[SOLVED] Arch installation killed my RAM stick?

Worstarchuser · 2026-09-22 22:34:22

After new installation my system started behaving really weird and I found out that one of my RAM sticks is faulty. I was using my PC the entire day with no problems until that, so it must have happened during the installation process. Kinda strange. Anyways, did it again with the one stick left and all is good so far, so maybe just a coincidence.

Last edited by Worstarchuser (Today 13:39:02)

mpan · 2026-09-23 00:31:06

It is hard to comment on this, without knowing what “killed” and “faulty” means. But, generally speaking, neither Arch nor any other operating system could hurt RAM.

seth · 2026-09-23 06:41:01

If you want to know whether the DIMM is "faulty" see https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/Stress … Memtest86+ but as mpan pointed out: any OS would be an indicator, not the cause and RAM typically doesn't break from one minute to another lest a non-ignorable incident ("so, I left my notebook on the oven for 5 minutes and now it no longer boots => spaghetti must be bad for computers")

Worstarchuser · 2026-09-23 19:32:05

mpan wrote:

It is hard to comment on this, without knowing what “killed” and “faulty” means. But, generally speaking, neither Arch nor any other operating system could hurt RAM.

Everyone knows what it means... I did memtest which resulted in errors. It is fucked, useless, out of commission. And you never know what can or cannot destroy a piece of HW.

seth · 2026-09-23 19:49:04

* voltage
* heat (these two are also called "XMP")
* you're overclocking it
* you're pairing incompatible DIMMs
* market pressure leading to sub-par DIMMs being sold off
* time
* radiation
* god hates you
* pretty much everything else
* still not software I'm afraid

headkase · 2026-09-23 21:47:52

seth wrote:

* voltage
* heat (these two are also called "XMP")
* you're overclocking it
* you're pairing incompatible DIMMs
* market pressure leading to sub-par DIMMs being sold off
* time
* radiation
* god hates you
* pretty much everything else
* still not software I'm afraid

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Killer_poke

Though that probably didn't happen here in this case.

mpan · 2026-09-23 23:40:54

Worstarchuser wrote:

Everyone knows what it means...

No. Others do not share state of your mind and don’t see what you seen. Unless you tell them. “Killed” and “faulty” give zero technical insight. If you expect any reasonable evaluation of the situation, one has to know what exactly were and are the symptoms.

Worstarchuser wrote:

I did memtest which resulted in errors.

Great, that is already some information. You did not provide it earlier. This still doesn’t tell us what made you run memtest in the first place.

Worstarchuser wrote:

And you never know what can or cannot destroy a piece of HW.

While writing the title of this thread you seemed to have an opposite belief: you susggested system installation did it.

But in fact we can know what can and can’t destroy a piece of hardware. In this universe there is only a very tiny subset of things that can. Installation of an operating system is not among them. Even chances for OS installation to make a preëxisting issue evident are low.

Either way… do you have any actual questions? Initially I believed you do, but now I start having doubts.

seth · Yesterday 06:42:30

headkase wrote:

Though that probably didn't happen here in this case.

I was thinking about RAM specifically.
Interestingly it doesn't mention https://man.archlinux.org/man/hdparm.8#security-freeze (though technically the hardware remains undamaged it's a reliable way to effectively brick it)

And of course any old process can brick a raptor lake CPU

This still doesn’t tell us what made you run memtest in the first place.

seth wrote:

If you want to know whether the DIMM is "faulty" see https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/Stress … Memtest86+

"Divine intervention."

Worstarchuser · Yesterday 12:42:08

mpan wrote:

Either way… do you have any actual questions? Initially I believed you do, but now I start having doubts.

I wanted to see if there are more cases or if it was just coincidence.
And my experience was very similar to https://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php?id=314929. I got Ryzen 5500, MSI B550 A-Pro, 2x8Gb 3600Mhz Patriot

On my previous system I didn't have the "amd-ucore.img" in the boot folder. Possible that that might have done something.

seth · Yesterday 13:01:51

For genuinely broken RAM (memtest86+) it's coincidence.

Please always remember to mark resolved threads by editing your initial posts subject - so others will know that there's no task left, but maybe a solution to find.
Thanks.

mpan · Yesterday 21:24:46

“amd-ucore.img” or “amd-ucode.img”? I guess the latter and, if yes, it’s just microcode for your processor. Hypothetically, invalid microcode could cause CPU execute code incorrectly and exhibit errors mimicking data corruption. But loading a microcode update is transient: the changes disappear once the processor is reset. So memtest wouldn’t be affected. The bug in microcode would also be announced already.⁽¹⁾

Until there is a reason to think it’s otherwise, it must be taken as a coincidence. No symptoms were described that would make me think otherwise, so I have to stay with this initial guess: a coincidence.

Mind that even if you described symptoms pointing to something else than a coincidence, it would not be an OS installation causing it. Rather the installation either revealing an already existing fault, or triggering a brooding failure.
____
⁽¹⁾ We had a good example with Intel’s update on August 12th.

Last edited by mpan (Yesterday 21:27:20)

Arch Linux

#1 2026-09-22 22:34:22

[SOLVED] Arch installation killed my RAM stick?

#2 2026-09-23 00:31:06

Re: [SOLVED] Arch installation killed my RAM stick?

#3 2026-09-23 06:41:01

Re: [SOLVED] Arch installation killed my RAM stick?

#4 2026-09-23 19:32:05

Re: [SOLVED] Arch installation killed my RAM stick?

#5 2026-09-23 19:49:04

Re: [SOLVED] Arch installation killed my RAM stick?

#6 2026-09-23 21:47:52

Re: [SOLVED] Arch installation killed my RAM stick?

#7 2026-09-23 23:40:54

Re: [SOLVED] Arch installation killed my RAM stick?

#8 Yesterday 06:42:30

Re: [SOLVED] Arch installation killed my RAM stick?

#9 Yesterday 12:42:08

Re: [SOLVED] Arch installation killed my RAM stick?

#10 Yesterday 13:01:51

Re: [SOLVED] Arch installation killed my RAM stick?

#11 Yesterday 21:24:46

Re: [SOLVED] Arch installation killed my RAM stick?

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