HWINFO seems to be misreading RAM modules (after a BIOS update? (MSI))

[Svedski]

Excuse the mess of a title.

I've recently reinstalled Windows and have updated my BIOS (from an earlier one released in Oct/Nov 24), and I seem to have issues (?) reading out all the sensors in the RAM panels.

When Windows starts up, everything is fine in HWINFO, it shows normal readings from what I can tell, after 1 - 5mins some of the values go gray and the following shows YES:
-PMIC High Temp.
-PMIC Over Voltage
-PMIC Under Voltage

The system I'm running has been giving me some issues relating to from what I can tell, CPU coil whine, though the system itself is fully stable and no other oddities happen from what I can tell. This issue could've been happening on BIOS version / Windows install of my previous PC but I might've not noticed.

https://imgur.com/EbwPPeX

I've tried:
- restoring BIOS defaults
- uninstalling Afterburner & Rivatuner (only other monitoring tool on the computer)

I'm at a loss as to what's wrong, I'm looking for advice - do you think it's wise to just ignore this? A part of me knows it's 'probably' just sensor misreadings but and input would be appreciated.

System specs:
-7800X3D
-MSI Tomahawk X670E Wifi
-2x16GB GSkill RAM (model mentioned in the screenshot)
-RX7900XT
-Super Flower 850W PSU

 

[Martin]

Are you sure there's no other monitoring/tweaking/RGB or fan control tool running (including MSI Center)? This issue looks like a conflict between HWiNFO and other app.

 

[Svedski]

I turned off the MSI app in BIOS, and I've turned off the RGB controls in the BIOS. the only other thing I can think of is Radeon Adrenalin, the actual drivers for the GPU side of things. As I said it's a fresh install.

Thanks for the quick answer.

 

[Svedski]

Hey update: I've installed a fresh copy of Windows, everything running dandy again, I've also downgraded the BIOS to the one I mentioned (released Dec 24), and this still happens. I've actually gone ahead and ran ycruncer for about 30mins and all seems well, no errors.

The only thing installed on this installation is HWInfo, Realtek ethernet and audio drivers, and Radeon Adrenalin.

Though, I forgot to mention I think - the RAM sticks used to go gray and upon restarting HWINFO they would disappear until I reboot the PC, then the same thing would happen, usually within 5mins.

Now during the y-cruncer run, the values DID shift to YES for PMIC overvoltage on one stick and PMIC undervoltage on the other, all the while, never going gray. Very odd.

Thoughts? As I said, this PC build has irritated me with ti's coil whine around the CPU area, makes me nervous something will blow up and take the CPU and RAM with it. This has happened across 2 motherboards (the coil whine), so I'm unsure where to go from here. I'm genuinely at a loss with my troubleshooting skills.

As I've said, the system is stable, gives me no trouble otherwise. I'd love to just ignore this (non?) issue and be done with it.

 

[Martin]

Sorry, I don't know what exactly is causing this. There seems to be a problem communicating with the DIMMs (via SMBus/I2C). Usually this happens when applications accessing them are not synchronized. If you do a clean reboot and don't run y-cruncher, will it happen too?

 

[Svedski]

I'm using the computer as we speak and yeah, after about 30 - 40mins of mostly idlying and light usage, one of the modules switched to YES, PMIC over voltage to be exact. Is there a way I can send a log?

And about 2 minutes after writing this, all of them went to YES, so PMIC overvoltage, PMIC undervoltage and PMIC high temperature, on both sticks. It also started going gray again and dissappearing after I restart HWInfo, so I suppose no change from yesterday.

https://imgur.com/gekBIMb

 

[Svedski]

Update: I've recently been trying to figure out what makes this happen, as I've stated before, a fresh install of W10 with only HWInfo causes this to happen.

I've been messing with OpenRGB and HWInfo a little - I can use the PC for hours with OpenRGB even polling and 'communicating' for lack of a better term with the RAM and all is well, if I proceed to open HWInfo I never see the values for PMIC over/under and temperature being 'yes' when the program starts. They always change some time after opening HWInfo. This leads me to believe it's a bug in the program itself / it's interaction with the hardware / firmware. Very unsure still of course. Small sample size of testing.

I've stumbled upon a thread from a year ago, where people had the same issue and apparently according to one person an MSI / Agesa update fixed it. I am running the newest BIOS and chipset drivers and still experiencing this issue.

 

[Martin]

A typical conflict between OpenRGB and other software. I'm quite sure that if you would use any other monitoring tool (e.g. HWMonitor) along with OpenRGB, you'd see the same conflict.

 

[Svedski]

A typical conflict between OpenRGB and other software. I'm quite sure that if you would use any other monitoring tool (e.g. HWMonitor) along with OpenRGB, you'd see the same conflict.

I think I've stated that this persists through Windows installs previously.

The theory I was testing was if OpenRGB would trigger the RAM to disappear. It did not, it only does this when HWINFO is open for a little while. It can be only HWINFO open with no other apps (including MSI BIOS bloatware) and this will happen.

I'm chalking this up to BIOS / firmware miscommunication since I also experienced impossible readings yesterday. And the PC seems to work fine. It's weird to me, since there was a thread in January last year here where 2 people confirmed that a BIOS update fixed exactly this issue (also an MSI bios update afaik).

Thanks for the help Martin, I will keep an eye out and update here if anything changes with BIOS updates.