[SOLVED] XMP Not Working

[hcarrigan59]

Hi there.

I recently built a new PC as, welp I needed something with better performance. I built the pc yadayday (you guys know the drill), setup windows and then realized that I only have 2133 Mhz of RAM when I bought 3200 Mhz of RAM. I realized that you need to enable XMP, but when I did enable, I was greeted with the below:

https://prnt.sc/qjhaex

I updated the BIOS to the latest version, and still the same result, I even tried the beta version of the BIOS, still the same result. I've placed the RAM as recommended by the Motherboard itself | (RAM | (RAM) , and still no luck. I've tried manually setting the voltage, timings, and clock from corsair's site, once again, no luck.

Specifications:

Intel CORE I5-9600K 3.7 GHZ SKT1151 9MB CACHE BOXED - BX80684I59600K (Components > Processors CPU)
MSI Z390-A PRO Motherboard ATX, LGA1151, DDR4, LAN, USB 3.1 Gen2, Type-C, M.2, RGB Mystic Light, VGA, DVI-D, Display Port, Intel 8th and 9th Gen
Corsair 163301 Vengeance LPX 32 GB (2 x 16 GB) DDR4 3200 MHz C16 XMP 2.0 High Performance Desktop Memory Kit, Black
NVIDIA 1060 3GB
Corsair RM650, RM Series, 80 Plus Gold Certified, 650 W Fully Modular ATX Power Supply - Black
Samsung 860 QVO 1 TB SATA 2.5" Internal SSD

 

[Darkbreeze]

According to the memory finder on the Corsair website, those sticks which are model CMK32GX4M2B3200C16 are not compatible with your Z390-A Pro motherboard based on a filter of 32GB, 2 DIMMs, 3200mhz.

 

[hcarrigan59]

According to the memory finder on the Corsair website, those sticks which are model CMK32GX4M2B3200C16 are not compatible with your Z390-A Pro motherboard based on a filter of 32GB, 2 DIMMs, 3200mhz.

is there anyway I could request them to add support for it? or is that not actually possible.

 

[Nemesia]

is there anyway I could request them to add support for it? or is that not actually possible.

Probably not possible or they would get a lot of request from that every day and all motherboard would have a lot more RAM that would be supported.

 

[hcarrigan59]

Probably not possible or they would get a lot of request from that every day and all motherboard would have a lot more RAM that would be supported.

What would be the best step from here? Return the RAM? Or just deal with the current clock?

 

[Darkbreeze]

Best bet would be to return the memory and buy a kit that is supported. Personally, I think you'd be much better off with a set of G.Skill sticks. They tend to have better compatibility with Ryzen platforms. Most of the Corsair kits out there until recently have mainly been geared towards Intel compatibility and timings.

Use the G.Skill memory configurator or Corsair Memory finder, to find sticks that show as compatible for your motherboard based on memory speed, number of sticks in the kit and capacity.

 

[Nemesia]

What would be the best step from here? Return the RAM? Or just deal with the current clock?

Well you're lucky you don't have a Ryzen 3xxx because that would have been another story. It makes very little difference with Intel, the difference between 2133 & 3200 might be like 5 to 10 FPS.

I agree with Darkbreeze. You should return them and get RAM you can use XMP with compatible with your board.

 

[hcarrigan59]

Hi, sorry for this annoying question but what RAM would you recommend that is a similar price to what I've previously bought (https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B016ORTNI2/ ) ? Thank you so much

 

[Darkbreeze]

PCPartPicker Part List

Memory: Corsair Vengeance LPX 32 GB (2 x 16 GB) DDR4-3000 Memory ($139.99 @ Amazon)
Total: $139.99
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2020-01-05 14:43 EST-0500

These are slightly slower than the sticks you have but shouldn't make any appreciable difference. All of the compatible sets for your board from Corsair or G.Skill that are 3200mhz are somewhat more expensive by about £15.00 or so. I'd probably just go with these here unless you're willing to drop a little more on them.

 

[hcarrigan59]

Hi

PCPartPicker Part List

Memory: Corsair Vengeance LPX 32 GB (2 x 16 GB) DDR4-3000 Memory ($139.99 @ Amazon)
Total: $139.99
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2020-01-05 14:43 EST-0500

These are slightly slower than the sticks you have but shouldn't make any appreciable difference. All of the compatible sets for your board from Corsair or G.Skill that are 3200mhz are somewhat more expensive by about £15.00 or so. I'd probably just go with these here unless you're willing to drop a little more on them.

Hi I noticed something weird once I started troubleshooting, when each pieces of RAM are on their own, XMP works fine. I tried both 2 and 4 slots for both pieces of RAM, and on their own XMP has no issues...

