Check this out if you are constantly crashing on a 14900K BUILD.

[Akula]

Been pulling my hair out this past month trying to figure out why I can’t seem to get DCS to run stable on my 14900k build and *I THINK* I figured it out. I tested this fix on the Syria map in single and multiplayer before sunrise, during sunrise and full on day time setting.

The fix was incredibly basic and something that is so easy to miss. If you did not do this then it may be your RAM, your MEMORY. 
 

If you’re like me and built the system yourself or even if you had your system pre built then the numerical order of the ram in the “ram kit” that you bought may be incorrect.

On 2 sticks it may not be an issue but either way, as a rule you should check the stickers on the sticks to ensure you have the number one stick in the primary dimm slot (check manual to find out what it is) and the number 2 stick in the secondary dimm slot. 

In my case I bought 2x32Gb memory of Corsair Vengeance 64Gb kit @6400Mhz. A week after finishing my build I decided that even though I’m running a dual channel board (MSI MPG Z790 Edge Wifi DDR5) I wanted to double it up to 128Gb. I did what everyone does and found the best deal at the time on Amazon, bought the exact same make, model, speed rating and timings as the first kit and installed it. In my mind I was like; - “same sticks so who cares what order they go in, right?” - BIG MISTAKE!

DCS would run stable for a week or so and then the second there would be a Windows 11 update or Nvidia driver update or ANY update, DCS would crash and I’m back to square one troubleshooting. 
 

Yesterday, after watching one video on YouTube, I finally did what I hate doing and opened up my case, pulled out all 4 sticks of RAM and sure enough they all had a numerical order and none of them were in the right slot. I separated the 2 RAM kits and placed the fist kit in the primary and secondary dimm slots in their correct numerical order as per the numbering order in the stickers and placed the second kit in the third and fourth slot accordingly. NO MORE CRASHING. By this time I was a little burnt out trying for weeks to figure out why my game kept crashing but I was keen to stress test and jumped into a Syria Hoggit server to test. In the F-18 I pressed F2 a bunch of times to toggle between jets and clicked on the mirrors about 40 times as they were also causing crashes. I pressed F2 on my jet and jerked the mouse around to see if the quick rendering would cause a crash and then in circles around the jet to see if that caused a crash. Descended to 500 feet over Cyprus and did the same thing. Basically no matter what I did I could not trigger a CTD. Boy was I happy .

All of your RAM sticks in a kit of two or more will be paired together at the factory and the stickers will reflect it IN SOME WAY. You will need to take a close look at the stickers to figure out which stick is the first one and which stick is second. I’m my case the first kit was had a bunch of identical numbers and letters all over the place but I noticed one had one had a 3 and the other had a 4. That’s all I needed to know that the #3 stick goes into the primary dimm slot and the 4 in the secondary slot. The other kit bought on Amazon had different stickers both identical but I saw -1 on one and -2 on the other. Same deal; Placed the -1 stick in the third slot and the -2 in the fourth slot. 
Now I’m running all 4 sticks at 5400 CL36 stable and no issues *so far*. 

Check it out if your’re close to throwing your computer out the window

And to anyone who’s going to chime in and tell me that this is common knowledge. Dude, it ain’t! Common knowledge is that if you bought a 2 stick kit you can place them in any order you want. I can’t think of a single build video or article that has mentioned numerical order as per factory listed info on the stickers until I came across a Linus Tech tips video (ugh, I know I know but in this case it helped). 
 

Peace  

Edited October 30, 2024 by Akula

[Dangerzone]

I had no idea about this myself TBH. Thankfully my system was pre-built for me, but man - I honestly had no idea. Thanks for sharing.

[Akula]

17 hours ago, Dangerzone said:

I had no idea about this myself TBH. Thankfully my system was pre-built for me, but man - I honestly had no idea. Thanks for sharing.

You’re welcome. You should be OK especially if it’s just two sticks. This fix is a little outdated for two sticks and more of an issue when 2 kits of 2x32Gb  technically identical BUT unmatched kits of DDR5 as in my case. Hence my inclination to just revert back to 64Gb since recent testing has exposed more CTDs. 

Edited October 31, 2024 by Akula

[Akula]

Update....

This fix did help but it did NOT solve my CTD issues.

