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Can't open games

254 Views 14 Replies 5 Participants Last post by DRPC, 4 mo ago

overdoeslee

Discussion Starter · 4 mo ago (Edited)

Hello, so here is my problem..
My PC used to have 16gb of ram (8gx2), but recently one of them had malfunction so I sent it to get fixed. Therefore I'm currently running with only 8gb of ram and I am really frustrated by how I can't open games which say their minimum ram requirement is 8gb or even lower (Battelfield 1, Valorant), even when I have no other apps opening. I could not open them by any means, I've tried different method I had seen on the internet, none worked for me. I'm confused and I'm wondering whether is my PC have other problems elsewhere or it is because 8gb is just not enough?

P/s: My OS is Window 11. Thank you for spending your time reading this post, if you have any idea what could be the issue, do let me know.

Edit:
Here's my PC specs:
B450m Steel Legend
Ryzen 5 2600
8GB 3000MHZ TGROUP DELTA
RX 570 4GB MSI GAMING X
SEGOTEP 550W 80+ WHITE

1 - 15 of 15 Posts

phillpower2

· #2 · 4 mo ago

One possibility is that the RAM may be too slow being that it can only work in single channel, could be nothing to do with it but I can`t think of anything else atm, Ryzen CPUs in particular do not like slow RAM but Intel are a bit more tolerant, knowing your other specs may shed some light on it.

Please provide information about your computer, is it a custom build or brand name such as Dell or HP, if a brand name, provide the model name or series number (not serial) if a custom build post the brand and model name or number for the CPU, MB, the RAM, add on video card if one is used and the PSU (power supply unit) providing these details will enable folk to better help you.

overdoeslee

Discussion Starter · #3 · 4 mo ago

phillpower2 said:
One possibility is that the RAM may be too slow being that it can only work in single channel, could be nothing to do with it but I can`t think of anything else atm, Ryzen CPUs in particular do not like slow RAM but Intel are a bit more tolerant, knowing your other specs may shed some light on it.

Please provide information about your computer, is it a custom build or brand name such as Dell or HP, if a brand name, provide the model name or series number (not serial) if a custom build post the brand and model name or number for the CPU, MB, the RAM, add on video card if one is used and the PSU (power supply unit) providing these details will enable folk to better help you.

I have added my pc spec within the post, thank you for your reply.

phillpower2

· #4 · 4 mo ago

The first Rysen CPUs were the most problematic and the second while not as fussy they do like the fastest RAM that any particular CPU is able to handle, your RAM can only presently work in single channel at less than 1500MHz and this could be causing such a bottleneck for the CPU and GPU that the games may not be able to open, this is only speculative and it could just be a coincidence that this happened when you lost 50% of your RAM, your internet connection, Firewall and using a VPN will also mess with online gaming.

I would have normally suggested a test for your GPU but am not comfortable doing so because of the PSU.

overdoeslee said:
SEGOTEP 550W 80+ WHITE

There is one thing that is possibly worse than using a known poor quality brand of PSU and that is using one that is unheard of, for brands of PSU to trust and brands to avoid please refer to the links in my sig below.

Edit to add: You mentioned in your OP that you had sent a stick of RAM away to be fixed, not going to happen as bad RAM cannot be fixed and it goes straight in the trash.

You are welcome btw

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Digerati

· #5 · 4 mo ago

overdoeslee said:
I can't open games

What exactly happens when you try? Do you get an error message? If so, what exactly does it say?

I don't see slow RAM being the issue. Even the slowest RAM is fast. And quantity always trumps speed. In fact, I cannot recall ever seeing system requirements specifying a minimum RAM speed; only quantity. I just looked at several programs, including the two games mentioned above and none say anything about RAM speeds.

How much free disk space do you have?

Did you dink with the page file settings or [preferably] leave the defaults alone?

overdoeslee

Discussion Starter · #6 · 4 mo ago

phillpower2 said:
The first Rysen CPUs were the most problematic and the second while not as fussy they do like the fastest RAM that any particular CPU is able to handle, your RAM can only presently work in single channel at less than 1500MHz and this could be causing such a bottleneck for the CPU and GPU that the games may not be able to open, this is only speculative and it could just be a coincidence that this happened when you lost 50% of your RAM, your internet connection, Firewall and using a VPN will also mess with online gaming.

I would have normally suggested a test for your GPU but am not comfortable doing so because of the PSU.

There is one thing that is possibly worse than using a known poor quality brand of PSU and that is using one that is unheard of, for brands of PSU to trust and brands to avoid please refer to the links in my sig below.

Edit to add: You mentioned in your OP that you had sent a stick of RAM away to be fixed, not going to happen as bad RAM cannot be fixed and it goes straight in the trash.

You are welcome btw

Yup, I have been wanting to replace the PSU for quite some time. Now that you say it, I'll be looking for a replacement ASAP.

Either way I still have to send the malfunction ram to the place where I bought my PC and get them to look into it. Long wait but I'll get a working one eventually. Back in 2021, my monitor was not working properly, I did bring it to them but when they returned it, I just know that they had given me a new one but they try to made it like they fixed my glitching monitor.

phillpower2

· #7 · 4 mo ago

As long as what you get back works I don`t suppose that you will mind.

