Troubleshooting RAM Issues with XMP Enabled

[Richard Dewey Hammers]

I've been experiencing some issues with my RAM. Enabling XMP seems to cause problems, and I keep failing Test 8 with Memtest86. However, when I run Memtest86 without XMP enabled, it passes successfully. I conducted individual tests with a single stick in slots A2 and B2 with XMP enabled. Stick 1 passed in both A2 and B2, while Stick 2 passed in A2 but failed in B2. I reran the tests several times and obtained the same results. Initially, I suspected an issue with the B2 slot on my motherboard, but since Stick 1 passed in B2, that seems unlikely.

Additionally, I have tested the RAM on both the Asus ROG STRIX Z790-E GAMING WIFI and Asus ROG STRIX Z790-E GAMING WIFI 2. With XMP enabled, the PC will blue screen, and the dump files show an issue with the memory. With XMP off, the PC has been stable now for about 2 months.

System Details:

• Motherboard: Asus ROG STRIX Z790-E GAMING WIFI 2 (BIOS Version 1202)
• Case: Corsair 7000D Airflow
• PSU: Corsair RM1000x
• CPU: Intel i9-13900K
• GPU: GIGABYTE 4070 Ti Super
• RAM: Corsair Vengeance 32GB
• Storage: Samsung 990 Pro 2 TB

I'm at a loss about what to do next. I'm considering an RMA for the RAM, but I'm not sure if anyone else has encountered similar issues. The RAM kit I have is Corsair Vengeance 32GB (SN CMH32GX5M2E6000C36), and I have checked my motherboard QVL, and it shows it as listed.

[Hellowpplz]

13 hours ago, Richard Dewey Hammers said:

I've been experiencing some issues with my RAM. Enabling XMP seems to cause problems, and I keep failing Test 8 with Memtest86. However, when I run Memtest86 without XMP enabled, it passes successfully. I conducted individual tests with a single stick in slots A2 and B2 with XMP enabled. Stick 1 passed in both A2 and B2, while Stick 2 passed in A2 but failed in B2. I reran the tests several times and obtained the same results. Initially, I suspected an issue with the B2 slot on my motherboard, but since Stick 1 passed in B2, that seems unlikely.

Additionally, I have tested the RAM on both the Asus ROG STRIX Z790-E GAMING WIFI and Asus ROG STRIX Z790-E GAMING WIFI 2. With XMP enabled, the PC will blue screen, and the dump files show an issue with the memory. With XMP off, the PC has been stable now for about 2 months.

System Details:

• Motherboard: Asus ROG STRIX Z790-E GAMING WIFI 2 (BIOS Version 1202)
• Case: Corsair 7000D Airflow
• PSU: Corsair RM1000x
• CPU: Intel i9-13900K
• GPU: GIGABYTE 4070 Ti Super
• RAM: Corsair Vengeance 32GB
• Storage: Samsung 990 Pro 2 TB

I'm at a loss about what to do next. I'm considering an RMA for the RAM, but I'm not sure if anyone else has encountered similar issues. The RAM kit I have is Corsair Vengeance 32GB (SN CMH32GX5M2E6000C36), and I have checked my motherboard QVL, and it shows it as listed.

Have you tried updating the motherboards bios?
Also, if you know how to do so safely, I would see if slightly increasing voltage would help. If not, seek tutorials on how to do so, as this is how I have solved many issues. Since XMP would obviously make it run faster, faster speed=more power, and if more power is not available then there you go, you have a free blue-screen

I've had/seen issues on other ram, maybe this one at some point, I wouldn't remember, but all I did was update the BIOS. If that didn't work I would up the voltages by a tad bit. One of the two always fixed it (3 times)
I tend to put voltages to: 

I may mention these are for DDR4 as people below pointed out

I have only used ddr5 for my systems, and for those I just let it auto XMP without issues
Dram: 1.38V

SOC: 1.1V

[SpecTre12345]

Here's two overclock guides that should help you get your sticks stable at XMP settings:

 

How to Overclock DDR5 RAM | Tom's Hardware (tomshardware.com)

 

DDR5 Overclocking Guide: Make it Faster - Overclockers

 

Always make sure you are on the latest BIOS, reset CMOS, start with your kit's advertised frequency and timings. Then focus on increasing voltages slowly. Usually, most kits can get stable adjusting basically four voltage settings on Intel. 

