PC memory issue?

abibee

I've been having freezes and lock-ups ever since my computer was born (it is a self-build). Am I right in thinking it's probably a memory issue? If I got new memory is it just a case of swapping it over? There won't be any issues with Windows 10 or anything?

I see 2x4Gb for about £33 on Amazon, which isn't too pricey I think.

Tropez

Could be various things, to be honest. Would need more information.

You can run something like Memtest to run diagnostics on the memory.

On my most recent self-build, I had occasional freezes and BSODs. Turned out it was an issue with Intel's RST implementation of LMP not playing nicely with my SSD - which I hadn't even realised was enabled.

forgotmyname

Yes its a simple case of swapping it over, but why do you assume its the memory?

Is the hardware compatible and on the list of supported brands?

Does the PSU have enough power on all the rails?

What BIOS / UEFI settings have you selected?
RAM timings?

Tested it not in a windows enviroment to eliminate OS and driver issues?

esuhl

I'd suspect some of the things rather than it being a memory problem.

Is there a BIOS update available?

Ben84

This problem can be caused by many things, both hardware and software. A bad power supply for example can cause this problem, or a bad software driver.

Memory however is possible, and if you have more than one memory card installed you can simply try using them one at a time and see how it performs. The assumption I'm making is if you have two or more cards and there's a memory fault, it's probably just the one card, not all of them.

abibee

Hmm, I don't suppose it can be diagnosed properly then, not by me as I'm far from expert, my knowledge is limited. Even as I was going to post this my browser (FF) froze-up. Same thing happens in any browser. It's not a FF profile issue as I did a clean install of Windows on Monday.

This was the case with Win 8.1 previously, and now Win 10. Specs of everything I got were good, good brand of PSU. It was built in 2014, so everything's still new and well supported.

There is a bios update available, but I'm scared of doing a bios update, as I've read horror stories. The motherboard is dual bios, if that helps any.

http://www.gigabyte.com/products/product-page.aspx?pid=4716#ov

esuhl

DualBIOS?! Cool! That means you have an extra safety net if a BIOS update fails!

http://www.gigabyte.com/microsite/55/tech_081226_dualbios.htm

I'd definitely try a BIOS update before anything else.

psychic_teabag

As Tropez said, you can run a free standalone memory tester on your pc.

http://www.memtest.org/#downiso looks like it has a downloadable version which will prepare a bootable usb stick. Having done that, you can reboot your pc from that and it will start up a fairly exhaustive memory tester.

(I've not tried this one - I have copy on a bootable cdrom.)

abibee

I've bookmarked the memtest link.

I've also just updated the bios via the @bios tool from Gigabyte. I think it went well (touch wood). See if that makes a difference first.

I appreciate the assistance.

prowla

Depending upon your BIOS, it may support a memory test.

pappa_golf

bios F5 and later improve memory support , what memory have you got in it now (speed and number of)