[SOLVED] POST fails only when second dimm installed ASUS TUF X299 Mark 2

[Yashi11111]

Running an ASUS X299 Mark 2 mobo
Intel 7740x Processor
Kingston HyperX 2400MHz 16Gb
EVGA 1080 SC2 gpu
Western Digital SN750 SSD 1Tb

I know there's memory issues with using this combo however I only want to use 2 slots anyways and everything I've read says it should be compatible. I've had a hyper x furry 16Gb stick in the C1 slot since I've built the computer and it's always worked. As soon as I put in an additional one I bought (same exact model. I put it on the D1 as the manual for 4 core) it fails to boot into bios and is left with the orage "dram" led on after flashing a but. I've tried hitting MEMOK, I've tested each stick (100% operational). I am typically exceptional at troubleshooting and I've never had to ask a question on how to fix an issue before but I am absolutely baffled as to what's wrong!? I even decided to boot it with one stick in C1 like normal and went into the bios, at which point I installed the other stick in D1 while it qas on(I know... dangerous! But needed to see) and then I booted into the memtest and it recognizes it. Also when I went back to the bios (by exiting memtest, not rebooting) it showed up in the correct D1 dimm and all the correct speed and capacity but when I save and exit the computer refuses to utilized the newly recognized stick of ram! So it is also not a faulty dimm slot! Removed by Moderator I am literally desperate here. Also to those that have realized I literally copied this title from an already existent thread. It's because it's the same issue, but none of the given solutions worked. Thank you to anyone that can help!

 

[SamirD]

Link to other thread so I can see what was suggested and tried?

 

[Yashi11111]

Link to other thread so I can see what was suggested and tried?

[SOLVED] - POST fails only when second dimm installed ASUS TUF X299 Mark 2

Upgraded my desktop with new ASUS TUF X299 Mark 2 mobo, CPU, and DRAM. POST will complete if either of 2 dimms installed individually, but POST fails if both dimms installed. Details: CPU Intel i9 9820x Skylake 10 core 3.3 GHz, DRAM Corsair DDR4 Vengeance LPX 2666 32 GB (2 x 16 GB), Cooler...

forums.tomshardware.com

The only thing I haven't done was attempted to update or reinstall the bios but that also shouldn't be an issue. Might try it anyway when I get home from work.

 

[Third-Eye]

Also when I went back to the bios (by exiting memtest, not rebooting) it showed up in the correct D1 dimm and all the correct speed and capacity but when I save and exit the computer refuses to utilized the newly recognized stick of ram! So it is also not a faulty dimm slot!

Did it actually boot into Windows? It sounds like you have the memory reserved issue that pops up nearly every day with someone adding more ram to their system, but it's not usable.

If only half the ram is showing up in Windows as usable, left click the Windows icon and type in search msconfig and open msconfig.exe. Open the Boot tab, click Advanced options and uncheck Maximum memory if it's checked off. Click OK, then click apply and then click restart in the dialog box.

 

[Calvin7]

Part number and/or link to memory?

 

[geofelt]

You did not buy an identical second stick.
Ram is sold in kits for a reason.
A motherboard must manage all the ram using the same specs of voltage, cas and speed.
The internal workings are designed for the capacity of the kit.
Ram from the same vendor and part number can be made up of differing manufacturing components over time.
Some motherboards, can be very sensitive to this.

If you can, return the stick in favor of a matched 2 x 16gb kit.
Sometimes, increasing the ram voltage in the bios will iron out some incompatibilities.
Try that first.

 

[Karadjgne]

Kabylake-X and Skylake-X are slightly different with ram, so can depend on exactly how the mobo is setup. Some recommend A1/B1 for Skylake-X, C1/D1 for Kabylake-X, and other boards don't care about cpu, but recommend A1/C1 for 2x sticks.

What you want and what the pc wants are often not the same thing, if C1/D1 isn't working right, try a different setup.

The fact you are using mismatched ram, from 2 different kits guarantees only one thing, that there are no other guarantees the ram will be compliant. You may have to add one stick, set timings manually looser, add an extra 0.05v to the dram voltage, bump up memory controller voltage, save, then try adding the second stick. In different slots. Read the manual, has the slot assignments.

 

[SamirD]

If you inserted a module with the power on, now it is unknown if the module, motherboard, cpu are 100% anymore. I don't think there's a way to get to a solution.

One thing I would try is reseating your cpu. And do it with the power off and unplugged!

