Question Aurora R14, Ryzen R9500 Memory stuck at 2133mhz

[haventroubles]

Alienware Aurora Ryzen Edition R14
Hoping someone has a solution for me. Installed 2x32g 3200mhz corsair vengeance LPX memory sticks right after pulling my new R14 Ryzen R9 out of the box. I booted and everything was fine. Got the typical "Your memory change" on startup and reviewed that my memory was showing 80G and running at 3200mhz in the BIOS and AWCC after booting. My memory was running fine at 3200mhz for 3 days…. I also had 2x32g Corsair vengeance LPX 3600mhz sticks at the house so I decided to try them out to see what speed my memory would run at. After booting my RAM is now running at 2133 as shown the BIOS and in AWCC at 1.2v. My model doesn't have an XMP profile set up in the BIOS menu and my AWCC "Advanced" menu is grayed out, so I'm unable to set my memory back to 3200mhz, as it was running that way before. No luck so far with DELL Tech support, as I feel that I know more about the issue then anyone that I've talked to so far. I also ended up putting the corsair 3200mhz sticks back in my PC to see if anything changed but I'm still running at the default memory speed of 2133. Dell had me go into the BIOS settings, performance management, enable custom config and change my memory speed to 3200mhz. After that the computer wouldn't even boot to the bios menu and was dead at the very start of the boot sequence. They told me I'd need to replace my system and they would send me another one. I was shocked at that suggestion... I ended up pulling out the CMOS battery for 5 min and clearing out their suggested changes I had made to the BIOS settings. After, I was able to boot and I'm typing this message on my R14 now. I don't see a lot of info out there for my R14 aurora Ryzen 9500 set up. Hoping someone can help me here. I've also updated the BIOS to the newest version, 2.8.0 but the problem still persists. Please let me know if I can share any other details. I'm hoping that someone smarter that I can lend a good suggestion to get this resolved. I've listed the details of my set up below. Thanks for taking the time to review this help needed.
Alienware Aurora R14

• Additional Software
  Additional Software
  Item number: 658-BCUO
  Game Pass
  Item number: 658-BFQH
• Back Cover
  No Cover Selected
  Item number: 325-BCZQ
• Cable
  US Power Cord
  Item number: 450-AAGO
• Chassis Options
  Dark side of the Moon 750W Platinum Rated Power Supply, Air-Cooled Processor and Clear Side Panel
  Item number: 321-BHEM
• Cooling Option
  Upper Cooling Fan
  Item number: 321-BHIJ
• Documentation/Disks
  SERI Guide (ENG/FR/Multi)
  Item number: 340-AGIK
• Driver
  Driver Software
  Item number: 555-BHBW
• FGA Module
  Custom Configuration
  Item number: 817-BBBB
• Gaming Essentials
  Includes PC digital download of Midnight Suns w/purchase. 1 code/customer. Redeem by Feb. 6
  Item number: 800-BBVL
• Hard Drive
  512GB NVMe M.2 PCIe SSD
  Item number: 400-BMOU
• Keyboard
  Wired Multimedia Keyboard (English)
  Item number: 580-AHTI
• Label
  Regulatory Label
  Item number: 389-ECEB
• McAfee Live Safe
  None Required
  Item number: 817-BBBP
• Memory
  16GB, 2x8GB, DDR4, 3200MHz, XMP
  Item number: 370-AFLE
• Operating System
  Windows 11 Home, English
  Item number: 619-APTK
• Processor
  AMD Ryzen(TM) 9 5900 (12-Core, 70MB Total Cache, Max Boost Clock of 4.7GHz)
  Item number: 338-CCXY
• Processor Branding
  AMD Ryzen(TM) 9 Label
  Item number: 389-DYKY
• Video Card
  NVIDIA(R) GeForce RTX(TM) 3080 Ti 12GB GDDR6X
  Item number: 490-BHBV
• Wireless
  MediaTek MT7921 Wi-Fi 6 (2x2) MIMO 802.11ax Wireless LAN and Bluetooth 5.2
  Item number: 555-BHBN

 

[Lutfij]

Welcome to the forums, newcomer!

