Memory speed struck at 2133 Mhz, 9900k MSI Z-390 Ace

[DorianaCele]

Hello everyone, I am with a 9900k CPU, MSI Z390 Ace Motherboard, 4* 8G Corsair Vengeance 3000 Memory. I have XMP enabled in BIOS as you can see from the linked photos. However my memory speed struck at 2133 Mhz as you can see from the images I linked. 

 

I am aware of this post 

https://linustechtips.com/main/topic/1067808-ram-stuck-at-2133/

However, unlike that one, my memory speed in CPU-Z is also displayed as 2133. So what may be the problem? 

Thank you very much for reading. 

 

 

[Turtle Rig]

4 minutes ago, DorianaCele said:

Hello everyone, I am with a 9900k CPU, MSI Z390 Ace Motherboard, 4* 8G Corsair Vengeance 3000 Memory. I have XMP enabled in BIOS as you can see from the linked photos. However my memory speed struck at 2133 Mhz as you can see from the images I linked. 

 

I am aware of this post 

https://linustechtips.com/main/topic/1067808-ram-stuck-at-2133/

However, unlike that one, my memory speed in CPU-Z is also displayed as 2133. So what may be the problem? 

Thank you very much for reading. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I have your same issue,,, My mates rig 470 Gigabyte Gaming Ultra is stuck at 2133Mhz and we can't do anything in BIOS or with Easy Tune to fix it.  We got it once to 3200Mhz but not anymore.  AMD is retarded, now I see why I never got a AMD system for myself.

[DorianaCele]

1 minute ago, Turtle Rig said:

I have your same issue,,, My mates rig 470 Gigabyte Gaming Ultra is stuck at 2133Mhz and we can't do anything in BIOS or with Easy Tune to fix it.  We got it once to 3200Mhz but not anymore.  AMD is retarded, now I see why I never got a AMD system for myself.

*shakes hands* But I am with an Intel CPU... So I guess it is not a CPU issue. 

[Munchboy]

Also I've never had XMP enabled, I just set the speed to my target, in my case 3200MHz.

Sadly I can't check the BIOS on my board cuz the new one changed the UI to a simpler "Click BIOS" for the AM4 platform.

In the end you could just try "Memory Try It!" and see if it does anything.

[DorianaCele]

1 minute ago, Munchboy said:

In the end you could just try "Memory Try It!" and see if it does anything.

Thanks for the suggestion. Actually I have tried it along with several other possible solutions. None worked and RAM speed always struck at 2133.

[Munchboy]

2 minutes ago, DorianaCele said:

Thanks for the suggestion. Actually I have tried it along with several other possible solutions. None worked and RAM speed always struck at 2133.

Not sure, maybe also try upping the DRAM voltage.

Oh, before that, try using just a single DIMM and check if a single one can get higher on it's own.

[DorianaCele]

Update: 

I studied the BIOS and found the suggested timing of the memory as shown in the image "Timing-XMP". Then I manually changed the timing and voltage of the memory according to that profile as shown in  image "Manually Tweaked TIming". However, after reboot, CPU-Z still reads the timing as the default value, as shown in image "CPU-Z after BIOS tweak". I have noticed that those values CPU-Z showed are exactly the same as the default timings found in the ROM of the memory module shown in image "Timing-Default" 

 

So, the apparent conclusion is that the changes I do about memory timing in BIOS have no effect at all. However, the changes I do to CPU does take effect. So can anyone offer some insight? Thank you so much. 

 

 

 

 

[-rascal-]

@DorianaCele

 

When you enable XMP and save-and-exit, does the computer reboot a few times before making it into Windows?

If so, it could be that the CPU / motherboard is unstable with DDR4-3000 MHz.

 

What happens if you maintain the XMP timings + voltage, but MANULLY drop the RAM frequency to say... DDR4-2666.

Does the computer still boot into Windows with RAM set to DDR4-2666 MHz?

[DorianaCele]

8 minutes ago, -rascal- said:

When you enable XMP and save-and-exit, does the computer reboot a few times before making it into Windows?

If so, it could be that the CPU / motherboard is unstable with DDR4-3000 MHz.

No, the system enters Windows normally. 

 

8 minutes ago, -rascal- said:

What happens if you maintain the XMP timings + voltage, but MANULLY drop the RAM frequency to say... DDR4-2666.

Does the computer still boot into Windows with RAM set to DDR4-2666 MHz?

I tried to set the RAM frequency to 2000, 2400, 2666, 2933, 3200, and the results are the same: the system boot into Windows normally, with exact same CPU-Z readings of 2133 shown above, as if nothing has been changed in BIOS. But in BIOS settings the changes are saved.

[Fast_N_Curious]

On 8/1/2019 at 7:54 PM, DorianaCele said:

No, the system enters Windows normally. 

 

I tried to set the RAM frequency to 2000, 2400, 2666, 2933, 3200, and the results are the same: the system boot into Windows normally, with exact same CPU-Z readings of 2133 shown above, as if nothing has been changed in BIOS. But in BIOS settings the changes are saved.

Did you ever find a solution to this problem? Im having an identical issue identical board and I know of only one way to "force" XMP timings, it's break fix only - more on that below. At the end of the day I'm thinking this could very well be a motherboard problem and you should get your mobo RMAd. That's what Im going to do, because this Z390 ace is lacking in quality. Don't get me wrong, it has a great feature set. But to give you an idea:

 

Mobo is nearly brand new. No more than 80 hours run time on it since it was taken out of the box in early 2020.