 

[Yashi11111]

Part number and/or link to memory?

https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B07WCQRMWQ?psc=1&ref=ppx_pop_mob_b_asin_title

I bought the exact same stick too

 

[Yashi11111]

Kabylake-X and Skylake-X are slightly different with ram, so can depend on exactly how the mobo is setup. Some recommend A1/B1 for Skylake-X, C1/D1 for Kabylake-X, and other boards don't care about cpu, but recommend A1/C1 for 2x sticks.

What you want and what the pc wants are often not the same thing, if C1/D1 isn't working right, try a different setup.

The fact you are using mismatched ram, from 2 different kits guarantees only one thing, that there are no other guarantees the ram will be compliant. You may have to add one stick, set timings manually looser, add an extra 0.05v to the dram voltage, bump up memory controller voltage, save, then try adding the second stick. In different slots. Read the manual, has the slot assignments.

Kabylake-X and Skylake-X are slightly different with ram, so can depend on exactly how the mobo is setup. Some recommend A1/B1 for Skylake-X, C1/D1 for Kabylake-X, and other boards don't care about cpu, but recommend A1/C1 for 2x sticks.

What you want and what the pc wants are often not the same thing, if C1/D1 isn't working right, try a different setup.

The fact you are using mismatched ram, from 2 different kits guarantees only one thing, that there are no other guarantees the ram will be compliant. You may have to add one stick, set timings manually looser, add an extra 0.05v to the dram voltage, bump up memory controller voltage, save, then try adding the second stick. In different slots. Read the manual, has the slot assignments.

They are identical sticks of ram just bought about 6 months apart. And when I say Identical I mean I literally bought them from the same amazon link and vendor. So in theory compatibility shouldn't be an issue since the 2x16 packs are just these two sticks sold together. And with the 7740x the A and B slots can't be utilized but I have fiddled with every combination possible. Here they are https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B07WCQRMWQ?psc=1&ref=ppx_pop_mob_b_asin_title

 

[Yashi11111]

You did not buy an identical second stick.
Ram is sold in kits for a reason.
A motherboard must manage all the ram using the same specs of voltage, cas and speed.
The internal workings are designed for the capacity of the kit.
Ram from the same vendor and part number can be made up of differing manufacturing components over time.
Some motherboards, can be very sensitive to this.

If you can, return the stick in favor of a matched 2 x 16gb kit.
Sometimes, increasing the ram voltage in the bios will iron out some incompatibilities.
Try that first.

I will save that option as last resort. They are identical sticks of ram just bought about 6 months apart. And when I say Identical I mean I literally bought them from the same amazon link and vendor. So in theory compatibility shouldn't be an issue since the 2x16 packs are just these two sticks sold together. Here they are https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B07WCQRMWQ?psc=1&ref=ppx_pop_mob_b_asin_title

 

[Karadjgne]

Ram that you see on the outside is nothing more than a chunk of metal and a paint job.

The ram itself is made of silicon chiplets, IC's. Each of those IC's is cut out of a sheet of silicon, which is unique in composition. Every sheet has different levels of impurities in it, a little lead or copper or gold or silver iron, nickle etc. So each IC responds differently to voltages and current.

You see the Primary timings, the 16-19-19-39, when there's well over 40 Secondary and Tertiary timings also. All of those timings are affected by the type and levels of impurities contained in the IC's.

So you can buy 2 kits. Identical in every single way. From the same store. On the same shelf. From the same box. On the same day. At the same register. At the same time, and have totally incompatible ram.

Corsair sent me some replacement sticks years ago. The manufacturing numbers were only 9 numbers apart. Literally 1 stick came off the assembly line 9 sticks after the other. Totally incompatible. Would not work. You'll see stuff like that all the time, buy a quad kit and 3 sticks are consecutive, the 4th is 3 or 4 or 5 numbers apart as even those consecutive sticks won't play.

Ram is only manufactured by a handful of OEMs, like SkHynix or Samsung or Micron. They make ram for every vendor. Who buys it under contract according to whom is cheapest. So you can have identical ram on the outside, 2 sticks with same model heatsink, color, speed, everything, but on the inside of 1 stick is 4x SkHynix chiplets, and on the other stick is 8x Samsung.

There's a reason why it's strongly advised to never mix kits, buy what you want the first time, even if it means selling the old ram. Because there's simply no guarantee they'll work and no guarantee a store will swap sticks after you've opened the package.

