Question RAM Resets itself to 2133 upon cold boot?

[hharriswilliam]

Hey! So this is my 2nd ever build, and it seems that others have a similar issue from searching EVERYWHERE, long story short;

My RAM (Gskill Ripjaws V 2x8GBs) is rated to run at CL16-18-18-38 @ 1.35V. I don't have any issues having to make changes in the bios, as the computer boots quick and fine. A few issues though; upon shutting down, if I were to boot the PC after, ONLY the RAM clocks reset to CL15, the standard clocks. I'm assuming the mobo isn't retaining my settings due to possibly a bad battery or a PSU. I haven't had any issues with this system ever since I've assembled it (about a week ago)

EDIT: I've tried the A1/B1 configurations versus the A2/B2 slots, as my mobo states in the manual they should be in the 2nd/4th slots.


I've also tried using both the XMP 2.0 profile, a mix of the XMP profile and custom settings, and simply custom settings to DDR4 3200 @ 16-18-18-18-38 @ 1.35V & @ 1.360V.

I've updated the BIOS to the latest one (1.70), I've considered trying the beta BIOS, but I'll wait until the official ones drop.

I'm assuming this could be a CMOS issue, MOBO or a PSU issue.

My specs are as follows:

AMD Ryzen 5 3600
AsRock Phantom Gaming 4 X570
Gskill Ripjaws V (F4-3200C16D-16GVRB)
Western Digital Blue SSD 250GB
Corsair 430M, Bronze Rated
Geforce 1050 TI

---------------------------------------

A few other notes:

I moved this PSU from my previous system (a FX-6300 system)
No really bad issues other than it restarting once during boot-up, only to realize ONLY the memory clocks have reset to 2133, instead of 3200.
The CPU/DRAM LEDs turn on, but then quickly switch off to the VGA/HDD lights.
I've checked the slots and cables, everything's firmly in place.



I'm planning on upgrading the GPU and PSU very soon, but I'm just trying to get a grip on what the possible issues could be. I'm gonna attempt replacing the CMOS battery coin .

Any ideas from what I've mentioned?


EDITED

 

[Darkbreeze]

You are putting the memory in the wrong slots. ALL dual channel motherboards comply with the same population guidelines which state that for TWO DIMM operation, memory should be in the second and fourth slots which are the A2 and B2 slots. Not the A1 and A2 slots and not the B1 and B2 slots. A2 and B2. Some boards will name these the DDR4_1 and DDR4_2 slots, but they are always the second and fourth slots over from the CPU socket starting at the CPU and moving to the right towards the edge of the board. As seen here:

 

[hharriswilliam]

You are putting the memory in the wrong slots. ALL dual channel motherboards comply with the same population guidelines which state that for TWO DIMM operation, memory should be in the second and fourth slots which are the A2 and B2 slots. Not the A1 and A2 slots and not the B1 and B2 slots. A2 and B2. Some boards will name these the DDR4_1 and DDR4_2 slots, but they are always the second and fourth slots over from the CPU socket starting at the CPU and moving to the right towards the edge of the board. As seen here:

My apologies in my explaination. I currently have the RAM in slots A2/B2.

 

[Darkbreeze]

WHICH Phantom gaming 4 do you have? There are several different ones that all come from different chipset families.

 

[hharriswilliam]

WHICH Phantom gaming 4 do you have? There are several different ones that all come from different chipset families.

I have the X570 ASROCK Phantom Gaming 4.
Thanks for the reply!

 

[Darkbreeze]

G.skill says those sticks are compatible with that specific motherboard.

Did you buy these sticks in a kit or did you buy two separate sticks of the same part number?

 

[damric]

Yes check your motherboard manual to see what optimal DIMM placement is. It's most likely outermost slots from the CPU.
Download Thaiphoon burner so you can see what ICs you are dealing with as far as what is under those RAM heat spreaders without having to peel them off.
Download the Ryzen DRAM calculator by 1usmus.
Read your motherboard manual and verify that you know how to manually CLEAR CMOS. This will be important to recover if you overbork your settings.
Now you are ready to tune. Set your frequency to 3200MT/s (1600MHz DDR). Take all of your timings out of AUTO. Reference your X.M.P. and the Safe and FAST timings in the calculator and make educated guesses. Tighten things down, test your memory speed in AIDA64, then run the stability test for a few hours. Add some vDIMM and vSOC as necessary. SOC voltage really helped me a lot.

