CPU running at incredibly slow clock speed after installing new RAM.

[AyeItsAxi]

Hi there! I just installed 2 more 8gb sticks of 3200mhz DDR4 G. Skill Trident Z ram, and after doing that my bios settings reset and now my clock speed is constantly stuck at 0.2ghz. It usually runs at a stable 4.2ghz clock speed and the temperature always stays low. In the bios, it's reported as running at 200mhz with 35°c temperature, and in Windows it reports 0.2ghz clock speed. After reseating the CPU, removing the new RAM, reseating ram, trying different ram slots, and adjusting bios settings for my CPU (Setting core voltage, turbo boost, and disabling energy efficient boost), it still reports this clock speed, and the performance hit is very noticable in Windows (Extremely slow load times, mouse cursor lag, forever to open programs, even forever to post). It was working perfectly normal before I installed the RAM, and nothing else has been changed. XMP is enabled as it was before.

 

My specs:

Gigabyte B560M DS3H

Intel Core i5 11400F

Asus RTX 2060 6GB

Thermaltake SMART 600W PSU

 

And, of course, the RAM.

G. Skill Trident Z DDR4 RAM at 3200mhz

 

Any help is appreciated

 

[Shooterdude34]

not sure if im misreading, but have you tried to clear CMOS? 

 

another thing to note is that it is usually not reccomended to mix ram kits together, as even within the same manufacturer (ie Corsair, G.Skill), they tend to use different memory ics (the individual RAM chips on each stick). for example my corsair kit is ver 3.31 which has ICs made by Micron. These different ICs can cause compatibility issues, though im not fully sure if this is the issue. Just something good to know for the future.

 

Id just recommend resetting CMOS to start

[unclewebb]

@AyeItsAxi

You might have shorted something out when replacing the RAM. Static electricity can be a killer. 

 

Try running ThrottleStop.

 

https://www.techpowerup.com/download/techpowerup-throttlestop/

 

Open the Limit Reasons window. If you see BD PROCHOT lighting up red, try clearing the BD PROCHOT box on the main screen of ThrottleStop and see if this restores your MHz. If it does, post some ThrottleStop screenshots and I will tell you more about this type of throttling. 

[AyeItsAxi]

5 minutes ago, Shooterdude34 said:

not sure if im misreading, but have you tried to clear CMOS? 

 

another thing to note is that it is usually not reccomended to mix ram kits together, as even within the same manufacturer (ie Corsair, G.Skill), they tend to use different memory ics (the individual RAM chips on each stick). for example my corsair kit is ver 3.31 which has ICs made by Micron. These different ICs can cause compatibility issues, though im not fully sure if this is the issue. Just something good to know for the future.

 

Id just recommend resetting CMOS to start

Clearing CMOS was no luck for me unfortunately. I've noticed that when turning on, all fans except for the CPU fan turn on, then the CPU fan turns on, the whole computer shuts off, all fans turn on, all but the CPU fan turn off, then they are all on. Could this be any useful information, or is it just being wacky?

[Shooterdude34]

1 minute ago, AyeItsAxi said:

Clearing CMOS was no luck for me unfortunately. I've noticed that when turning on, all fans except for the CPU fan turn on, then the CPU fan turns on, the whole computer shuts off, all fans turn on, all but the CPU fan turn off, then they are all on. Could this be any useful information, or is it just being wacky?

Sorry struggling to understand the block of text.

let me get this straight, is it 

1. case fans

2. cpu fan

3. shut off

4. all fans minus cpu fan

5. finally cpu fan?

 

Im not exactly sure. Have you tried just the new kit minus the old kit? just to make sure it works with the system. 

 

Also have you checked your motherboards compatibility list to make sure the ram is on there?

[AyeItsAxi]

5 minutes ago, Shooterdude34 said:

Sorry struggling to understand the block of text.

let me get this straight, is it 

1. case fans

2. cpu fan

3. shut off

4. all fans minus cpu fan

5. finally cpu fan?

 

Im not exactly sure. Have you tried just the new kit minus the old kit? just to make sure it works with the system. 

 

Also have you checked your motherboards compatibility list to make sure the ram is on there?

Yes, that is the correct order. Apologies for the confusion

 

I've had the original 16GB of ram in this PC since I got it (December 2021). I decided to buy another pair of it because having ram heavy programs (Visual Studio and Unreal Engine) ate all of it up and my PC lagged due to being out of RAM.

[Shooterdude34]

3 minutes ago, AyeItsAxi said:

Yes, that is the correct order. Apologies for the confusion

 

I've had the original 16GB of ram in this PC since I got it (December 2021). I decided to buy another pair of it because having ram heavy programs (Visual Studio and Unreal Engine) ate all of it up and my PC lagged due to being out of RAM.

