Help with Corsair DDR3 2400Mhz errors + i7 4790K

dwallace · Jul 11, 2014

I recently built a new pc and am having a lot of problems getting my ram to run at 2400Mhz. When its set to 2400 and any cpu clock speed (even default) It fails Prime95 within seconds and causes BSOD when I try to play a game like BF3-4. At 1866Mhz + 4790K oc to 4.7Ghz it passes Prime95-Memtest86 no errors and is rock solid playing games. Here is what I'm running :

Asus Z97-A
i7 4790K
Corsair Dominator Platinum DDR3 2400 (2x8gb) 16Gb

I have used the XMP in combination with default stock cpu clocks with no success. I have set it manually, no luck. The DRAM voltage is good at 1.65 auto shows it as 1.68v. The timings are correct for 2400 speed. I actually RMA'd the first ram I got thinking it was bad mem and ordered the Corsair sticks. So I know the ram is good. Am I missing something, could my board be faulty or is that normal for 2400Mhz ram not able to run full speed on this board? Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks!!!

feznz · Jul 11, 2014

The IMC is on the CPU and unfortunately anything over 1866Mhz on ram is considered an OC.
It is probably just bad luck to have an extremely weak IMC
you could up the VCCIO/VTT voltage but keep it under 1.2v for 24/7 use

cstkl1 · Jul 11, 2014

Quote:

Originally Posted by dwallace

I recently built a new pc and am having a lot of problems getting my ram to run at 2400Mhz. When its set to 2400 and any cpu clock speed (even default) It fails Prime95 within seconds and causes BSOD when I try to play a game like BF3-4. At 1866Mhz + 4790K oc to 4.7Ghz it passes Prime95-Memtest86 no errors and is rock solid playing games. Here is what I'm running :

Asus Z97-A
i7 4790K
Corsair Dominator Platinum DDR3 2400 (2x8gb) 16Gb

I have used the XMP in combination with default stock cpu clocks with no success. I have set it manually, no luck. The DRAM voltage is good at 1.65 auto shows it as 1.68v. The timings are correct for 2400 speed. I actually RMA'd the first ram I got thinking it was bad mem and ordered the Corsair sticks. So I know the ram is good. Am I missing something, could my board be faulty or is that normal for 2400Mhz ram not able to run full speed on this board? Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks!!!

U need to set ure RTL's
Not sure u can on ure motherboard.

4790k vccio/vcssa voltages etc.. u can leave it at auto. higher the speed normally the rtl's training will change.

dwallace · Jul 11, 2014

Thank you for your quick reply.

The VTTDDR was set to auto and showing a voltage of 0.825 so I tried to raise it to 1.13v but even with extreme oc enabled it would only let me raise it to 1.0v. I went ahead and tried stress test and it immediately failed. Also, 2133 failed at 1.0v so I set it back to auto and DRAM 1866. Is there a way on the Asus Z97-A to increase the VTTDDR beyond 1.0V? Should I RMA my cpu? Its less than 30days old and still eligible for replacement from Newegg.

Thank you

cstkl1 · Jul 11, 2014

Quote:

Originally Posted by dwallace

Thank you for your quick reply.

The VTTDDR was set to auto and showing a voltage of 0.825 so I tried to raise it to 1.13v but even with extreme oc enabled it would only let me raise it to 1.0v. I went ahead and tried stress test and it immediately failed. Also, 2133 failed at 1.0v so I set it back to auto and DRAM 1866. Is there a way on the Asus Z97-A to increase the VTTDDR beyond 1.0V? Should I RMA my cpu? Its less than 30days old and still eligible for replacement from Newegg.

Thank you

Seize immediately what ure doing. Leave vtddr alone. Its suppose to be half of ure ram voltage.
Hope u didnt kill ure cpu.

cstkl1 · Jul 11, 2014

Rtl and iol.
Its under dram timings.

dwallace · Jul 11, 2014

I have just decided to leave it clocked at 1866Mhz 9-9-9-24 2T timings and call it good. Ran prime95 for hours with these settings and no errors. I really appreciated the help on this

cstkl1 · Jul 11, 2014

Quote:

Originally Posted by dwallace

I have just decided to leave it clocked at 1866Mhz 9-9-9-24 2T timings and call it good. Ran prime95 for hours with these settings and no errors. I really appreciated the help on this

dude something is odd.

