[SOLVED] PC fails to boot with RAM on 3600MHz

[rafsis]

Hello all,
I'm having some issues with booting my PC with RAM running @ 3600MHz. I've tried just about everything except change any voltage settings (I'm noobish on that area). With manual setup 3333MHz boots fine but 3466 and 3600 will not. The boot just hangs (black screen) and I need to turn off the PC with the reset sw to boot into bios where I get the text that boot was unsuccesful. If I choose the XMP profile the RAM just runs at 2133MHz. This is really bugging me out.. any ideas I could try? BIOS is at latest available version.

I'll just put my config down below if someone has a similar setup but with working RAM..
Mobo: Asus ROG strix Z270H Gaming
RAM G-Skill F4-3600C15D16GTZ (2x8GB, it's on QVL )
CPU : i7 7700K @4.8GHz (AIO cooling)
GPU: nvidia GTX1080
PSU Corsair 850W, should be more than enogh

Grateful for any ideas that could help, I'm all out...

 

[dimtodim]

Hello all,
I'm having some issues with booting my PC with RAM running @ 3600MHz. I've tried just about everything except change any voltage settings (I'm noobish on that area). With manual setup 3333MHz boots fine but 3466 and 3600 will not. The boot just hangs (black screen) and I need to turn off the PC with the reset sw to boot into bios where I get the text that boot was unsuccesful. If I choose the XMP profile the RAM just runs at 2133MHz. This is really bugging me out.. any ideas I could try? BIOS is at latest available version.

I'll just put my config down below if someone has a similar setup but with working RAM..
Mobo: Asus ROG strix Z270H Gaming
RAM G-Skill F4-3600C15D16GTZ (2x8GB, it's on QVL )
CPU : i7 7700K @4.8GHz (AIO cooling)
GPU: nvidia GTX1080
PSU Corsair 850W, should be more than enogh

Grateful for any ideas that could help, I'm all out...

your cpu supports Memory TypesDDR4-2133/2400, DDR3L-1333/1600 @ 1.35V max speed 2400MHz DDR4
in bios select 2400 and will be fine

 

[rafsis]

your cpu supports Memory TypesDDR4-2133/2400, DDR3L-1333/1600 @ 1.35V max speed 2400MHz DDR4
in bios select 2400 and will be fine

Wait, 2400Mhz max? that doen't seem right, as I'm currently running them in 3333MHz without issues. Or am I missing something here?

Edit: youäre right.. to me, this makes no sense whatsoever..

 

[ChumP]

your cpu supports Memory TypesDDR4-2133/2400, DDR3L-1333/1600 @ 1.35V max speed 2400MHz DDR4
in bios select 2400 and will be fine

Those are only the standard speeds that Intel lists as supported, anything above 2400 is basically memory overclocking(either by enabling XMP or manual OC) and it's not guaranteed to work... that's why Intel only lists 2400 as maximum. It doesn't mean that higher than 2400 MHz RAM won't work with the 7700K.

Higher frequency modules compatibility depends on the memory itself and also the motherboard.

The one thing that's more important is if the motherboard supports it... in your case it can go up to 3866 MHz.

Memory modules won't always be able to go to their rated speeds without some kind of tuning.
Increasing DRAM voltage might be necessary. I'd just bump it to 1.38V to see how it goes(I wouldn't go over 1.4V for day to day use).

 

[rafsis]

Those are only the standard speeds that Intel lists as supported, anything above 2400 is basically memory overclocking(either by enabling XMP or manual OC) and it's not guaranteed to work... that's why Intel only lists 2400 as maximum. It doesn't mean that higher than 2400 MHz RAM won't work with the 7700K.

Higher frequency modules compatibility depends on the memory itself and also the motherboard.

The one thing that's more important is if the motherboard supports it... in your case it can go up to 3866 MHz.

Memory modules won't always be able to go to their rated speeds without some kind of tuning.
Increasing DRAM voltage might be necessary. I'd just bump it to 1.38V to see how it goes(I wouldn't go over 1.4V for day to day use).

