I got a really weird problem.
Two years ago bought a set of 4x DDR4 3200 16gb each, single sided and placed them in a ryzen 5600 desktop computer, which i almost never turned it off. It worked without issue.
This weekend I wanted to dust off the PC, so I took all the components out, replaced the thermal paste and so on.
Turned on the PC again, worked apparently without issues until after a while Linux was pissed about going out of memory. Out of memory? With 64gb of RAM? I checked with dmidecode -t memory and I saw that a channel was reporting completely empty.
Shut down the PC, reinserted the second channel, rebooted, saw 64gb. One hour later, kernel panic. Rebooted in memtest86+, error in memory. What? Removed one module, error. Removed two modules, no error. Switched the modules, no error. What??
Placed the two modules that are passing the test in another computer, error. Put back in the original computer, pass test. AAAAAAAAAAAAAAA
Now I downclocked from 3200 to 2400 and everything seems working fine.
What could be? Have I been cursed?
After a few reinsertions do the slots degrade to a point that can’t sustain 3200 anymore?
You put new thermal paste on things? Did you remove the CPU as well? You could have damaged some pins there too.
The delay in the failure sounds like it could be as the components expand with heat.
Take it apart and look at all the pins of both the RAM, RAM slot, and CPU (if you removed that) for any damage.
i put the new thermal stuff only on the cpu, specifically that new honeywell material. It’s a bit smaller than the cpu, ordered 3x3 cm measuring a core i3 that i had on hand, while the ryzen has a bigger IHS and fits better with a 4x4 cm
i’m thinking maybe i tightened the cooler too much but it’s the OEM one, so it shouldn’t allow overtightening because has the stoppers on the threads… unless the honeywell pad is too thick for that