Problem installing more ram to system

Alan Cairns · 13 Jan 2024 at 02:15

Hey folks, I have 16gb ddr4 3200mhz ram in my system, still do. It is 2 sticks of 8gb. Kingston Fury Beast DDR4. With 4 slots on the motherboard I purchased exactly the same to increase the ram from 16gb to 32gb. However when I went to install it, the 4 slots are not running at 3200mhz, they are running slower.

Once windows11 opens up I check and it does show the 32gb of ram installed but at the lower speed.

I have checked installing just the old ram again and it runs at full 3200mhz, I try the new ram and when it’s just the new ram it runs at 3200mhz

i then checked using 1 of each and they run at 3200mhz, tried using slots 2 and 4, ram runs at 3200mhz, I try all combinations of using different slots and as long as it’s only 2 slots they run at 3200mhz speed.

x.m.p is greyed out in BIOS so cannot enable it. What do I need to do to Fix it. Would I be best getting 2x16gb 3200mhz sticks or is getting the 4 I have working properly easy to sort.

it is an Acer Predator Orion 3000 P03-640 12th Gen i7, 16gb ram, RTX 3060 12gb, purchased in April last year.

Sorry for rambling on.

JollyJamma · 13 Jan 2024 at 06:06

Your motherboard probably doesn't support 4 DIMMS at 3200 speeds (possibly with that RAM but could be as a whole, it depends).

I can't find a manual or support page for that product on the Acer website so I don't know what RAM it supports and if there's a BIOS update to increase the RAM compatibility.

It's impossible to tell what RAM config your system supports without proper documentation and prebuilds tend not to have the best RAM support as a whole because they only really design the motherboard to support RAM that would be sold with the system from new (and even then, it won't be the highest speed).

YOu'll need to read the manual that came with the machine and do a BIOS update if possible (I can't see any BIOS download page for it though but maybe it comes with support software installed for the BIOS update).

JollyJamma · 13 Jan 2024 at 06:12

I found the support page and it's very limited.

Product Support - PO3-640 | Acer United States

www.acer.com

The manual isn't very helpful.

Try manually setting the RAM to 3200 and see if that works. DDR4 is pretty much as stable and mature as it's ever been so it should be pretty easy to manually set it to 3200.

Tetras · 13 Jan 2024 at 12:07

Can you please take a screenshot of CPU-Z for your memory? I wonder if what has happened is that your original memory is 3200 running @ JEDEC timings/speeds and you have purchased gaming memory which requires XMP and only runs at 2133 or 2666 otherwise? With OEM systems, memory adjustment is sometimes very limited, e.g. not even frequency change is allowed.

nutski1873 · 25 Jan 2024 at 17:27

Hey folks, me again to annoy you all. I returned the 2x8gb ram i purchased and ordered 2 16gb sticks that hopefully was going to fix the issue, i removed the installed 2x8gb sticks and replaced them with the 2x16gb 3200mhz sticks, but the 2 16gb sticks are still only running at 2400mhz. i cant seem to figure out the issue, as i thought ram upgrade was the easiest thing to do lol.

if i screenshot cpu-z do you want a screenshot with the original ram installed or with the 2 new sticks?

i am not confident updating bios as im worried ill knacker the system completely.

Cheers

Tetras · 25 Jan 2024 at 17:29

nutski1873 said:
if i screenshot cpu-z do you want a screenshot with the original ram installed or with the 2 new sticks?

To confirm my theory in post #4 I need you to take a screenshot of the SPD tab with the drop down selected so that it shows the old and new sticks (or if you're content with only using the new sticks, just make sure one of those slots is selected from the drop down).