-The digital code display in the upper corner fell apart. Literally.  Which means, I'm severely limited in my troubleshooting or situational awareness, because you cant tell what sequence you are in during the boot process!

 

-I lost primary PCIe slot randomly out of the blue. Just decided to **** the bed on me while it was still LIKE NEW. Consequently, I have to run my massive RX 5700 XT (Gaming X 8GB) on the secondary PCIe slot, which means the fans are really super close to the bottom of the case. Because if this problem, I can no longer game until I get my board RMAd. Which sucks because it love to be taking advantage of all that horsepower wrapped up in the 5700 XT package. Because the GPU is nearly touching the bottom of the case, it can't efficiently pull as much air through while gaming, as I said, this sucks.

 

-The board has random times when it just decides to reboot itself on startup, out of the blue. Like Ill turn it on and then the display will lite up for about 2 seconds, then it goes blank and reboots again. Very annoying. 

 

I definitely would call myself an MSI "believer" but this is just beyond one simple little issue. As you can see, all these problems have happened to my system WITH A MOTHERBOARD THAT HAS NO MORE THAT TWO WEEKS RUNNING TIME ON IT!

 

Now, on to the solution. Forgive the rant. To fix this you need to do a cold shutdown by pressing the CMOS reset button on the back of the motherboard to restore defaults. So hold the button down for about 4 seconds and eventually the rig will shut down, and fair warning, it will take all your BIOS settings with it, you've been warned!

Next boot into the bios and immediately enable XMP don't touch any other setting until you reboot. Go back into the BIOS after first reboot and you should see the ram running at full speed now. 

 

Granted, this fix is a little sticky, but it's better than nothing. And dont expect to save it to a profile because that doesn't work either. So do XMP before anything else after a hard reset, okay? This is a little like trying to catch lightning in a bottle. ps try reseating your memory as well. if you have 4 slots try the other two. 

 

A 300$ motherboard, and this garbage to deal with? WOW MSI I'm blown away. Very good board from a feature perspective but quality control has gone to hell. At least with this board.

[GuruMeditationError]

Could it be that you guys are putting four dimms in a dual channel system?  With some motherboards it limits the memory speed if you do this. It's better to have just two sticks; one per channel.

I'm trying to figure out whether this is going to affect my motherboard, and how badly.

[whaka]

dual channel is for 4 memory sticks, 2 sticks interleaved per channel.

 

 

[ZK1]

On 8/22/2020 at 4:42 PM, Storm-Chaser said:

Did you ever find a solution to this problem? Im having an identical issue identical board and I know of only one way to "force" XMP timings, it's break fix only - more on that below. At the end of the day I'm thinking this could very well be a motherboard problem and you should get your mobo RMAd. That's what Im going to do, because this Z390 ace is lacking in quality. Don't get me wrong, it has a great feature set. But to give you an idea:

 

Mobo is nearly brand new. No more than 80 hours run time on it since it was taken out of the box in early 2020.

-The digital code display in the upper corner fell apart. Literally.  Which means, I'm severely limited in my troubleshooting or situational awareness, because you cant tell what sequence you are in during the boot process!

 

-I lost primary PCIe slot randomly out of the blue. Just decided to **** the bed on me while it was still LIKE NEW. Consequently, I have to run my massive RX 5700 XT (Gaming X 8GB) on the secondary PCIe slot, which means the fans are really super close to the bottom of the case. Because if this problem, I can no longer game until I get my board RMAd. Which sucks because it love to be taking advantage of all that horsepower wrapped up in the 5700 XT package. Because the GPU is nearly touching the bottom of the case, it can't efficiently pull as much air through while gaming, as I said, this sucks.

 

-The board has random times when it just decides to reboot itself on startup, out of the blue. Like Ill turn it on and then the display will lite up for about 2 seconds, then it goes blank and reboots again. Very annoying. 

 

I definitely would call myself an MSI "believer" but this is just beyond one simple little issue. As you can see, all these problems have happened to my system WITH A MOTHERBOARD THAT HAS NO MORE THAT TWO WEEKS RUNNING TIME ON IT!

 

Now, on to the solution. Forgive the rant. To fix this you need to do a cold shutdown by pressing the CMOS reset button on the back of the motherboard to restore defaults. So hold the button down for about 4 seconds and eventually the rig will shut down, and fair warning, it will take all your BIOS settings with it, you've been warned!

Next boot into the bios and immediately enable XMP don't touch any other setting until you reboot. Go back into the BIOS after first reboot and you should see the ram running at full speed now. 

 

Granted, this fix is a little sticky, but it's better than nothing. And dont expect to save it to a profile because that doesn't work either. So do XMP before anything else after a hard reset, okay? This is a little like trying to catch lightning in a bottle. ps try reseating your memory as well. if you have 4 slots try the other two. 

 

A 300$ motherboard, and this garbage to deal with? WOW MSI I'm blown away. Very good board from a feature perspective but quality control has gone to hell. At least with this board.

You are a lifesaver. This is a perfect solution. Crazy that the mobo needs such a fix but this is working 100%. Thanks mate.