 

[hharriswilliam]

I bought these two sticks as a kit. I'll give the DRAM Calculator a try to figure out appropriate calculations. I've been doing a mix of the X.M.P. settings with custom settings. I'll will post an update as soon as I give these things listed above a few tries. Thanks again.

 

[Darkbreeze]

Yes check your motherboard manual to see what optimal DIMM placement is. It's most likely outermost slots from the CPU.

Actually, unless you have a triple or quad channel board, or something REALLY, REALLY old, then this is the population rule for every dual channel DDR3 or newer motherboard for as far back as I can remember and for every board I've ever checked the population rules for that had four DIMM slots, was DDR3 or 4 and a dual channel memory architecture. Some boards will call the second and fourth slots DDR4_1 and DDR4_2, or DDR2 and DDR4, or DIMM2 and DIMM4, or a few other oddball naming schemes, but they are still always the second and fourth slots. They are never the two outer slots. The two inner and the two outer were often used on very old dual channel motherboards like some of the original DDR socket 478 Pentium 4 boards and others from that era, but since DDR3 I've never seen it be anything other than the second and fourth slots. I'm not even sure that wasn't true even for DDR2 dual channel boards, but I'd have to do some investigating to be sure.

Regardless, every single DDR4 dual channel board has this exact configuration guideline in the population rules.

 

[damric]

Actually, unless you have a triple or quad channel board, or something REALLY, REALLY old, then this is the population rule for every dual channel DDR3 or newer motherboard for as far back as I can remember and for every board I've ever checked the population rules for that had four DIMM slots, was DDR3 or 4 and a dual channel memory architecture. Some boards will call the second and fourth slots DDR4_1 and DDR4_2, or DDR2 and DDR4, or DIMM2 and DIMM4, or a few other oddball naming schemes, but they are still always the second and fourth slots. They are never the two outer slots. The two inner and the two outer were often used on very old dual channel motherboards like some of the original DDR socket 478 Pentium 4 boards and others from that era, but since DDR3 I've never seen it be anything other than the second and fourth slots. I'm not even sure that wasn't true even for DDR2 dual channel boards, but I'd have to do some investigating to be sure.

Regardless, every single DDR4 dual channel board has this exact configuration guideline in the population rules.

Is it true for all DDR4 boards now? That's good! I've been dealing with a lot of crappier older boards in my shop lately so I always double check.

Example of some B.S. from last week:

 

[Darkbreeze]

If there are any DDR4 boards, or even any DDR3 boards since the switch from low density to high density modules on dual channel boards, that don't conform to the second and fourth DIMM slot population rules when two DIMMs are used, I haven't seen any and I've been vigorously looking for them.

 

[hharriswilliam]

Yes check your motherboard manual to see what optimal DIMM placement is. It's most likely outermost slots from the CPU.
Download Thaiphoon burner so you can see what ICs you are dealing with as far as what is under those RAM heat spreaders without having to peel them off.
Download the Ryzen DRAM calculator by 1usmus.
Read your motherboard manual and verify that you know how to manually CLEAR CMOS. This will be important to recover if you overbork your settings.
Now you are ready to tune. Set your frequency to 3200MT/s (1600MHz DDR). Take all of your timings out of AUTO. Reference your X.M.P. and the Safe and FAST timings in the calculator and make educated guesses. Tighten things down, test your memory speed in AIDA64, then run the stability test for a few hours. Add some vDIMM and vSOC as necessary. SOC voltage really helped me a lot.

So I've tried using the SAFE settings from the DRAM Calculator, which the RAM timings happened to be similar settings under EXTREME other than the SoC Voltage. Timings were 14-14-14-34, instead of the 16-18-18-18-38 @ 3200 mhz. I attempted the changes manually instead of using an XMP profile within the BIOS, and the PC wouldn't boot past the AsRock screen to reach the BIOS.

I reset everything by clearing CMOS via taking out the coin battery/turning off the power supply and removing the cable/using the jumper. Even reseated the RAM to see if anything would help.


So far the only actual issue I'm having is maintaining the RAM @ 3200mhz without having the computer restart @ the very first time I boot it up. The same thing happens when I come out of Sleep Mode: the PC turns on, I get to the log-in screen on Windows 10, then the PC shuts off, then restarts. I check the bios and the RAM settings have reset to 2133mhz. I'm merely only having to start the PC up, reconfigure all the settings back to 3200 mhz (or using the XMP profile) and the PC boots up just fine, after setting things in the bios.

