G.Skill Bricking TridentZ RGB RAM with Software?

AutonomousRedux · May 21, 2017

I've been dealing with RGB control issues in my system for a while now. At first, I thought it was just general teething pains of the new Ryzen architecture not yet reaching maturity. And then two of my four TridentZ RGB dims went bad. At first, I thought my MoBo was to blame. Memory was not being able to be run at rated speeds (2133 instead of 3000), CPU running on previously fine overclocks was having instability, etc etc. RMAd the RAM, everything was working fine again. And then my MoBo bricked one morning. RMAd the board, got the replacement a few days later, and rebuilt the system. Everything was good. And then my RAM started acting up. Unable to control the colors, control software constantly crashing, RAM speeds dropping to 1800. In frustration to get my RGB problems fixed, I google'd "Why is G.Skill control software so bad?".

And then I stumbled upon this thread: https://www.gskill.us/forum/showthread.php?t=14357

I knew the software utilized the SMB bus to control the RAM. What I didn't know is that it messed with the SPDs. What do you all think?

Mooshi · May 21, 2017

This is why you don't use meme ram with lighting.

stealth80 · May 21, 2017

15 minutes ago, AutonomousRedux said:

I've been dealing with RGB control issues in my system for a while now. At first, I thought it was just general teething pains of the new Ryzen architecture not yet reaching maturity. And then two of my four TridentZ RGB dims went bad. At first, I thought my MoBo was to blame. Memory was not being able to be run at rated speeds (2133 instead of 3000), CPU running on previously fine overclocks was having instability, etc etc. RMAd the RAM, everything was working fine again. And then my MoBo bricked one morning. RMAd the board, got the replacement a few days later, and rebuilt the system. Everything was good. And then my RAM started acting up. Unable to control the colors, control software constantly crashing, RAM speeds dropping to 1800. In frustration to get my RGB problems fixed, I google'd "Why is G.Skill control software so bad?".

And then I stumbled upon this thread: https://www.gskill.us/forum/showthread.php?t=14357

I knew the software utilized the SMB bus to control the RAM. What I didn't know is that it messed with the SPDs. What do you all think?

What board are you using? I tried it and had lighting issues, but nothing like what you are saying. It says on the website not to use it with any other RGB software

https://www.gskill.com/en/download/view/trident-z-rgb-control--beta-

Ryzen memory issues are widespread, it's a new platform, its going to take time for things to settle down. Just tonight my ram posted and benched at 3200mhz and on reboot it wouldn't even post

DrMikeNZ · May 21, 2017

4 hours ago, stealth80 said:

It says on the website not to use it with any other RGB software

It isn't just other RGB software that can have issues, it is also any software that reads the RAM SPD (CPUz, AIDA64 etc), if there is software reading the SPD while the RGB control software tries to write it can also corrupt the RAM SPD either soft bricking the RAM or the RAM's RGB modules.

Sales in thaiphoon burner have likely skyrocketed as people are using it to re-flash their memory regularly.

There are no safety checks in the G.Skill RGB control software when it writes the SPD for the RGB configuration. G.Skill should never have released their RAM with the RGB control software in its current state, the fact that it is still in beta, and updated so infrequently is not a good sign.

AutonomousRedux · May 22, 2017

Bought Thaiphoon Burner today. Re-wrote all my DIMMs and everything is working fine now. I tried testing the G.Skill software again with the intention of re-writing the SPDs after setting my colors, but apparently Thaiphoon didn't recognize two slots afterwards. Unistalled the software, and what do you know? The RAM shows up again.

I highly recommend that if you intend to change the colors of this RAM, don't waste your money. Default works fine, but using the software could seriously bork your system.