Overclock.net banner

Strange issues when using XMP profile with ASUS P8Z77-V PRO and G.Skill Sniper Series 8GB

10K views 13 replies 4 participants last post by  lukeman3000 
#1 ·
I have this memory (G.Skill F3-14900CL9D-8GBSR) in my brand new build (my sig rig), and I've recently discovered the cause of long boot times and strange power issues.

I noticed that, during a restart, my computer would completely power off briefly and then power back on about eight seconds later to complete the reboot cycle. Sometimes this would not happen, and the computer would not power off during a reboot cycle (as I feel should be normal).

Also, even if the computer didn't power off during the reboot cycle, the time it took to reboot was about twice as long.

I realized that these issues were caused by the XMP profile setting in my bios.

When I disable XMP and let the memory run at the slower 1600MHz speed, my reboot time drops from 42 seconds to 19 seconds! Plus, the reboots are not interrupted by loss of power. The power stays on during the whole reboot cycle and the computer doesn't click off at any point.

When I re-enable XMP, the issues come right back again.

A couple times, enabling XMP sent my computer into an endless reboot loop and I had to clear the CMOS just to get back into the BIOS and disable it.

It seemed almost hit and miss whether or not XMP would "work". Sometimes, enabling XMP from a freshly-cleared CMOS would cause endless reboots, other times it would not and my computer would boot as normal (although it would take longer as mentioned above).

So something is definitely up here. My board is listed on the qualified motherboards list, so compatibility shouldn't be an issue.

I even tried not using XMP and putting the timings and voltage in manually, but that caused an endless reboot as well.

So for now, I'm not using XMP and the ram is running at a slower speed. But at least windows works and my reboot cycle isn't jacked up.

I'm pretty ignorant in all things RAM -- does anyone have any idea what could be going on? I've already emailed G.Skill and am waiting to hear back from them.
 
See less See more
#2 ·
With all these threads you're creating it is very hard to know what point you are at, lol...
headscratch.gif


Does it work OK or not with DRAM voltage at 1.6V? Your RAM *should* run at 1866MHz - even try bumping DRAM voltage to 1.65V.

Honestly, it 1866MHz is causing too many problems just leave it at 1600MHz as I doubt you'll notice the difference... but then it would annoy me if I bought 1866MHz RAM and it didn't run at that speed, so try DRAM voltage bump (again) first.
 
#3 ·
Quote:
Originally Posted by tompsonn View Post

With all these threads you're creating it is very hard to know what point you are at, lol...
headscratch.gif

Does it work OK or not with DRAM voltage at 1.6V? Your RAM *should* run at 1866MHz - even try bumping DRAM voltage to 1.65V.
Honestly, it 1866MHz is causing too many problems just leave it at 1600MHz as I doubt you'll notice the difference... but then it would annoy me if I bought 1866MHz RAM and it didn't run at that speed, so try DRAM voltage bump (again) first.
Sorry! I did get a little carried away, but at first I didn't post in memory because I had no idea it was related.

At 1.6, I lost power less during restarts, and my reboot time was faster. But, every now and then I would still lose power during a restart, and my reboot time is still slower than what it has been with XMP disabled by about 10 seconds.

G.Skill said that my mobo should be able to run that ram at 1866. Makes me feel kind of sick to my stomach to consider that it's a motherboard issue because I really don't want to pull it out of there.
 
#4 ·
Have you tried setting the XMP profile manually instead? Manually set the timings and voltage. XMP does the same thing to me as well (so does BCLK changes), but setting it manually works fine. That's also the only way you'll overclock the RAM too, is by doing it manually.
 
#7 ·
Quote:
Originally Posted by tompsonn View Post

Quote:
Originally Posted by DoctorNick View Post

Alright try out setting it manually. Bump up your imc to about 1.1 v or a little lower
smile.gif
@OP: aka VTT, QPI/VTT, QPI/DRAM
smile.gif
He's on an Asus board. It's called VCCIO.
wink.gif


So yes, set VCCIO to 1.10v, that should be fine for 2 sticks of fast RAM. If you have 4 sticks, bump it up around 1.15v or so.

And from there, set your RAM voltage manually, and your RAM timings manually. And obviously the speed too.

Once you figure this out, you might get lucky and be able to pull off 2133 at 9-11-10-28.
smile.gif
Your stock 1866 timings look to me about like what my sticks want at 1866. So its possible.
smile.gif
 
#10 ·
So let me get this straight, should I adjust the VCCIO first and then try the DRAM at 1.5 and go to 1.6 if that doesn't work?

In what order do I make adjustments?

I was considering just ordering some Corsair Vengance at 1600MHz because it might be less of a headache and I like the low profile design better. Would I notice a real-world difference between the two?

Also, I ran memtest after I reset the bios to "Optimized Defaults" and set it to XMP Profile #1. What does this result mean?

img
 
#14 ·
Also, should I be buying for SPD or tested speed?

For example, this G.Skill has a SPD of 1600MHz, but is tested at 1866MHz.

If I really want a stable 1866MHz, should I buy RAM with a SPD of 1866MHz, or should it matter?

I recently bought 8GB Corsair Vengeance low profile RAM with the intention of returning the G.Skill. I like the form factor of the Corsair better.

But I recently discovered that even though the Corsair is advertised as 1600MHz, it actually has a SPD of 1333MHz (or something similar), though the 1600MHz is the tested speed.

That said, I will have to enter the bios and either use the XMP Profile or manually set the timings and voltages to run at 1600MHz.

Is this ok, or not desirable? I kind of just wanted a plug and play 1600MHz kit without having to alter the bios, but if there is no disadvantage, whatever.

The reason I'm apprehensive about this Corsair is because with my current G.Skill, any kind of overclocking results in at least 10 additional seconds to my boot time. I wonder if this is standard or just being caused by a potential bad stick of RAM..

That's why I wanted RAM with a SPD of 1600MHz because I didn't want to increase my boot time by altering voltages and timings. But hopefully that's just a product of bad RAM.
 
This is an older thread, you may not receive a response, and could be reviving an old thread. Please consider creating a new thread.
Top