[RONOTHAN##]

What I'd probably do is try the test again with these sticks with TestMem5 on the 1usmus_v3 preset, as with 13th gen specifically that is usually much, much harder to pass than MemTest86 is, so doing that might get both sticks to fail in slot B2 or stick 2 to fail in both slots. Checking another BIOS revision or two to see if memory support gets better is a good idea as well, especially as the Corsair 6000 CL36-44-44 kit that you're using is known for spotty BIOS support. Honestly, if you're within the return window and can exchange it for a 6000 CL30 kit for within $10 that would be well worth it, though since you've been using the system for 2 months now I doubt that. 

 

1 hour ago, Hellowpplz said:

I tend to put voltages to: 
Dram: 1.38V

SOC: 1.1V

I will mention that these are for AMD DDR4 systems, not Intel DDR5. Intel does not have an SOC voltage, and the voltage it has that are somewhat similar do not like to be set to 1.1V. Even AMD DDR5 these don't work that well as there's a fair number of CPUs that won't work at 1.1V SOC at 6000MT/s

[Richard Dewey Hammers]

Hey ya im no longer within the return window for my ram sadlySA

Here is the Specs for my current RAM

96 seems pretty high for tRAS after reading through Tom's Hardware (tomshardware.com) saying the Optimized DRAM Timings is 77

Just sucks I was hoping that I could just turn on XMP with no issues. I never ran into this before with DDR4. Im on the lastest version of BOIS for my motherboard also.

Also here is some of the Blue Screens I got with XMP on and thanks to ChatGTP helping me understand them:



I have been stable now for about 2 month with XMP Off at 4800 Default.

[Richard Dewey Hammers]

Looks like (1301) just came out of my BOIS today. I will update it and come back with a update

[SpecTre12345]

18 hours ago, Richard Dewey Hammers said:

96 seems pretty high for tRAS after reading through Tom's Hardware (tomshardware.com) saying the Optimized DRAM Timings is 77

Just sucks I was hoping that I could just turn on XMP with no issues. I never ran into this before with DDR4. Im on the lastest version of BOIS for my motherboard also.

I have been stable now for about 2 month with XMP Off at 4800 Default.

 

Have you tried adjusting any DRAM voltages yet (DRAM VDD, DRAM VDDQ, CPU VDDQ, VCCSA)? You said you looked at the Tom's Hardware guide, but don't mention if you had any success adjusting voltages or what you tried from it yet. I wouldn't worry too much about optimized DRAM timings, ATM. Focus on running the default timings and frequency on your kit first. Then adjust DRAM voltages accordingly.

 

The fact that it's stable with XMP off makes me believe it's possible to get these sticks stable at XMP or close to XMP speeds with some DRAM voltage tweaks.

 

2 hours ago, Richard Dewey Hammers said:

Looks like (1301) just came out of my BOIS today. I will update it and come back with a update

 

This could definitely help, but I would also start trying to adjust DRAM voltages at this point. 

 

Here's another guide that dives into the voltages:

 

How to overclock DDR5 RAM | WePC

[Richard Dewey Hammers]

I just updated my BOIS to 1301 and will wait till later tonight to test XMP with memtest86 as its pretty warm here and I want to make sure its cool in my room before I run the test. I will let you all know if memtest86 passes with the new BOIS update.

I have not messed with any of the timings or the voltages yet, I want to first test XMP on with all the defaults first with the new BOIS Update. 

Looks like ASUS finally update its BOIS defaults to enable Intel Default Settings. I noticed some new setting Performance Preferences which had extreme and performance. With extreme on I noticed when my PC started my i9 reach 86c but with Preferences it reached 70c on start up. Also note that my Coolant was around 37c at the time since my pc been on all day. I know the i9 13900k runs hot but 86c on startup seems a little nuts. The Cooler I have is the Icue Link H170I LCD

[Richard Dewey Hammers]

Hey, So Memtest86 passed runs 1 and 2 but failed runs 3 and 4, indicating it's still unstable with BIOS version 1301. I also reverted to version 1201 because 1301 caused my CPU multipliers to fluctuate erratically, jumping from 55 to 8 on cores 1-9 and from 43 to 8 on cores 10-24. This erratic behavior seemed unusual and might be related to the Intel default settings. After reverting to version 1201, this issue stopped.

I might just keep my RAM at the baseline 4800 MHz for now and wait for any new BIOS updates that might fix the issue, or I might consider buying new RAM. When I had XMP enabled, I didn't notice a significant difference between 4800 MHz and 6000 MHz, especially since I usually game at 60 FPS in 1440p, so I'm not sure how much 6000 MHz would benefit me.

[Richard Dewey Hammers]

Hey, the issue was with the RAM. I RMA'd the RAM kit, and the new set passed memtest86 with on XMP and all settings at default.