Are u sure u put on the correct ram slots

i have tested up to date 7x4790k with 4 of them being crappy ones 4.4ghz@1.25v.
They all did 2400 C9 at basically no voltage adjustment.
Asus bios are very mature to a point they actually work on every ram ic atm. All the work from the z87 initial stages are paying off especially for the z97.

I would really force this to work.

Btw on manual voltage adjustment all u need is CPU Digital I/O Voltage @ +0.100 which equotes about 1.1v

i did test a sabertooth z97 and again no issue. xmp and it work. It was a 16gb Kingston Hyperx Beast 2400mhz.

u can try this
Disable MRC fast boot
Enable MCH Full Check

klepp0906 · Jul 25, 2014

Nah he's spot on, the IMC on these isn't all that. I have an excellent chip (does 5.0 @ 1.37) and the minute I start overclocking my ram the trouble starts. I've had all relevant voltages up as high as I'm willing and even with ridiculously low timings I couldn't manage 2200. I'm sure if I lowered the core I could manage it but that far outweighs the ram speed.

For comparisons sake I was able to run my 4770k @ 4675 which was fairly high for a haswell with the ram at 2250 with the same timings it's specced for at 1866.

2200 was my starting point with the 4790k as I figured that it would be able to do the speed the haswell could considering how good a chip it was if nothing else. It caused me much grief to say the least.

My advice is run it up to the point it starts causing clockspeed issues and tighten the timings and call it a day. Anything beyond that is asking for wasted time, little return, and frustration. I'm not even sure I'm gonna bother with 2133 which stinks but that's life.

I couldn't say 2 samples are evidence of weak imc all around but I certainly know it's not as good as the haswells. I was able to run 4 sticks of 1866 at 2400 with loose timings on that thing. This I won't even try lol. Considering the grief getting 2133 is causing me.

In general I love the chip though

klepp0906 · Jul 25, 2014

Quote:

Originally Posted by cstkl1

dude something is odd.

Are u sure u put on the correct ram slots

i have tested up to date 7x4790k with 4 of them being crappy ones 4.4ghz@1.25v.
They all did 2400 C9 at basically no voltage adjustment.
Asus bios are very mature to a point they actually work on every ram ic atm. All the work from the z87 initial stages are paying off especially for the z97.

I would really force this to work.

Btw on manual voltage adjustment all u need is CPU Digital I/O Voltage @ +0.100 which equotes about 1.1v

i did test a sabertooth z97 and again no issue. xmp and it work. It was a 16gb Kingston Hyperx Beast 2400mhz.

u can try this
Disable MRC fast boot
Enable MCH Full Check

Fwiw I had my SA/IO etc at .300 my dram at 1.9 my vrin at 2.3 my vring at 1.4 and still no dice. Hrmph. I feel sad.

Wasupwitdat1 · Jul 26, 2014

Looks like I found a relevant thread here. I've been focused on the ASUS Z97 motherboards support thread and got some clues from others as to why I was having problems with system locking up. I have my Mushkin 2666 RAM running at 2666 now and everything is working but I had to manually set the speed and the voltage for it to run. I couldn't use the XMP selection in the BIOS. I also had to set my core multiplier to 46, 46, 45, 44 and everything else in the BIOS to either AUTO or OFF. No Speed stepping or anything. I used the ROG Real Bench test to check my settings and the system seems to be fine now. But yea, It does seem to point to a weak IMC.

dwallace · Jul 27, 2014

Some interesting info: My father built an identical system to mine recently. He cannot run his 2400 ram at 2400 either. It lags windows on boot up and eventually BSOD. Bios are not correct also.....at 1600 it wanted to run them 1.7v and incorrect timings. Exact same prob I experienced with 2 different (QVL) ram. I have been in contact with an Asus rep and have supplied him with the 2 mb serial numbers for testing. Though, I have a feeling after reading the post here and off a couple other forums it is the i7-4790K IMC.

