I built my first PC around March this year; 2025. Everything was mostly fine, but it sometimes (very very few times) would freeze, mostly when using Chrome, and I would have to hard shutdown the PC and boot it again.
Otherwise, it would run perfectly even in high loads. Eventually, it started giving me a black screen on post that said “CPU memory change”, and then would proceed to load normally. A week or two doing these, it eventually stopped posting, so I opened her up, took out the RAM sticks one of which was seemingly a little loose, and put them back on. This stopped the black screen completely and started loading normally again, but it starting freezing on higher loads (say Illustrator, Chrome and Clair Obscur: E33 opened at the same time).
At this time and since first boot, the RAM configuration had been as states in the board and manual, one empty slot, RAM, empty slot, RAM.
Some time this week things went very south: PC wouldn’t post, when turning on it give a black screen with a “stop error” and “boot call error” and would stay there even if attempting to self diagnose. Suspecting the RAM, I started trying the other slots to eventually find out both of my A channels seemed to be faulty, as the pc seemed to boot and work fine on both b channels even if to a worse performance due to the lack of dual channel. I decided to try again on my 2(A) again and 4(B), and it started to boot again, but would freeze under the mildest load (just Chrome opened).
As I understand it, this could either be an IMC problem or a faulty mobo, but I use Intel and don’t have another lag mobo to rule out the IMC. The CPU have never been taken out after it’s first install.
What component is more likely to be at fault here?
My build is:
- CPU: intel i5 12600K
- OS: Windows 11
- FAN: Thermalright Peerless Assassin 120 SE V2 –
- GPU: PNY 4060 XLR 8GB
- MOBO: MSI MAG Tomahawk B760 WiFi DDR4
- RAM: G.Skill Ripjaws 16×2 Gb CL18-22-22-42
- PS: Corsair 750W Gold
- SSD: Crucial P3 1 Tb 4×4
