Question Enabled XMP, system won't post (even after disabling it)?

Fluffen

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Jan 9, 2016
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I noticed that XMP was disabled in my BIOS settings and I'd heard before that it can increase RAM performance, I searched around and it seemed pretty safe so I enabled XMP and my system would no longer post.

After a few failed attempts, and some troubling noises, it booted to the American Megatrends safe / recovery mode and I was able to get back into BIOS and disabled XMP again but sadly the problem persisted. I reset the BIOS to default settings, still not working...

Getting a little scared now that I'd fried my RAM or my board, I tested with some spare RAM I had lying around (2x sticks of 8GB 3000Mhz) and... the system booted! So I went through the process of trying each stick of RAM 1 by 1 in each different slot and every RAM slot + stick are working fine but if I try more than 2 sticks at a time I get the same issue again.

I don't mess with the bios often, I'm guessing enabling XMP has changed some setting that hasn't been reverted properly and now having more than 32gb of RAM fails to boot. I've tried resetting to factory settings (several times just to be sure lol) but I'm pretty scared now to mess with anything else in case I mess something up even more.

Relevant Specs:
- OS: Linux Mint
- Motherboard: ASUS TUF Z370-PLUS GAMING
- RAM: Corsair Vengence Pro DDR4 3600Mhz (64gb - 4x16gb)
- PSU: Corsair RM1000x

Does anyone have any suggestions as to what might be causing the issue or any possible fixes? Any help greatly appreciated, I'm currently running on 32gb and it seems stable? (too soon to tell really but no crashes yet).
 
Solution
RAM: Corsair Vengence Pro DDR4 3600Mhz (64gb - 4x16gb)
Might want to pass on the link to the ram kit you're using. As for the rams themselves, maybe check and see if all sticks of ram have the same PCB revision numbers on them.

ASUS TUF Z370-PLUS GAMING
What BIOS version are you on for your motherboard?
RAM: Corsair Vengence Pro DDR4 3600Mhz (64gb - 4x16gb)
Might want to pass on the link to the ram kit you're using. As for the rams themselves, maybe check and see if all sticks of ram have the same PCB revision numbers on them.

ASUS TUF Z370-PLUS GAMING
What BIOS version are you on for your motherboard?
 
Solution
RAM: Corsair Vengence Pro DDR4 3600Mhz (64gb - 4x16gb)
Might want to pass on the link to the ram kit you're using. As for the rams themselves, maybe check and see if all sticks of ram have the same PCB revision numbers on them.

ASUS TUF Z370-PLUS GAMING
What BIOS version are you on for your motherboard?

Funny you mention BIOS version, I've just finished updating the firmware and now it seems to be working! I've added back all 4 stick of RAM and I'm now booted and running with 64gb so fingers crossed we stay stable.

I have no idea what version I was running before but I've had this board a fair few years and never updated it so I was probably pretty out of date.

Didn't change any other settings though so who knows if it was the update itself that fixed an issue or if the update just reset some corrupted / non-reverted setting that XMP broke.

Either way, all seems good for now thanks!