16gb stick compatibility with Maximus VIII Ranger

[JonBeam]

I just purchased a new motherboard and memory, and unfortunately they don´t seem to like each other.

Maximus VIII Ranger:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813132586R

Gskill TridentZ 3200 32gb (2x16GB) CAS latency 14:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820232376

According to page ix of the manual, the board can fit up to 4 x DIMM (64GB) 3200 (OC) DDR4 (so 16gb per slot). However, according to page 1-10, "You may install 1 GB, 2 GB, 4 GB, and 8 GB unbuffed and non-ECC DIMMs into the DIMM sockets."

Posting yields error code beeps one long two short (no memory detected), and the onboard error reporting yields code 53 (Memory initialization error. Invalid memory type or incompatible memory speed). The board says it supports 3200 (OC), so that shouldn't be the problem. I have not been able to get to BIOS to change anything as of yet.

I guess there are four options I can think of, in order of probability;

1) The Maximus VIII Ranger doesn't support 16 GB DIMMs.
2) The board was an open box, so I got a bad egg.
3) The board has trouble with this particular 3200 DIMM (the board can't handle 32gb 3200 at 14 CAS latency; I´m not even sure if this is a thing).
4) I need to configure BIOS to handle the chip, but I can't get that far.

Asus rep says that the difference between page ix and page 1-10 can be accounted for by overclocking the 8gb sticks to 16gb............

Have tried switching to the other slots, have tried one DIMM at a time.

 

[Tradesman1]

Do you have the latest BIOS? The 16GB sticks weren't available at the release. Check the BIOS and might update drivers while there (or at least download them 😉 )

 

[JonBeam]

I haven't been able to get that far. It'll power up, but I'm not getting any signal to peripherals. No monitor, mouse, or keyboard. Just those three annoying beeps over and over.

 

[Tradesman1]

Start with a single stick

 

[JonBeam]

I've tried a single stick in different slots (including the furthest). I found this on gskill's website:

http://www.gskill.com/en/configurator?manu=29&chip=2484&model=2491

I realize these lists are incomplete and something won't fail just because it's not included, but there's definitely some useful information on here. 16 GB sticks are listed, so that shouldn't be the problem. There are TridentZ chips at 3200, but they're all 4 GB chips at CAS latency 16.

Of all the memory threads I've read I haven't seen anything about the lack of motherboard compatibility due to low CAS latency at high speeds, and that really wouldn't make any sense as the CPU's IMC should be what's strained by a fast chip. I'm guessing you may be right that the motherboard needs to be updated to be compatible. I unfortunately do not have another stick of DDR4 lying around. I'll ask at work; possibly someone else does.

There is still the chance that this open box motherboard is just a dud, though.

 

[Tradesman1]

Could well be the mobo, open box can be real iffy

 

[EpIckFa1LJoN]

What I would try is buying a very cheap 4gb stick (or 8 if your computer won't run on 4) just to boot it, or maybe borrow a kit from a friend? Don't quite know if that would work... And if you are able to boot it download any drivers or update the BIOS and then try your RAM, if you can't even boot it then I would say it was that open box, could have been a return. There is no good reason that your RAM would not work, I agree, there are plenty of other kits using the same latency, frequency, and size as those that are on the verified list.

 

[JonBeam]

I was able to "borrow" a stick long enough to get into BIOS. After updating the TridentZs seem to work fine.

 

[Tradesman1]

Great, glad all is well, now you have some fun 😉