 

[Yashi11111]

Ram that you see on the outside is nothing more than a chunk of metal and a paint job.

The ram itself is made of silicon chiplets, IC's. Each of those IC's is cut out of a sheet of silicon, which is unique in composition. Every sheet has different levels of impurities in it, a little lead or copper or gold or silver iron, nickle etc. So each IC responds differently to voltages and current.

You see the Primary timings, the 16-19-19-39, when there's well over 40 Secondary and Tertiary timings also. All of those timings are affected by the type and levels of impurities contained in the IC's.

So you can buy 2 kits. Identical in every single way. From the same store. On the same shelf. From the same box. On the same day. At the same register. At the same time, and have totally incompatible ram.

Corsair sent me some replacement sticks years ago. The manufacturing numbers were only 9 numbers apart. Literally 1 stick came off the assembly line 9 sticks after the other. Totally incompatible. Would not work. You'll see stuff like that all the time, buy a quad kit and 3 sticks are consecutive, the 4th is 3 or 4 or 5 numbers apart as even those consecutive sticks won't play.

Ram is only manufactured by a handful of OEMs, like SkHynix or Samsung or Micron. They make ram for every vendor. Who buys it under contract according to whom is cheapest. So you can have identical ram on the outside, 2 sticks with same model heatsink, color, speed, everything, but on the inside of 1 stick is 4x SkHynix chiplets, and on the other stick is 8x Samsung.

There's a reason why it's strongly advised to never mix kits, buy what you want the first time, even if it means selling the old ram. Because there's simply no guarantee they'll work and no guarantee a store will swap sticks after you've opened the package.

Ok. I'll buy a set of ram today. I should only take a few days to get here so I'll keep the thread updated

 

[Karadjgne]

No worries, we'll be here 👍

 

[Third-Eye]

Just had another look through the original post and I guess I missed a line or two. I'm pretty sure I was getting things confused when I posted before, probably because I was looking at too many other posts.

So anyway, as was already said, it's probably just incompatible modules.

 

[Yashi11111]

No worries, we'll be here 👍

So as I thought. It is not the individually bought ram that is the issue. The pair of 16gb sticks came from amazon today and I've spent hours trying to boot past post. And it's failing yet again. I then tried to put all four sticks in because why not? And still nothing. Each time I tried I let the bios go through all the memory sequences but still no success. What's the next step here? I feel like I'm out of options for once...

 

[Karadjgne]

Using the new ram, did you bump up it's voltage a little, and maybe the memory controller voltage too? Just watched a jays2cents video, he had the same thing, windows failing to boot, but bios fine. He went through everything, replaced gpu, ram etc. He finally left, and his helper decided to redo the prior overclock (test bench worked fine prior) and that was the answer. Seems during the transition between bios and windows, the cpu hit a single point of low power and it wasn't enough to Kickstart the boot up. By adding voltages and raising the llc etc, there was more power to the cpu and all was good. Soon as windows started up, it took over voltage regulation etc.

So wondering if this isn't a similar thing.

 

[Yashi11111]

Using the new ram, did you bump up it's voltage a little, and maybe the memory controller voltage too? Just watched a jays2cents video, he had the same thing, windows failing to boot, but bios fine. He went through everything, replaced gpu, ram etc. He finally left, and his helper decided to redo the prior overclock (test bench worked fine prior) and that was the answer. Seems during the transition between bios and windows, the cpu hit a single point of low power and it wasn't enough to Kickstart the boot up. By adding voltages and raising the llc etc, there was more power to the cpu and all was good. Soon as windows started up, it took over voltage regulation etc.

So wondering if this isn't a similar thing.

I did not. However. I've been messing with where I put the dimms since I have four now. And even thought the a and b slots won't work I was just throughing crap to the wall... and guess what... it stuck.. in dimm slots b1 b2 c1 c2, it recognized c1 and c2. Even though the manual states to put it on c1 d1 for 6 core it doesn't work. But in c1 c2 it works. I took the b1 and b2 out and the c2 c2 still worked. I also tried it with different dimms to see if it would work with non paired ram and it does. So I'm going to return the pair of ram I just got. But in essence, for no apparent reason, it now works. But only when it's installed in c1 and c2 slots. Asus needs to update the manual I guess...