I didn't want to have 2400 mem i couldn't fully use so I actually ended up RMA'ing it and went with some 1600 Adata. My pc is running like it should have from the beginning. So freaking fast

It oc'ed to 4.9Ghz easy but decided to just run it on turbo 4.4Ghz. Temps are nice also....Using an Enermax Liqmax 120s (push-pull) my temps idle around 32. Fully loaded gaming for a couple hours it never gets above 59c, So I'm pretty happy

.

I wish that I would have just bought 1600 ram from the beginning

Would have saved me a lot of headaches

timisyourfriend · Jul 28, 2014

weak imc.. really...

how well the RAM runs depends on the user's ability to set it up correctly in BIOS/EFI. (of course if the RAM is up to spec and error free)

If XMP does not work, check to make sure all settings as listed for XMP are manually input in the system. Some times XMP can be enabled, but the values are actually not in effect.

With a "weak" IMC, you can lower the frequency and the system should be perfectly stable. Testing the modules individually is also a test for determining whether the CPU can handle DDR3-2400, or if there may be a problem with a module.

But anyway, good to hear your system is working fine now!

Wasupwitdat1 · Jul 29, 2014

I'm not agreed 100% with that timisyourfriend. If that is true then ASUS doesn't know how to build their own BIOS properly. But you might be 100% right and ASUS didn't set the BIOS up properly. I initially had issues with my RAM running at the XMP speed by choosing XMP in the BIOS, but if I punch in the RAMs specified settings manually I don't have an issue. I think these new BIOS features are what is causing some pain for folks. I now have a stable 4.7GHz clock spd. and my RAM speed is the 2666 Mushkin said it should be. I didn't use any of the ASUS auto overclocking features. Heck I noticed that even their CPU-Z tool is screwed up. If I looked at the XMP timings in the ASUS CPU-Z tool all the fields were blank. I downloaded CPUID and I can see those fields show my XMP timings. I don't have any of the ASUS utilities installed now because they all gave me problems. I have learned it is best to put everything in manually and make sure all things that save power or ramp things up in the BIOS are disabled.

timisyourfriend · Jul 29, 2014

They have beta BIOS, BIOS revisions, and so many updates to correct issues. It's the same for any mobo manufacturer, but tbh I think ASUS is one of the best/fastest at fixing/tweaking ASAP. Also, BIOS and EFI can have glitch too, so sometimes it takes a hard reset to set things back to normal.

Yea, there's definitely so many new features and so many features most people don't even know about or know how to use them, but that's just technology. Keep up, or blink and you will get left in the dust.

You are right, manual is generally better, and by being able to set things up manually, you should have decent knowledge of what you are doing, so all in all it is the best way if you are a true performance system builder. That's how you know extreme speed requires disabling power saving features. It may seem like common sense, like a race car can not save gas or energy, but unless overclocking is a hobby or job, it's not as easy to think of. Good thing there are guides and internet to search, but most people don't care to do the work.

It's much easier to post a thread and ask someone to ANSWER ME NOW haha

Cheers

r80x · Feb 10, 2015

Hi! Maybe this comes a little late but I just wanted to share my experience with high clock ram.
I have two sets of 16gb (4x8gb dimms) 1600 cl9 that I have oc'd to 2133 cl10.

To get stability I had to up the ram voltage to 1.55 and I also had to put in +0.180 on SA and +0.150 on digital and analog io.
A weak IMC would really mean trouble especially at high Cpu clocks.
You can compensate a little with loosening the timings.
Then run memtest86+
You don't need to run the whole test. There is two tests that almost always show stability problems right away.
When you boot memtest86 make sure you press f2 to get full support for all cores. Then press C then press 1 then press 3 to select test.

Now you want to run
Test 3 [Moving inversions, ones&zeros, Parallel] (press number 4)

If that checks out without problems you want to run
Test 6 [Block move, 64 moves] (press number 8)

If that check out without problems run a full memtest.
If you encounter problems try to loosen a little on the timings or add a little voltage to either ram or system agent or the io. The run the tests again.

Help with Corsair DDR3 2400Mhz errors + i7 4790K

dwallace

feznz

cstkl1

dwallace

cstkl1

cstkl1

dwallace

cstkl1

klepp0906

klepp0906

Wasupwitdat1

dwallace

timisyourfriend

Wasupwitdat1

timisyourfriend

r80x

Top Contributors this Month

Recommended Communities