RAM issue?

dandos23

dandos23

dandos23

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Joined
18 Oct 2009
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Hi everyone, I recently upgraded my old system to something a bit quicker after getting advice on here about what to get. Everything has been working fine for about a month, so I know it was all working together.
Yesterday, I did a windows update which required a restart. Since then the PC wont post or even make it past the DRAM check. I removed everything from the motherboard that wasn't required to get to the BIOS and it still did nothing. As a last resort I removed all but one stick of RAM and it worked, I got to the BIOS. Everything in there looked fine and only has the standard settings with nothing overclocked.
To cut a long story short, it will now only post if I have nothing in slots A1 and B1. I checked all 4 sticks of RAM and they all work fine so I don't think the issue is there. After a bit more searching it seems that I have bought some RAM that is not on the compatibility list for the motherboard. That said, it was all working fine for about a month. Could this be a compatibility issue or something else?

Corsair Vengeance EXPO 64GB (2X32GB) DDR5 PC5-4800040 6000MHz Dual Channel (I have two sets of this to give me 128GB)
Asus TUF GAMING X870-PLUS WIFI (Socket AM5) DDR5 ATX Motherboard
AMD Ryzen 9 9950X Sixteen Core 5.70GHz (Socket AM5) Processor

Any help will be greatly appreciated as I don't really want to spend more money on RAM unless I really need to (although I might be cheaper to replace the motherboard lol)
 
Corsair Vengeance EXPO 64GB (2X32GB) DDR5 PC5-4800040 6000MHz Dual Channel
MEM-CRS-02842
£210 (incl. VAT)
£170 (incl. VAT)
Find out more
Asus TUF GAMING X870-PLUS WIFI (Socket AM5) DDR5 ATX Motherboard
MOT-ASU-03088
£290 (incl. VAT)
£260 (incl. VAT)
Find out more
AMD Ryzen 9 9950X Sixteen Core 5.70GHz (Socket AM5) Processor - Retail
PRO-AMD-02674
£660 (incl. VAT)
£519 (incl. VAT)
Find out more
If you lose one channel it can sometimes be a cooler mount issue, though it doesn't sound you moved the PC so I wouldn't expect anything to have shifted.

What speed does running 4 sticks of 32GB get you? It must be pretty darn slow. It can be tricky to get that much memory to work, did you try a full CMOS clear? Though, keep in mind that doing this can potentially impact your TPM and may break Windows Hello and/or disk encryption.
 
Tetras said:
If you lose one channel it can sometimes be a cooler mount issue, though it doesn't sound you moved the PC so I wouldn't expect anything to have shifted.

What speed does running 4 sticks of 32GB get you? It must be pretty darn slow. It can be tricky to get that much memory to work, did you try a full CMOS clear? Though, keep in mind that doing this can potentially impact your TPM and may break Windows Hello and/or disk encryption.
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Compared to the old system it was quite a bit faster lol. I didn't actually look at the speed it was running at as it was working fine. I have done the CMOS clear and had to deal with the disk encryption after. When it stopped working, nothing had moved, so I don't feel it could be the CPU cooler (I could have course be wrong though). The way this started, after an update, makes me think that it might be a software/compatibility issue.

Rob_B said:
check for bent pins in the socket too if you dare.
Click to expand...
I have looked and cant see any bent pins, my eyes are not what they used to be though. Although, it started after a windows update, I don't think that there will be any bent pins as it was all working before the update.
 
dandos23 said:
The way this started, after an update, makes me think that it might be a software/compatibility issue.
Click to expand...
I have heard of large memory sizes blocking Windows from booting after an upgrade to the PC, but I wouldn't expect it to stop your PC from posting altogether. You're aware that DDR5 posting can take a VERY long time, right (especially on first boot)?

Windows technically has the capability to deliver BIOS and CPU microcode updates via Windows update, but I think this is normally done sparingly, however your usage is an "edge case" on AM5, that might be insufficiently tested and if an update was pushed out that way, you could have lost optimisations that previously helped your config to work.
 
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I had heard that it can take a while to boot, but I am unaware of just how long. So, I have all 4 sticks in and have turned the pc on. I will see if it has posted by the time I get up tomorrow lol.
 
dandos23 said:
I had heard that it can take a while to boot, but I am unaware of just how long. So, I have all 4 sticks in and have turned the pc on. I will see if it has posted by the time I get up tomorrow lol.
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I think about 10 minutes is normally the max, but I've heard of 20 minutes or more in rare cases :o
 
Well, i don't know how long it actually took, but it did at some point sort itself out and booted up with all 4 sticks in. I will have to look at it properly when I get back from work.
 
Well, it is still working and not once has it crashed since booting with all 4 sticks in.
So, would I be better off running less RAM then, as it would be running quicker. Or would the increased capacity compensate for the slower speeds?
 
dandos23 said:
Well, it is still working and not once has it crashed since booting with all 4 sticks in.
So, would I be better off running less RAM then, as it would be running quicker. Or would the increased capacity compensate for the slower speeds?
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If you're doing something that needs the RAM you should definitely keep it running, but if it is VERY slow (e.g. like 4000, or less), then it will impact your gaming performance negatively, that's just a reality.
 
dandos23 said:
Well, I use Fusion 360 a lot and that recommends 32GB or more. How can I check the speed of my RAM? Is it only in the BIOS?
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Download cpuz and check memory

Dram frequency mite show half frequency be cause it's double data so you have to double the reading.

Post a pic or post reading

www.cpuid.com

DOWNLOADING CPU-Z_1.79-EN.EXE | CPUID

System information software
www.cpuid.com www.cpuid.com
 
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Have you actually manually set the timings or at least turned on EXPO? I can't see that you mentioned that?
 
dandos23 said:
So, it looks like it is running at 3600MT/s. I don't do gaming on this PC though. Would I still be better off with only 2 sticks of what I have or would I be better off with 2 sticks of say Corsair Vengeance 96GB (2X48GB) DDR5 PC5-44800C40 5600MHz Dual Channel and just try and sell the RAM I have?
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It is hard to say because every system is different and it depends on BIOS updates and how much success you have with manual tweaking, but I'd expect you to do better than 3600 before it tops out, possibly around 5000.

96GB would perform better, but for the most part productivity isn't that dependent on RAM speed so personally I'd just keep it since you're not gaming. Future BIOS updates may include more optimisations and support better speeds.

This is an old video and things have changed, but just so you know what you're dealing with:

Worth looking on their forums to see what updates there have been.
 
Well, I definitely should have done a bit more research before hand lol.
So this is what CPU-Z looks like.


I haven't tried playing with any settings yet as I wanted to see if it was actually working first.
I have just left all settings on auto, so EXPO is how ever it is as standard.

I must admit that I have no idea about playing with these settings though. Is there a chance that I could make it worse?
 
dandos23 said:
I must admit that I have no idea about playing with these settings though. Is there a chance that I could make it worse?
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Worst that is likely to happen is you need to clear CMOS again and wait however long it took to boot again.

EXPO at the default profiles is guaranteed not to work in your case, but you might be able to manually change the frequency and timings to something that it would accept. 3600 is really the baseline just to boot up and meets the AMD spec for 4 dual rank sticks which they guarantee your CPU can support. Anything higher than this speed is a freebie.
 
Well, it been about 40 mins so far and it hasn't posted yet to get in to the BIOS. If this is how long it will take to boot then there is no way I can use 4 sticks of RAM.
 
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