 

[Darkbreeze]

Ok, I think I know what the deal MIGHT be.

When you are setting the two DIMM configuration to the XMP value, are you accepting or rejecting the option to also enable any CPU overclocking/performance configurations when you set the XMP profile value to enabled? I know ASUS has this but I'm not positive if the MSI Z390 boards offer an enhanced CPU/Core performance configuration when enabling XMP.

If not, then the next thing I'd check is to set the XMP profile value, be sure you are using the CORRECT profile because there are usually more than one. You want to use the one that matches the exact specs for your memory. If your memory is supposed to be 3200mhz with timings of 16-18-18-36 (For example) then choose the profile that matches that whether it is profile 1 or profile 2. Then, find the VCCIO and VCCSA voltage settings and see what they are set to.

I'd recommend that you verify that the DRAM (Memory) voltage is set to 1.35v and that VCCIO and VCCSA are both set to 1.1v. Save settings, exit BIOS and see how it does.

Also, make SURE that you are using the correct slots, as seen here. Don't worry if the slots are named differently, that part doesn't matter. What DOES matter is that you are using the CORRECT slots, whether they are called A2 and B2 or DDR4_1 and DDR4_2, or any other naming scheme.

 

[hcarrigan59]

Ok, I think I know what the deal MIGHT be.

When you are setting the two DIMM configuration to the XMP value, are you accepting or rejecting the option to also enable any CPU overclocking/performance configurations when you set the XMP profile value to enabled? I know ASUS has this but I'm not positive if the MSI Z390 boards offer an enhanced CPU/Core performance configuration when enabling XMP.

If not, then the next thing I'd check is to set the XMP profile value, be sure you are using the CORRECT profile because there are usually more than one. You want to use the one that matches the exact specs for your memory. If your memory is supposed to be 3200mhz with timings of 16-18-18-36 (For example) then choose the profile that matches that whether it is profile 1 or profile 2. Then, find the VCCIO and VCCSA voltage settings and see what they are set to.

I'd recommend that you verify that the DRAM (Memory) voltage is set to 1.35v and that VCCIO and VCCSA are both set to 1.1v. Save settings, exit BIOS and see how it does.

Also, make SURE that you are using the correct slots, as seen here. Don't worry if the slots are named differently, that part doesn't matter. What DOES matter is that you are using the CORRECT slots, whether they are called A2 and B2 or DDR4_1 and DDR4_2, or any other naming scheme.

I will try this once the replace RAM returns, I checked the QVL for my board, the exact model I had (and the way I had it) should work and be able to OC to 3200 MHz, according to the QVL. So basically it may have been faulty RAM, now the reason I think this is due to the reviews of the RAM, many people had issues with certain versions of this RAM (in the Amazon Reviews), the issue being the same as mine, stuck at 2133MHz...

 

[hcarrigan59]

I will try this once the replace RAM returns, I checked the QVL for my board, the exact model I had (and the way I had it) should work and be able to OC to 3200 MHz, according to the QVL. So basically it may have been faulty RAM, now the reason I think this is due to the reviews of the RAM, many people had issues with certain versions of this RAM (in the Amazon Reviews), the issue being the same as mine, stuck at 2133MHz...

My final plan is:
If the replacement RAM doesn't work, as well as what you recommended, I'm going to refund the motherboard and invest in another one (not sure yet though, recommendations would be much appreciated lads <3).

 

[Darkbreeze]

Are you overclocking the CPU?

 

[hcarrigan59]

Are you overclocking the CPU?

No. Each time I’ve been testing the RAM on it’s own.

 

[hcarrigan59]

No. Each time I’ve been testing the RAM on it’s own.

and yes I was using the right slots, I made sure of that

 

[Darkbreeze]

As far as the memory being "stuck at 2133mhz", that's ALL DDR4. Default is 2133mhz so if you don't set the XMP profile or it won't run at the XMP profile, then it's ALWAYS going to run at 2133mhz unless you manually set it to some other value.

Being at 2133mhz isn't an "issue", it is the default configuration for most DDR4 platforms. Update the BIOS, see what happens. That fixes a LOT of memory problems, on most platforms.

 

[hcarrigan59]

As far as the memory being "stuck at 2133mhz", that's ALL DDR4. Default is 2133mhz so if you don't set the XMP profile or it won't run at the XMP profile, then it's ALWAYS going to run at 2133mhz unless you manually set it to some other value.

Being at 2133mhz isn't an "issue", it is the default configuration for most DDR4 platforms. Update the BIOS, see what happens. That fixes a LOT of memory problems, on most platforms.