Regarding the RAM speed, as has been mentioned RAM speed does not get mentioned in any games system requirements but that does not mean that the speed does not matter, 16GB of RAM made up of two Xs 8GB should be the minimum in any gaming rig these days, overdoing the amount of RAM will just mean that a whole load of the RAM will never get utilised.

Always like to have something to support what I advise so please see the article here and in particular the section entitled RAM Has The Potential To Bottleneck Ryzen More

Digerati

· #8 · 4 mo ago

overdoeslee said:
Either way I still have to send the malfunction ram to the place where I bought my PC and get them to look into it.

I hope they don't just send that one back. Sadly, RAM sticks can test fine, but fail when installed or when paired with another stick.

And they don't repair them - they just replace them as that is a cheaper process for them.

But again, low disk space can be an issue - so can dinking with the page file settings.

overdoeslee

Discussion Starter · #9 · 4 mo ago

Digerati said:
What exactly happens when you try? Do you get an error message? If so, what exactly does it say?

I don't see slow RAM being the issue. Even the slowest RAM is fast. And quantity always trumps speed. In fact, I cannot recall ever seeing system requirements specifying a minimum RAM speed; only quantity. I just looked at several programs, including the two games mentioned above and none say anything about RAM speeds.

How much free disk space do you have?

Did you dink with the page file settings or [preferably] leave the defaults alone?

I was writing pretty much a whole paragraph to answer your questions and my PC for some reason refresh the browser, probably due to low ram and all my writing is gone...

When opening BF1, it shows this error "The application was unable to start correctly (0xc0000142)". I don't quite remember the exact one for Valorant but it says something about not enough ram while it's website stated it only need 4GB of ram to work.

I have one SSD with 134GB free space and a HDD with 179GB free space. I store both BF1 and Valorant in the HDD.

Total paging file for all my drives is 779MB.

Digerati

· #10 · 4 mo ago

How did you determine that one stick of RAM was bad?

MisterEd51

· #11 · 4 mo ago

Did you buy the 16GB (2x8GB) RAM as a matched set? If yes, then under warranty you have to return the whole set back together. They will then return a new replacement set.

overdoeslee

Discussion Starter · #12 · 4 mo ago

Digerati said:
How did you determine that one stick of RAM was bad?

I'm not the one determined that one of my ram was bad, the maintainance center where I bought my PC was the one who said it.

So basically, 4 months ago, I cleaned my PC as I normally do for hundreds of time, after putting everthing back in, I played some games, which then I noticed it was not hitting the FPS it usually do before. I checked the task manager and realized only 8GB of ram was being used, other 8GB is in hardware reserve. I restarted the PC, plugging and unplugging the ram, check the BIOS multiple times and luckily it was normal again but there was still a problem, it only runs at 2400Mhz while it should be at 3000Mhz. I headed to the BIOS, set it to XMP 2.0, save again exit BIOS, and then my PC got into a loop of boot and restart until it reseted the BIOS to default which the rams run at 2400Mhz. I tried to fix it myself but to no avail. Defeated, I brought my PC to the maintainance center for no less than 3 times to get it fixed, but they were unable to do so, I asked what was the problem, they said the mobo was not providing enough electricity to the rams(?). Through those 4 months I've been using 16GB of ram at 2400Mhz, I accepted as it was but recently, my PC would only take 8GB of ram to use and the other 8 in hardware reserve. But somehow I found what the problem was, if I turn Secure Boot on in order to play Valorant as it is required to, my PC will put 8GB of ram to reserve, if I turn Secure Boot off it take the full 16GB again. This is when I decided enough is enough and I brought it to get it fixed once and for all. Luckily now they say it is the ram that is bad not the mobo.

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overdoeslee

Discussion Starter · #13 · 4 mo ago

MisterEd51 said:
Did you buy the 16GB (2x8GB) RAM as a matched set? If yes, then under warranty you have to return the whole set back together. They will then return a new replacement set.

Yes, I bought it in one package. I had my entire PC at the maintainace center but they returned the PC, they only took one of the 2 ram, nothing more.

MisterEd51

· #14 · 4 mo ago

overdoeslee said:
Yes, I bought it in one package. I had my entire PC at the maintainace center but they returned the PC, they only took one of the 2 ram, nothing more.

That sounds kind of sketchy. Teamgroup has a lifetime warranty for their RAM. If they are like other manufacturers they will require the whole set to be returned for a warranty claim. If the maintenance center gives you another stick of RAM you will then have two sticks of RAM that might work OK together but they will be never be able to be replaced under warranty from Teamgroup.

Before you did anything with your RAM you should have tested both sticks together and individually, Most people do that with a program called MemTest86.

Reactions: 1

DRPC

· #15 · 4 mo ago

overdoeslee said:
When opening BF1, it shows this error "The application was unable to start correctly (0xc0000142)".

This does not indicate a memory error. It often indicates a missing or corrupt library file (dll).
Uninstall + reinstall the game.
Run SFC and DISM scans.
Reinstall other game related files like DirectX and Microsoft Visual C++ redistributables.
Update Win 11 (are you running 22H2?)
May end up having to reinstall Win 11 as something is corrupt there and it can be difficult to determine exactly what.

Could also be Easy Anti Cheat related as BF1 does use it (see #8 under Troubleshooting):

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