Only if I shut it down then boot-up, or if I put the PC in SLEEP mode, does the RAM settings, specifically, reset.


ALSO, for the record, I've been reading the manual up and down ever since I first received the motherboard.. which was my 1st component to this build.

 

[hharriswilliam]

Yes check your motherboard manual to see what optimal DIMM placement is. It's most likely outermost slots from the CPU.
Download Thaiphoon burner so you can see what ICs you are dealing with as far as what is under those RAM heat spreaders without having to peel them off.

I'll try Thaiphoon Burner, I'm assuming this is something I can within Windows? Or must I put this on a flash drive or something? Bare with me, I don't know too much but I've dabbled here and there with computers/audio.

 

[damric]

I'll try Thaiphoon Burner, I'm assuming this is something I can within Windows? Or must I put this on a flash drive or something? Bare with me, I don't know too much but I've dabbled here and there with computers/audio.

Thaiphoon is a very small windows program mainly used for programming SPD profiles. As a side benefit we can use it to read all of the info on the ICs. There's other programs out there that can do it, and even some motherboards have BIOS that will read it. Again, better than pulling off heat spreaders and sometimes manufacturers erase what the IC makers printed on the chips to make it even more of a mystery.

 

[Darkbreeze]

Go into BIOS. Set XMP profile. Find advanced memory settings. Check to see if Command rate is set to 1T or 2T. If it is set to 1T then change it to 2T.

Save settings. Exit BIOS. Boot to Windows.

Install and run HWinfo. Choose "Sensors only". Look at memory section to see what speed and timings the memory is actually showing to be running at.

If it is still changing automagically then contact G.Skill about a set of replacement sticks.

 

[hharriswilliam]

Go into BIOS. Set XMP profile. Find advanced memory settings. Check to see if Command rate is set to 1T or 2T. If it is set to 1T then change it to 2T.

Save settings. Exit BIOS. Boot to Windows.

Install and run HWinfo. Choose "Sensors only". Look at memory section to see what speed and timings the memory is actually showing to be running at.

If it is still changing automagically then contact G.Skill about a set of replacement sticks.

Below are two screenshots taken from using HWInfo - Sensors Only.

Upon having the PC startup, it reset itself to 2133mhz. SO..

• I opened the BIOS and chose the XMP profile.
• Under DRAM Information and Timings, I found Command Rate - it's value was set to "1"
• I saved the Command Rate settings "T1" to "T2" in BIOS, and I booted to Windows.

These screenshots are from when you've told me to change the Command Rate.

** It looks as if it reset itself to T1.

Hopefully this helps y'all.

I will attempt to reboot from Shutting Down to see if the issue persists.
If it does, I'll contact G.Skill about replacements. Wish me luck.

 

[hharriswilliam]

And about Thaiphoon Burner:

 

[Darkbreeze]

That screenshot says it is running at 3200mhz, with timings of 16-18-18-38-56-560 but you are right that it reset itself to 1T, so the board must prefer that setting.

So I'm not seeing that it reset to 2133mhz unless it did it AFTER you took those screenshots. If it did, then something isn't stable. Try setting the XMP value again, and then bump the DRAM voltage up by .005v. If it won't allow you to increase it by that amount then increase it by whatever the minimum increment is that it WILL allow you to increase it by, save settings, exit, boot to windows, restart and see once you get back into windows if it stuck.

 

[hharriswilliam]

That screenshot says it is running at 3200mhz, with timings of 16-18-18-38-56-560 but you are right that it reset itself to 1T, so the board must prefer that setting.

So I'm not seeing that it reset to 2133mhz unless it did it AFTER you took those screenshots. If it did, then something isn't stable. Try setting the XMP value again, and then bump the DRAM voltage up by .005v. If it won't allow you to increase it by that amount then increase it by whatever the minimum increment is that it WILL allow you to increase it by, save settings, exit, boot to windows, restart and see once you get back into windows if it stuck.

That is correct; AFTER I took the screenshots, I shut my PC down.
Waited 5 seconds, pressed the power putton to the PC on.