So after AAAAALLLLL the troubleshooting I did with this rig This final measure has prevented all my crashing to date. The 14900k is so threaded with so many fake cores that the solution was to:

- Disable Hyperthreading in the BIOS

Now I'm running (what looks like) 16 physical cores and despite my efforts I cannot trigger a CTD. Still testing so I will keep you up to date.

 

SIDE NOTE, THIS site helped me rule out many possible causes for CTD's. Definitely worth a read.

 

 

Edited November 1, 2024 by Akula

[Calypso]

Could the problem really be due to improperly seated memory modules? I'm currently experiencing constant CTDs and can't get into the DCS world. The menu screen loads, but then it causes a CTD. I have an MSI Z790 Tomahawk Max WiFi, an i9-14900K, 2x32GB Vengeance 6000MHz DDR5, and a Gigabyte RTX 3080. The memory modules are installed in slots 2 (DIMMA2) and 4 (DIMMB2) according to my motherboard, but I'm not sure if the memory placement is correct.

As soon as I get home, I'll check them. I'm this close to setting the whole system on fire...

Thank you!!

Edited January 21 by Calypso

[Akula]

On 1/21/2025 at 5:12 AM, Calypso said:

Could the problem really be due to improperly seated memory modules? I'm currently experiencing constant CTDs and can't get into the DCS world. The menu screen loads, but then it causes a CTD. I have an MSI Z790 Tomahawk Max WiFi, an i9-14900K, 2x32GB Vengeance 6000MHz DDR5, and a Gigabyte RTX 3080. The memory modules are installed in slots 2 (DIMMA2) and 4 (DIMMB2) according to my motherboard, but I'm not sure if the memory placement is correct.

As soon as I get home, I'll check them. I'm this close to setting the whole system on fire...

Thank you!!

If you're running a 14900k try disabling Multithread support in the BIOS. I finally did and DCS runs better than it ever has before. You still have 16 physical cores to play with so don't worry about it. With MT disabled in the BIOS DCS will not crash and believe me, I tried lol. Nothing I do will cause it to crash. All because I disabled Multithread support in the BIOS

[Chacal_IX]

Also having an i9-14900K processor with an MSI Mag Z790 Tomahawk motherboard, I found myself experiencing system instability and numerous CTDs. I disabled hyperthreading in the BIOS, which made my system much more stable.
After doing some research online, I realized that 14900 processors can experience issues and that it was recommended to flash the motherboard with firmware that fixes the X129 problem. I performed this update and then re-enabled hyperthreading. So far, my system is stable again (I hope it stays that way).
CPU crashes can irreversibly damage it, and it is strongly recommended to test your processor with a program like OCCT, for example. From what I understand, it took Intel a while to admit to a problem with them, blaming the motherboard manufacturers. That's why the update took so long to arrive. If the processor is damaged, I think you should check with the warranty.
So, I just wanted to share my experience in the hope it might help someone.

Edited March 12 by Chacal_IX

[SharpeXB]

If you’re experiencing constant crashes (in every game including DCS) with a 13-14th gen Intel desktop CPU. And you used it before the BIOS microcode fix last year or haven’t updated that. I think there’s a good possibility that your chip has degraded. I’ve had that happen to both a 13900K and 14900KS. Disabling hyper-threading did nothing to resolve the problem. Only replacing the CPU fixed it.  
The available info I see about these and from speaking to my PC vendor, these are still very good CPUs though now that the fix is out. 

Edited March 12 by SharpeXB

[Akula]

@Chacal_IX

The latest BIOS didn’t fix the issue for me. What did fix the issue was DCS finally fixing the hyper-threading problem in a patch way back in December 2024 BUT; that said every update is a coin toss since DCS has a habit of fixing the stuff in the changelog and breaking other core functions. It happens with almost every update and sometimes it breaks hyperthread compatibility on 13/14th gen chips, sometimes it doesn’t. Either way if another update causes instability with your 13/14th gen CPU then just try disabling it as a first step vs going crazy trying to fix it. That’s basically what I do now and so far it has worked.

Since December, all DCS updates have run smoothly with hyperthreading enabled but nothing is written in stone so we will see what happens. From this point on, it seems DCS may have fixed the 13/14th gen CPU nightmare on their end. Don’t forget to keep your BIOS firmware up to date. It’s the best way to ensure everything is running as it should and your CPU isn’t overvolted by default.