I did update the BIOS, I even tried the beta, no luck. Only time I got it to work was when I used each RAM stick on its own

 

[Darkbreeze]

Ok, so with the BIOS updated to the MOST recent version, and the memory installed in the correct slots, try doing a hard reset of the BIOS.


BIOS Hard Reset procedure

Power off the unit, switch the PSU off and unplug the PSU cord from either the wall or the power supply.

Remove the motherboard CMOS battery for five minutes. In some cases it may be necessary to remove the graphics card to access the CMOS battery.

During that five minutes, press the power button on the case for 30 seconds. After the five minutes is up, reinstall the CMOS battery making sure to insert it with the correct side up just as it came out.

If you had to remove the graphics card you can now reinstall it, but remember to reconnect your power cables if there were any attached to it as well as your display cable.

Now, plug the power supply cable back in, switch the PSU back on and power up the system. It should display the POST screen and the options to enter CMOS/BIOS setup. Enter the bios setup program and reconfigure the boot settings for either the Windows boot manager or for legacy systems, the drive your OS is installed on if necessary.

Save settings and exit. If the system will POST and boot then you can move forward from there including going back into the bios and configuring any other custom settings you may need to configure such as Memory XMP profile settings, custom fan profile settings or other specific settings you may have previously had configured that were wiped out by resetting the CMOS.

In some cases it may be necessary when you go into the BIOS after a reset, to load the Optimal default or Default values and then save settings, to actually get the hardware tables to reset in the boot manager.

It is probably also worth mentioning that for anything that might require an attempt to DO a hard reset in the first place, it is a GOOD IDEA to try a different type of display as many systems will not work properly for some reason with displayport configurations. It is worth trying HDMI if you are having no display or lack of visual ability to enter the BIOS, or no signal messages.

 

[hcarrigan59]

BIOS update completed, with the new replacement RAM sticks as well as a hard reset (followed exactly as you explained), still met with the same problem, copied the timings of Corsair’s page (for this specific RAM), still no luck. I did everything you requested and still no luck. I’m quite lost what to do now but I think I’m going to return the motherboard. I also tried the default XMP profile. No luck. This certain motherboard (MSI Z390-A PRO only has one profile for XMP)

Error: http://prnt.sc/qkf6h9
Setup: http://prnt.sc/qkf6rs

 

[hcarrigan59]

BIOS update completed, with the new replacement RAM sticks as well as a hard reset (followed exactly as you explained), still met with the same problem, copied the timings of Corsair’s page (for this specific RAM), still no luck. I did everything you requested and still no luck. I’m quite lost what to do now but I think I’m going to return the motherboard. I also tried the default XMP profile. No luck. This certain motherboard (MSI Z390-A PRO only has one profile for XMP)

Error: http://prnt.sc/qkf6h9
Setup: http://prnt.sc/qkf6rs

I've decided to return the motherboard, and purchase the Aorus Z390 AORUS PRO (Socket 1151/Z390 Express/DDR4/S-ATA 600/ATX). We'll see how this goes...

 

[Darkbreeze]

Probably not the worst idea ever. That particular board you had isn't one of MSI's better offerings and it might just be that you got a bad sample as well. Hopefully, things work a bit better with the new board but you may run into an incompatibility issue with the memory on this board as well since the memory I recommended has not, SFAIK, been vetted for compatibility on the Aorus board.

Edit: Looking at the Corsair memory finder filters, that memory IS compatible with that motherboard. So, fingers crossed.

First thing you want to do though is going to be to check and see what BIOS version that board comes with and update as necessary.

 

[hcarrigan59]

Probably not the worst idea ever. That particular board you had isn't one of MSI's better offerings and it might just be that you got a bad sample as well. Hopefully, things work a bit better with the new board but you may run into an incompatibility issue with the memory on this board as well since the memory I recommended has not, SFAIK, been vetted for compatibility on the Aorus board.

Edit: Looking at the Corsair memory finder filters, that memory IS compatible with that motherboard. So, fingers crossed.

First thing you want to do though is going to be to check and see what BIOS version that board comes with and update as necessary.

Hi there, I checked the QVL before purchasing, it’s validated that this RAM should work. Also, if Corsair double it that must mean we should be good. I’ll let you know how things went on, thank you for being such a massive help !!

 

[hcarrigan59]

Hi there, I checked the QVL before purchasing, it’s validated that this RAM should work. Also, if Corsair double it that must mean we should be good. I’ll let you know how things went on, thank you for being such a massive help !!

Also, the RAM I’m using is the same as before, just I got it replaced. It’s still the Corsair Vengeance 32GB 3200 RAM as before, just I sent back the previous and got it replaced to make sure it wasn’t that RAM.

 

[hcarrigan59]

New motherboard did the trick! Thank you very much for your help!