The PC started, of course the DRAM LEDs/CPU LEDs are lit, then switches to the others (VGA/BOOT) then it attempts to boot.. I'll reach the Windows 10 loadng screen (with the dots), then out of nowhere my PC shuts down, and reboots with regular 2133 settings in BIOS.

ALSO, I just got through trying the DRAM Voltage settings, adjusting by the 0.005v increments.

1.355V - (HWInfo listed as 1.344) all way to 1.39****V (safe settings, no?) - same thing happens.

One thing to note is that this NEVER happens when I choose to RESTART the PC only.
Only when its SLEEP mode, or SHUT DOWN.

 

[Darkbreeze]

You don't want to ever exceed 1.4v on DDR4 UNLESS the memory specifically states that it is higher than that at the XMP profile.

Let me think on this for a bit.

 

[Endre]

Actually, unless you have a triple or quad channel board, or something REALLY, REALLY old, then this is the population rule for every dual channel DDR3 or newer motherboard for as far back as I can remember and for every board I've ever checked the population rules for that had four DIMM slots, was DDR3 or 4 and a dual channel memory architecture. Some boards will call the second and fourth slots DDR4_1 and DDR4_2, or DDR2 and DDR4, or DIMM2 and DIMM4, or a few other oddball naming schemes, but they are still always the second and fourth slots. They are never the two outer slots. The two inner and the two outer were often used on very old dual channel motherboards like some of the original DDR socket 478 Pentium 4 boards and others from that era, but since DDR3 I've never seen it be anything other than the second and fourth slots. I'm not even sure that wasn't true even for DDR2 dual channel boards, but I'd have to do some investigating to be sure.

Regardless, every single DDR4 dual channel board has this exact configuration guideline in the population rules.

If you’re on dual channel and you have 2 memory modules, you can use slots: #1 + #3, or #2 + #4.
It’s the same thing. It doesn’t matter!
I use slots: #1 + #3
(channels A1 + B1).

 

[hharriswilliam]

You don't want to ever exceed 1.4v on DDR4 UNLESS the memory specifically states that it is higher than that at the XMP profile.

Let me think on this for a bit.

Once again another typo, I've been doing this from my phone/laptop. It was actually all the way up to 1.39V; all the voltages I've tried were to 1.39V FROM 1.35V within 0.005v increments. My apologies.

Furthermore, this ALSO happens also if I were to simply leave the settings as the default 2133mhz. Could it be something mobo related?

 

[damric]

X.M.P. is for Intel memory controllers, very unlikely to work with Ryzen.

 

[Darkbreeze]

If you’re on dual channel and you have 2 memory modules, you can use slots: #1 + #3, or #2 + #4.
It’s the same thing. It doesn’t matter!
I use slots: #1 + #3
(channels A1 + B1).

That's wrong. It absolutely matters. And there are very specific reasons for it which I won't get into because they are too technical to be explained, and understood, here, but suffice to say that the architecture is SPECIFICALLY designed for those DIMM slots, 2 and 4, to be used FIRST. Some boards won't even WORK properly if you populate the first and third DIMM slot with nothing in the second and fourth slots. I've seen this more times in more threads than I can recall although I'm sure I can point you to some of them is you require emperical evidence.

Certainly, it CAN work in those slots, but it is not preferred, it is NOT what the manufacturers, ALL of them, at least on dual channel Intel and AMD DDR4 motherboards, recommend by way of THEIR population rules, nor does it comply with the recommendations in the JEDEC DDR4 SDRAM standards technical documentation.

It is certainly MORE than just because using those slots affords better clearance for most aftermarket CPU coolers, although that too, is an obvious consideration.

 

[Darkbreeze]

At this point, I'd BE inclined to say it's a motherboard issue. That memory, according to G.Skill, is 100% compatible with that board based on G.Skill's memory configurator and G.Skill pretty well knows their business when it comes to what boards a given memory kit is approved for. I'd trust their word way before I'd trust the word of the motherboard manufacturer or their little bitty QVL list.

To begin with, that's not a terrific board. It's rather low end for THIS particular chipset. Even so, that board and that memory kit SHOULD be fine together, so something else is definitely going on and I think I'd start by contacting ASRock and G.Skill to see what they have to say about it. Point them to this thread if necessary. They are certainly both welcome to chime in here with their input if they wish. I know G.Skill participates here occasionally although I've never seen any official representatives from ASRock on this forum.