That makes sense, I guess I'll have to learn to play with the voltages a bit. Well, worst case scenario I get to buy a new PC so it's not that bad. thank you, I will try this.

 

[ChumP]

That makes sense, I guess I'll have to learn to play with the voltages a bit. Well, worst case scenario I get to buy a new PC so it's not that bad. thank you, I will try this.

Sice you're manually overclocking, at what voltage were you running @ 3333 MHz ?... between 2133-2666 the memory should run fine at 1.2V, but when you're going over 2666 MHz you'll need to increase DRAM voltage to 1.35V(or higher depending on the syability of the system).

Also, did you change your timings to 15-15-15-35 as per gskill specs?

 

[rafsis]

Sice you're manually overclocking, at what voltage were you running @ 3333 MHz ?... between 2133-2666 the memory should run fine at 1.2V, but when you're going over 2666 MHz you'll need to increase DRAM voltage to 1.35V(or higher depending on the syability of the system).

Also, did you change your timings to 15-15-15-35 as per gskill specs?

Those settings were all set to "Auto", Timings are 15-15-15-36 (Auto). The strange thing is, DRAM voltage seems to indicate it's on 1.472 when set to 3333MHz. When I set RAM to 2133MHz it lowers to 1,1xx. 1.472 seems a bit high, right? Both XMP and "auto" settings set that value. I lowered it manually to 1.370 and all still boots as it should on 3333MHz, but no boot beyond that.

I had 3600MHz working at one point, but after I had to reset the BIOS it stopped working. It was a real hassle to begin with, I had to set XMP, reboot, PC didnt boot so it went to bios ("faulty settings"), I set it to manual and back to XMP and it somehow worked. So there must be some setting that I'm missinhg. It was on a previous bios versiuon though.

 

[ChumP]

Those settings were all set to "Auto", Timings are 15-15-15-36 (Auto). The strange thing is, DRAM voltage seems to indicate it's on 1.472 when set to 3333MHz. When I set RAM to 2133MHz it lowers to 1,1xx. 1.472 seems a bit high, right? Both XMP and "auto" settings set that value. I lowered it manually to 1.370 and all still boots as it should on 3333MHz, but no boot beyond that.

I had 3600MHz working at one point, but after I had to reset the BIOS it stopped working. It was a real hassle to begin with, I had to set XMP, reboot, PC didnt boot so it went to bios ("faulty settings"), I set it to manual and back to XMP and it somehow worked. So there must be some setting that I'm missinhg. It was on a previous bios versiuon though.

If at that voltage you can't POST(or be stable) with 3600 MHz, then you might be hitting a brick wall trying to go past 3333.

You might be able to get it working by loosening up the timings, but you might not yield any gain or you might even lose performance compared to running at 3333 MHz with tighter timings.
Intel is quite forgiving when it comes to RAM frequency and the difference between 3333 and 3600 MHz will be insignificant or non-existent most likely.

EDIT: Also, by lowering DRAM voltage from 1.47V to 1.37V will also help the memory controller to stay cooler(you could even try lowering it even further to 1.35V and see if it's stable).

 

[rafsis]

If at that voltage you can't POST(or be stable) with 3600 MHz, then you might be hitting a brick wall trying to go past 3333.

You might be able to get it working by loosening up the timings, but you might not yield any gain or you might even lose performance compared to running at 3333 MHz at tighter timings.
Intel is quite forgiving when it comes to RAM frequency and the difference between 3333 and 3600 MHz will be insignificant or non-existent most likely.

EDIT: Also, by lowering DRAM voltage from 1.47V to 1.37V will also help the memory controller to stay cooler(you could even try lowering it even further to 1.35V and see if it's stable).

Yeah, I guess you're right, 3333MHz isn't that bad. I seem to be in the same spot as the average user of these RAM sticks, 100% average on userbench. Just tried to get as much as possible out of thes "outdated" rig, probably just better to focus on building that new one in the near future. I did lower the DRAM voltage too, unless I get any issues I will keep it that way.

Thanks for your help, much appreciated!