Aurora R14, Ryzen R9500 Memory stuck at 2133mhz

Hoping someone has a solution for me. Installed 2x32g 3200mhz corsair vengeance LPX memory sticks right after pulling my new R14 Ryzen R9 out of the box. I booted and everything was fine. Got the typical "Your memory change" on startup and reviewed that my memory was showing 80G and running at...

www.dell.com

You seem to have thread there as well with the same details, only difference being that, what they've stated is actually very close to the truth. Prebuilt system's like Dell or HP might have a baked in option to prevent users from tampering with BIOS settings, or that the BIOS itself is to blame or probably worse, that they want the system returned for them to reconfigure the BIOS at their lab without user input(apart from lab technicians).

The AM4 platform can go to DDR4-3600MHz and you could be in possession of a B550 or X570 chipset motherboard(or lower) but motherboard vendors have been known to limit functionality for their BIOS.

I'd send the unit back, and not tamper with the ram out of the box.

 

[haventroubles]

Thanks for the reply @Lutfij Do you mean by "send it back and not tamper with the RAM out of the box" that I should not upgrade the memory myself at all? When I installed the corsair 32g sticks right after pulling the pc out of the box, everything was functioning fine and my memory speed was 3200mhz. Also, I have ordered two Kingston fury 32g sticks that should be arriving in a few days. The fury sticks are listed as compatible but another user replied in the dell forum that the fury sticks i ordered are possibly not the exact same ones that are listed for sale on Dell. I'm not super confident that this will get me to 3600mhz. My settings have clearly returned to the default 2133mhz RAM speed and will require some sort of intervention to get back to my maximum memory speed. Likely in the bios / awcc.

 

[Lutfij]

Yes! If you needed to add more ram, you should've done so from Dell's purchase portal/contacted Dell to up the ram for you. If not, then gotten a prebuilt from another SI(System Integrator) or a DIY approach whereby you picked what you wanted in a chassis.

That intervention would possibly be in the hands of Dell(Alienware) and not the end user...everything that you've explained on that URL'd thread and here, would point to a prevention mechanism whereby the end user is prevented from modifying settings in BIOS. If you reverted to the factory sticks and not the aftermarket sticks of ram, without any fruition in spite of venturing into BIOS then it's something the engineers at Dell will have access to. I double checked the BIOS version you've stated to be on and it's the latest. So unless there's an inherent glitch in the BIOS that prevents the ram settings from being keyed in (apart from the notion that Dell don't want users tampering with their system's), I don't see any other avenue for support on that system.

You could try and reflash the BIOS, then clear the CMOS and then see if you can key in the ram speeds.

 

[haventroubles]

OK, I may try to flash the bios and clear the cmos again with the factory fury 3200mhz sticks. I have already tried clearing the cmos with the original factory RAM but was still stuck at the 2133mhz default speed. Hoping I don't have to return the system and go through swap/setup again. My primary use of this machine is to operate my business so not sure I'll even notice the difference of running 2133mhz vs 3200mhz vs 3600mhz, just disappointed that my system isn't operating at its full potential. Before purchasing the machine Dell actually recommended that I manually upgrade the memory myself. I'm sure that if I kept the original upgrade that I did right after receiving the system of 80g (2x8g 3200 factory Fury and 2x32g 3200 corsair) then I would be still be running at 3200mhz right now. My system was running fine and at the correct 3200mhz memory speed before putting in the two 3600mhz corsair. Dell also had XMP profiles in the bios for its previous iterations of the Alienware aurora R series.

 

[Lutfij]

I'm sure that if I kept the original upgrade that I did right after receiving the system of 80g (2x8g 3200 factory Fury and 2x32g 3200 corsair) then I would be still be running at 3200mhz right now.
You can wear two different sized shoes of different colors as well, they'll protect your feet...the only thing is you'll look silly doing so. When upgrading ram, you look into kits without mixing and matching rams sticks. Same story applies for the tires on a car. In short, what you did was a no-no.