I would suggest you try removing the old kit, and try running it with the new kit only.

 

Ive had scenarios where a specific kit doesn't work with one CPU (1st core I5-2500k), but worked with an almost identical second one. (2nd core I5-2500k)

[AyeItsAxi]

29 minutes ago, unclewebb said:

@AyeItsAxi

You might have shorted something out when replacing the RAM. Static electricity can be a killer. 

 

Try running ThrottleStop.

 

https://www.techpowerup.com/download/techpowerup-throttlestop/

 

Open the Limit Reasons window. If you see BD PROCHOT lighting up red, try clearing the BD PROCHOT box on the main screen of ThrottleStop and see if this restores your MHz. If it does, post some ThrottleStop screenshots and I will tell you more about this type of throttling. 

BD PROCHOT was in red, clearing the check box raised the clock speed to 1.1ghz. Below is a photo of the Throttle stop window. Sorry that took so long, 200mhz is a lot slower when working with it.

 

 

Edit: My apologies!! I checked the task manager and the clock speed is reported as the stable 4.2ghz. I'll try re-inserting the RAM and see if it happens again. Thank you so much!

[unclewebb]

2 minutes ago, AyeItsAxi said:

clearing the check box raised the clock speed to 1.1ghz

It looks like your CPU is running at full speed. ThrottleStop is reporting the 44.00 multiplier correctly but the BCLK appears to be wrong. There might be some other monitoring software running on your computer that is interfering with ThrottleStop. You can try shutting down any other monitoring programs and then restart ThrottleStop to see if it can detect the BCLK correctly. 

 

When a sensor on your motherboard shorts out, it can send a throttling signal to your CPU using the BD PROCHOT signal path. This will force your CPU to run at its minimum speed. Clearing the BD PROCHOT box in ThrottleStop tells the CPU to ignore any external throttling requests. Your CPU will still be able to thermal throttle if it ever gets too hot whether BD PROCHOT is checked or not.

 

Disabling BD PROCHOT is the only solution for this kind of problem. Other than that you would have to replace the motherboard.

 

Motherboard manufacturers never publicly document what sensors can feed throttling signals to the CPU using this method so it is impossible to find out which one might have failed. 

[AyeItsAxi]

1 minute ago, unclewebb said:

It looks like your CPU is running at full speed. ThrottleStop is reporting the 44.00 multiplier correctly but the BCLK appears to be wrong. There might be some other monitoring software running on your computer that is interfering with ThrottleStop. You can try shutting down any other monitoring programs and then restart ThrottleStop to see if it can detect the BCLK correctly. 

 

When a sensor on your motherboard shorts out, it can send a throttling signal to your CPU using the BD PROCHOT signal path. This will force your CPU to run at its minimum speed. Clearing the BD PROCHOT box in ThrottleStop tells the CPU to ignore any external throttling requests. Your CPU will still be able to thermal throttle if it ever gets too hot whether BD PROCHOT is checked or not.

 

Disabling BD PROCHOT is the only solution for this kind of problem. Other than that you would have to replace the motherboard.

 

Motherboard manufacturers never publicly document what sensors can feed throttling signals to the CPU using this method so it is impossible to find out which one might have failed. 

That makes a lot of sense. I've installed the other 8gb sticks and everything is working well. Thank you so much for your help!

[Shooterdude34]

18 minutes ago, unclewebb said:

It looks like your CPU is running at full speed. ThrottleStop is reporting the 44.00 multiplier correctly but the BCLK appears to be wrong. There might be some other monitoring software running on your computer that is interfering with ThrottleStop. You can try shutting down any other monitoring programs and then restart ThrottleStop to see if it can detect the BCLK correctly. 

 

When a sensor on your motherboard shorts out, it can send a throttling signal to your CPU using the BD PROCHOT signal path. This will force your CPU to run at its minimum speed. Clearing the BD PROCHOT box in ThrottleStop tells the CPU to ignore any external throttling requests. Your CPU will still be able to thermal throttle if it ever gets too hot whether BD PROCHOT is checked or not.

 

Disabling BD PROCHOT is the only solution for this kind of problem. Other than that you would have to replace the motherboard.

 

Motherboard manufacturers never publicly document what sensors can feed throttling signals to the CPU using this method so it is impossible to find out which one might have failed. 

nice this is actually awesome to know, wish i knew about this sooner. adding this to my troubleshooting arsenal for sure. thanks a lot.

 

17 minutes ago, AyeItsAxi said:

That makes a lot of sense. I've installed the other 8gb sticks and everything is working well. Thank you so much for your help!

glad to hear its fixed!