Correct, as there is only one slot on the board.
This is a problem. You must have a stable system otherwise you risk data corruption.
However, below could be the problem causing the hanging.
If there is only one slot, are you certain it will accept ECC RAM? Have you looked at the QVL? (Google it if yo do not know what it is)
The moment bad RAM is discovered, it should take priority over the network card or other possible issues.
Could you please explain the potential Ethernet Controller issue?
You said, “Below could be the problem” but I’m not sure what you mean.
Good catch, I made a bad assumption that it would be supported since the product is a NAS and it seems like most things I see say you should have it. I will find another ram stick.
The RealTek NICs rely on the CPU to perform all the processing, the NIC itself does practically no work. This has been known for a long time to cause problems with mostly large data transfers. You will hear a lot of “Use an Intel NIC” here in the forums. This is because an Intel NIC does all the processing itself, not loading down the CPU.
N95 CPU not supports ECC, also quite confusing that 32gb of RAM are not officially supported by Intel but Terramaster give your system as capable.
If you make a search on old topics you will find some threads where system like yours were raising memtest errors due to sticks overheating, and folks lowered the Memory frequency to 4600 to gain better stability. This just for say that in your place i would check deeper into that before start an rma.
Despite that and the errors on memtest, the culprit of the crash for me Is 100% the Realtek NIC, i have experienced the exact same behaviour in the past. From the official Terramaster website i see that your model should be equipped with 8gb stick, if you still have It: use It, try the same transfer, see if crash continue or not. Then your will have a better idea on what to do
I get that a RealTek NIC is less than ideal, but under no condition should RAM have even a single failure. Before dealing with the network interface, the RAM should be replaced (or a setting corrected in the BIOS). The problem might in fact disappear after that. Even if it doesn’t, you don’t want to risk writing corrupted data because of bad RAM.
Off couse the errors in memtest must be fixed, Is just that i placed myself in his place, thinking about what i would do in the same situation, and for sure i would be 100% sure to not waste time (eg for an rma), and then be pratically at the same point (nas still restart or mem errors still raised).
Afaik the problem of the errors in the memtest are not necessarily synonymous of bad stick, there are other things can be totally worth try before an rma, emphatising the fact there are certain premises; everything suggested is easily to check-achieve (especially if the original 8gb stick exists xD), but if my assumptions are correct, will save him a lot of time… if not, at least he will be sure that the stick is actually defected and nothing can be done anymore.
If the system still crash with another ram/same stick ( but obv not failing memtest, maybe because undervolted - timed reduce frequency help) during transfer, will be hard not point to the NIC
Ok, so then is my best course of action is to swap for the stock ram, then do some transfers see if it holds up? If it does then it may point to a ram issue (and maybe under clocking the a stick, if possible, to 4600), if not then it then it may point to a NIC issue?
I keep seeing people talk about the RealTek NIC but are there any fixes given the hardware I have?
It’s a Terramaster. You’re stuck with it. You can deal with it later if you want.
Swap for the stock RAM, then run 5 full memtests. If it succeeds, you can try doing transfers with TrueNAS running.
If all works well, then you could replace the bad 32GB stick.
So there is nothing I can do and it will continue to corrupt my files?
Would using a single Ethernet Port over the pair help?
Sort the RAM issues first.
Worry about possible unstable NIC later.
Drawing any conclusions on how well the hardware works based on a system running faulty or incompatible RAM is a a waste of time.
This exactly.
I know it’s meant well to bring up the Realtek NIC, but I really must stress over and over again that we can’t go off track. That’s why I said this earlier:
Memtests have already shown that your RAM is bad. Stop right there. Don’t worry about anything else. You can deal with the other stuff later, if you want to.
I wasn’t going to neglect to address the ram issue, I just knew that I had several hours of waiting for the tests to conclude and wanted to know what I might need to do to improve the potential issue with the NIC.
The original RAM stick passed all tests and I have not seen any crashes so far while performing several 50+ GB transfers. (total 200 GB worth so far)
So it seems like I got unlucky with a bad new RAM stick.
Is there anything else I should be doing or looking into?
Thank you all for helping me trouble shoot this issue.
I think it’s safe to say you should buy a new 32GB stick. The day you receive it, don’t just start using TrueNAS. Let it run multiple memtests overnight. You should not get a single error.
You already said you’re not using any XMP or overclock settings in the BIOS. Double check this when you install the new stick and boot into the BIOS again, before you do your overnight memtest runs.
Understood, and thank you. On a different note, I am not sure how to mark a solution for this post lol
I want to give credit to @joeschmuck for their initial responses and @winnielinnie for helping a newbie like me through the process.
If you’re reasonable, you would mark post #3 as the solution, since @joeschmuck mentioned the steps to take, which included running a memtest on your RAM.
If you’re wise, you would mark post #9 as the solution, since @joeschmuck correctly advised you to run at least 5 memtest passes, to rule out any false negatives.
If you’re all about the power of community, you would write one final reply that thanks @winnielinnie because he used the “point up” emoji (
) on @joeschmuck’s posts.[1][2] Then you would ask a moderator to lock this thread, to prevent anyone from protesting.
If you want to be the genius of the world, you would mark this post as the solution, since memtests are a total waste of time.