System Not Posting after RAM Overclock

[TheFriendlyHacker]

I recently(ish) upgraded my PC to Ryzen. Running an MSI B450 with an R5 2600X and 16GB of XPG GAMMIX DDR4 RAM (base clock 2666 MHZ). 

 

When using XMP profiles, I can get this RAM up to 2933mhz. Which, realistically is fine. But if I try to manually overclock it - even using the "Try It" RAM OC presets in my BIOS - the system doesn't boot. In fact, it doesn't even post, and the CPU led on the mobo lights up. 

 

The only way I've found to get it to boot after this is removing the CMOS battery, then removing and re-seating the CPU. Yes, I have to do both. Just yanking the CMOS doesn't work. Crazy, right? It also might be worth noting that I had some low-end 2133MHZ DDR4 RAM previous to this that did the exact same thing when trying to OC - which implies it's not an issue specific to my exact type of RAM.

 

So my question is...why? Has anybody else ever encountered something like this? Or do you know if there's a way to make it not happen? 

Obviously, you're going to encounter issues when overclocking things, and that makes sense. But I at least expect the system to try to post and at least allow me to enter the BIOS to undo the settings. 

[Skiiwee29]

Try upping your SOC voltage. Ryzen is very picky and particular with RAM. I know for mine to be stable at advertised speeds of 14-14-14-34 3200mhz I had to up my SOC voltage to 1.175v. Tinker a bit with your SOC voltage, just do NOT go above 1.2v

[TheFriendlyHacker]

1 minute ago, Skiiwee29 said:

Try upping your SOC voltage. Ryzen is very picky and particular with RAM. I know for mine to be stable at advertised speeds of 14-14-14-34 3200mhz I had to up my SOC voltage to 1.175v. Tinker a bit with your SOC voltage, just do NOT go above 1.2v

When you say "advertised speeds", is that referring to the advertised speed of your RAM?

Because mine is advertised to run at 3000mhz, but actually does 2666 out-of-box. It hits 3000 (well, 2933 - close enough) only when you use one of its XMP profiles. 

[Skiiwee29]

1 minute ago, TheFriendlyHacker said:

When you say "advertised speeds", is that referring to the advertised speed of your RAM?

Because mine is advertised to run at 3000mhz, but actually does 2666 out-of-box. It hits 3000 (well, 2933 - close enough) only when you use one of its XMP profiles. 

Correct, Advertised speeds im talking about the XMP or DOCP profile the kit is rated for from the manufacture. 

[TheFriendlyHacker]

1 minute ago, Skiiwee29 said:

Correct, Advertised speeds im talking about the XMP or DOCP profile the kit is rated for from the manufacture. 

Gotcha. I'll try those settings you mentioned in your first comment. 

Like I said, the XMP profile works just fine. But I'd like to get the RAM up to 3200mhz. It's possible that this RAM just isn't capable of hitting those speeds...but I'd at least want the system to tell me that in post instead of requiring me to literally take apart the entire computer haha. 

[nick name]

SOC voltage rarely needs to be above 1.1V and that's for high RAM speeds.  I'm running 3600MHz with 1.05V SOC because of my tighter timings.  Loosen timings and I can drop SOC to 1.0V.  You probably need to up DRAM voltage if anything and if you need a guide then try the Ryzen DRAM Calculator.  Also, if you get Ryzen Timing Checker then you can show us what your timings are and we can help give some guidance.  

 

Overclock.net - An Overclocking Community - View Single Post - NEW!!! DRAM Calculator for Ryzen™ 1.4.1 (overclocking DRAM on AM4)

 

https://www.techpowerup.com/download/ryzen-timing-checker/