 

[Third-Eye]

I did not. However. I've been messing with where I put the dimms since I have four now. And even thought the a and b slots won't work I was just throughing crap to the wall... and guess what... it stuck.. in dimm slots b1 b2 c1 c2, it recognized c1 and c2. Even though the manual states to put it on c1 d1 for 6 core it doesn't work. But in c1 c2 it works. I took the b1 and b2 out and the c2 c2 still worked. I also tried it with different dimms to see if it would work with non paired ram and it does. So I'm going to return the pair of ram I just got. But in essence, for no apparent reason, it now works. But only when it's installed in c1 and c2 slots. Asus needs to update the manual I guess...

You still have a problem though. You are just running your ram in single channel mode by using only the C channel slots. As you already tried, but couldn't get working, channels C and D are the only way to get dual channel mode working. There has to be a bent or shifted pin in the CPU socket, otherwise something else is wrong with the CPU or the motherboard.

 

[Karadjgne]

Did you try B1/C1 or A2/C2 etc to see if it'd work dual channel not using D slots?

 

[Yashi11111]

You still have a problem though. You are just running your ram in single channel mode by using only the C channel slots. As you already tried, but couldn't get working, channels C and D are the only way to get dual channel mode working. There has to be a bent or shifted pin in the CPU socket, otherwise something else is wrong with the CPU or the motherboard.

Well single channel 32 is better than dual nothing haha. I don't really have an option at this point but I guess I'll try the next post down even tho the a and b channels won't work with this processor. Worth a shot

 

[Yashi11111]

Did you try B1/C1 or A2/C2 etc to see if it'd work dual channel not using D slots?

The a and b channels are useless with the 7740x. They won't even work. But this motherbaord seems to screwy I'll give it a try. If it helps at all I bought this mobo the second day it was out so it might have some first iteration issues I suppose. Very unlikely tho with the amount of testing these things go through

 

[Karadjgne]

Lol, tell that to AMD, 1st gen Ryzens went a very long time before getting 'mostly' fixed for ram issues, they are still advocating updating bios, even for 3rd gen, regularly.

By its very nature, the testing done on the board is limited as the amount of time in manhours alone it would take to really thoroughly test the boards would make release dates extremely hard to impossible to match. And much of the equipment like cpus and ram etc comes out After initial boards designs are released. The amd B550 is due for release in July, and the X570 has been out a while, but the 4000 series cpus won't drop until August or later.

Initial release problems on your board? That's a possibility, if a slim one, but still a good thought that I'd not personally rule out.

I do have fingers crossed that you can get dual somewhere, would be nice, but if single channel is it, then as you say, 32Gb single is better than 0Gb dual.

 

[Yashi11111]

Lol, tell that to AMD, 1st gen Ryzens went a very long time before getting 'mostly' fixed for ram issues, they are still advocating updating bios, even for 3rd gen, regularly.

By its very nature, the testing done on the board is limited as the amount of time in manhours alone it would take to really thoroughly test the boards would make release dates extremely hard to impossible to match. And much of the equipment like cpus and ram etc comes out After initial boards designs are released. The amd B550 is due for release in July, and the X570 has been out a while, but the 4000 series cpus won't drop until August or later.

Initial release problems on your board? That's a possibility, if a slim one, but still a good thought that I'd not personally rule out.

I do have fingers crossed that you can get dual somewhere, would be nice, but if single channel is it, then as you say, 32Gb single is better than 0Gb dual.

Yup. I tried every dual channel possibility too since my last comment. As I thought it won't even recognize anything in a or b no matter the configuration. Literally the only thin that's working is the c channel. I'm gonna go on a limb and assume no one will ever have this problem. Seems to be just my luck with this particular mobo. Thanks for all the help anyway. Much appreciated

 

[Third-Eye]

Yup. I tried every dual channel possibility too since my last comment. As I thought it won't even recognize anything in a or b no matter the configuration. Literally the only thin that's working is the c channel. I'm gonna go on a limb and assume no one will ever have this problem. Seems to be just my luck with this particular mobo. Thanks for all the help anyway. Much appreciated

You missed my comment about a shifted or bent CPU pin in the socket. That is often the cause of a memory channel not working with LGA sockets. You can try to fix the issue by reseating the CPU. You take it out of the socket, check for bent pins and fix them with a needle or similar small thin object. Then place the CPU back in the socket, reapply thermal paste and try it again. This also can sometimes fix PCIE slots not working or the system boot looping after being moved around. Sometimes shifted or bent pins is caused by improper installation of the CPU cooler.