Did Manjaro kill my RAM? Twice?

Hello,

unfortunately, my PC is dead for the second time now…
About a month ago, after setting my pc to standby (write state to ram) and trying to re-awake it later, I got a lit DRAM LED on my mainboard.
More or less the same happened to me again today.
I wrote a more detailed summary on the tomshardware forum:
(/threads/pc-not-passing-post-psu-or-mainboard-at-fault.3812852/)
Most of my thinking turned out to be wrong, so there is not much to learn there…

Here is a timeline:

  • Set PC to standby
  • Try starting PC again
  • DRAM led lit, no POST
  • Test RAM in friend’s pc → does work
  • Test friend’s RAM in my pc → does not work
  • Buy new mainboard → no change
  • Buy new PSU → no change
  • Buy new RAM? → DOES work
  • Accidentally let PC go into standby
  • Back at point 2

I must say, I am a bit lost at this now…
Is it really possible for the OS to just simply kill 3 day old RAM like this or did I just get insanely unlucky when buying RAM?

Specs:

  • I9 10900k
  • gtx 1050ti
  • Asus z490 gaming f
  • Old RAM: G.Skill Ripjaws V 2x 8Gb @ 3200MHz
  • New RAM: Corsair Vengeance LPX 2x 16Gb @ 3600MHz
  • Newest Manjaro with newest 6.3 kernel

I will be eternally grateful, if someone can tell me what is causing this / how to not kill my RAM in the future…

Best regards
Thorben

If your RAM breaks from switching into standby — i.e. suspend-to-RAM — then it is most probably a matter of an incorrect (and too high) voltage being applied to the RAM. This is not anything that Manjaro or, indeed, any other GNU/Linux distribution would be doing, but rather a matter of a serious bug in the UEFI or BIOS firmware.

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…or wrong bios settings. Like overclocking too much :slight_smile:

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If you bought the ram second-hand - it is possible.

I don’t think the OS killed the RAM.

What killed it - I don’t know - but thought presented by @Aragorn - is quite relevant.

Remember that complicated hardware like system boards and cpus contains software and some of that software can be contolled by means of firmware settings - have you tried to reset the firmware - in case of an unbootable system - removing the cmos battery - perhaps a jumper shortcircuit to reset firmware.

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Just a side hypothesis: is it possible that the “RAM Light” is actually a general bios warning light and indicates POST Error or video error or smth else? And have you tested if your PC goes in the correct suspend state like described here.
Frequently the pc reports deep sleep capability but it actually has only s2idle under linux, you need a kernel parameter to make it work, but it works out of the box in windows.

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