had to buy new Kingston RAM.

That's bizarre

Let us know what the shop says.

As far as your own troubleshoot, did you ever test the system with the ram at 2133MHz?

They told me that after switching the PSU to another one that's also 500W AIDA64 is able to run all stress tests at the same time using both sticks.

What's strange is that the 2500k is supposed to be a 95W CPU while the 5600X a 65W CPU and the GPU is not under full load while decompressing that youtube video, only the CPU.

What could be the possible explanation here?

 

[igor_kavinski]

What could be the possible explanation here?

Only thing I can think of is that your old PSU is nearing its end of life.

 

[VirtualLarry]

Only thing I can think of is that your old PSU is nearing its end of life.

OP built newer rig, but kept older PSU? Could well be the issue. Actually, if the prior rig was pre-Haswell, then that almost certainly is the issue, as older PSUs don't support the low-power +12V states that the newer systems utilize.

 

[bononos]

I already told aliexpress that I want to return the motherboard + CPU kit and want a full return. The legislation of my country says that we have the right to return it for free and get a full refund, even if it's working, as long as it's been less than 7 days. But aliexpress doesn't obey the law and they offered to let me keep it and receive 1/10 of the price I paid back. I'm not sure if I can force them to follow the law, I will investigate.

If I end up keeping it, I think a kit with this problem is tolerable and worth around 100 USD less than if it weren't defective

Aliexpress? No wonder, never heard of the Chinese netac brand until now.