Question Issues with my RAM and/or motherboard ?

[QuarkTechOops]

Hope you guys can help, as I've looked online for a year and a half and haven't been able to find a solution!

No matter what I do, my ram will not run at it's advertised speeds of 3200, I don't believe it's the ram (but that is all that's affected, hence why I'm posting my request here in memory section), as I previously had ram that was 3600mhz and that had the same sorts of problems, I gave that ram to my bro and they work fine on his PC.

Here's the specs of my obviously budget PC first of all:

Mother board: MSI Mag B560 Tomahawk WIFI
CPU: i5 11400f
GFX card: RTX2060 12gb edition
Ram: Kingston FURY Beast 32 GB (2 x 16 GB) 3200 MHz DDR4 CL16 (previous ram was Corsair Vengeance RGB PRO 16GB (2x8GB) DDR4 3600 (PC4-28800) C18)
Storage: 2x M.2 SSD'S
Windows 11

No matter what I do, XMP refuses to work, neither do most options in memory try it. The last ram I had (Corsair Vengeance) was stable at 2900Mhz, but eventually it started not booting up correctly and the ram would reset to the 2400Mhz speed, it became more and more unstable. The new ram was stable at 2900 Mhz also, but then it started doing the same after a couple months, it's refusing to boot up properly and would reset to 2400Mhz, Lately it actually defaulted itself to only one stick of ram, completely ignoring one stick. I troubleshooted both sticks and they are fine. The only way I can get both sticks to work is if I run them at the pathetic 2400Mhz, Which is not ideal considering I'm gaming.

I suspect the problem is my motherboard, but any help would be appreciated!

 

[zinkles]

Is your BIOS up-to-date?
If not, update and try again.

The latest version is 7D15v29 from 2023-07-03.

How to Update | BIOS download

 

[Ralston18]

Some motherboards require that the first physically installed RAM be placed in a specific slot.

This motherboard?

https://download.msi.com/archive/mnu_exe/mb/MAGB560TOMAHAWKWIFI_MAGB560TORPEDO.pdf

[Verify that I found the correct/applicable motherboard manual.]

Per the .pdf (if correct), Page 20 - Overview of Components, the first RAM should be installed in DIMMA2.

Start by reviewing the entire User Manual to doublecheck everything.

Ensure that the RAM is indeed supported.

Then reinstall RAM per the User Manual starting with DIMMA2.

 

[QuarkTechOops]

Is your BIOS up-to-date?
If not, update and try again.

The latest version is 7D15v29 from 2023-07-03.

How to Update | BIOS download

Yeah I did all that, several times, tried different updates including the latest one. It didn't do anything, thanks though.

 

[QuarkTechOops]

Some motherboards require that the first physically installed RAM be placed in a specific slot.

This motherboard?

https://download.msi.com/archive/mnu_exe/mb/MAGB560TOMAHAWKWIFI_MAGB560TORPEDO.pdf

[Verify that I found the correct/applicable motherboard manual.]

Per the .pdf (if correct), Page 20 - Overview of Components, the first RAM should be installed in DIMMA2.

Start by reviewing the entire User Manual to doublecheck everything.

Ensure that the RAM is indeed supported.

Then reinstall RAM per the User Manual starting with DIMMA2.

Yeah that's the one, I definitely put the ram in the correct slots according to the manual. I double checked everything multiple times now tbh, I don't believe I've made a mistake, although this is the first PC I've built, so it's possible!

Both types of ram are 100% supported, I verified before I bought them and made sure afterwards as well, in case I'd made a mistake.

I think you're overthinking putting ram into DIMMA2 first, it means if you have one stick then put that into DIMMA2 first, if you have two sticks, then put them into DIMMA2 and DIMMB2 first (as per the diagram). Placing one stick at a time doesn't accomplish anything tbh, I tried it anyway and no dice.

Thanks for suggestions though.

 

[Ralston18]

From the manual:

= = = =

⚠ Important

Always insert memory modules in the DIMMA2 slot first.

= = = =

If using DIMMA2 and DIMMB2 (or some other combination) the first RAM must go into DIMMA2.

Starting with DIMMA2 has been sucessful for other posters.

However, if starting with DIMMA2 was tried and did not work then something else is, indeed, astray.

Try updating BIOS once more having DIMMA2 as the first insertion.

And just to clarify: the only remaining problem is that the memory will not run at the desired/required speed being 3200 - correct?

Are you familiar with CPU-z?

Take some screenshots of memory and the current configuration.

Post the screenshots here via imgur (www.imgur.com).

Someone may spot something that is not as expected or otherwise as it should be.

 

[geofelt]

One common cause for ram issues is a bent pin in the cpu socket.
Usually, though, it shows as no dual channel operation or a bad ram slot.
Since nothing else seems to fix your problem, look carefully at the socket pins. Take and post a high res photo of two different views of the socket pins.
Take great care when replacing the cpu, it is easy to damage pins.
Drop the cpu in cleanly, do not smoosh it around to get seated.
We don't want to cause damage when there was none to begin with.

 

[QuarkTechOops]

From the manual:

= = = =

⚠ Important

Always insert memory modules in the DIMMA2 slot first.

= = = =

If using DIMMA2 and DIMMB2 (or some other combination) the first RAM must go into DIMMA2.

Starting with DIMMA2 has been sucessful for other posters.

However, if starting with DIMMA2 was tried and did not work then something else is, indeed, astray.

Try updating BIOS once more having DIMMA2 as the first insertion.

And just to clarify: the only remaining problem is that the memory will not run at the desired/required speed being 3200 - correct?

Are you familiar with CPU-z?

Take some screenshots of memory and the current configuration.

Post the screenshots here via imgur (www.imgur.com).

Someone may spot something that is not as expected or otherwise as it should be.

https://imgur.com/a/JYPSHzw

View: https://imgur.com/a/JYPSHzw


OK thanks, there's the image of my ram on CPU-Z

The other stuff I did ad infinitum tbh.

 

[QuarkTechOops]

One common cause for ram issues is a bent pin in the cpu socket.
Usually, though, it shows as no dual channel operation or a bad ram slot.
Since nothing else seems to fix your problem, look carefully at the socket pins. Take and post a high res photo of two different views of the socket pins.
Take great care when replacing the cpu, it is easy to damage pins.
Drop the cpu in cleanly, do not smoosh it around to get seated.
We don't want to cause damage when there was none to begin with.

I never would've thought to check the cpu for bent pins, so thanks for that suggestion, I'll definitely check that out later, I'll also check to make sure the cooler isn't too tight whilst I'm at it, as that apparently can cause similar issues (I think both are a long shot, but worth the try).

 

[Ralston18]

Current RAM being: Kingston FURY Beast 32 GB (2 x 16 GB) 3200 MHz DDR4 CL16

Memory tab: I would expect to see "Dual" in Channel #.

SPD Tab(s)? Screenshots?

Also:

As Admin in Task Manager > View > Performance > Memory

What speed is shown? Screenshot?

Objective being to discover any RAM related configuration error(s).

 

[QuarkTechOops]

Current RAM being: Kingston FURY Beast 32 GB (2 x 16 GB) 3200 MHz DDR4 CL16

Memory tab: I would expect to see "Dual" in Channel #.

SPD Tab(s)? Screenshots?

Also:

As Admin in Task Manager > View > Performance > Memory

What speed is shown? Screenshot?

Objective being to discover any RAM related configuration error(s).

You're a legend, no need to upload the pictures, spd showed that one stick was running without XMP and with max bandwidth of 2400 instead of 3200, I switched them to confirm it wasn't a faulty slot and the same stick had the same issues. So it looks like a faulty stick of ram, man I've been unlucky with ram...

Gonna buy another pair and then get the first pair refunded, thanks for your help!