Ram upgrade problem

[Sean2512]

Hello, 

I decided to treat my pc to a ram upgrade so bought 2x16gb 3600mhz corsair lpx sticks to replace my 2x8gb corsair lpx 2133MHz sticks. But with only the new ram installed it won't post on a error code 55 which I believe is no ram installed. It does however post when I install the 2 old ram sticks and shows all the ram in the bios and cpuz, both showing the 16gb modules are capable of 3600MHz. I've tried updating the bios and switching the xmp to auto but I can't figure it out and stuck running xmp 2400MHz. 

Any help appreciated, 

Thanks

Pc spec:

Asrock z170 extreme4 

I5 6600k

Gtx1080

[Sawa Takahashi]

According to specs, your processor only supports DDR4-2133 memory. Anything over that speed is overclock and is not guaranteed to work.

I think that 2400MHz is probably the best you can expect from your system.

 

[Sean2512]

5 hours ago, Sawa Takahashi said:

According to specs, your processor only supports DDR4-2133 memory. Anything over that speed is overclock and is not guaranteed to work.

I think that 2400MHz is probably the best you can expect from your system.

 

I understand that it may not run at the full speed but surely it should be able to post with the 16gb sticks alone even if it runs at 2400mhz but unless I have the original ram in aswell it won't post and gives a ram error on the motherboard but with the original ram it posts and all the ram is available. Shouldn't it downclock itself after a few failed starts? My xmp profiles are auto or profile 1 and won't post with either

[Mumintroll]

11 minutes ago, Sean2512 said:

I understand that it may not run at the full speed but surely it should be able to post with the 16gb sticks alone even if it runs at 2400mhz but unless I have the original ram in aswell it won't post and gives a ram error on the motherboard but with the original ram it posts and all the ram is available. Shouldn't it downclock itself after a few failed starts? My xmp profiles are auto or profile 1 and won't post with either

Don't you have an option to disable XMP?

If so try without XMP.

[Mark Kaine]

4 hours ago, Sean2512 said:

I understand that it may not run at the full speed but surely it should be able to post with the 16gb sticks alone even if it runs at 2400mhz but unless I have the original ram in aswell it won't post and gives a ram error on the motherboard but with the original ram it posts and all the ram is available. Shouldn't it downclock itself after a few failed starts? My xmp profiles are auto or profile 1 and won't post with either

the point is, you need to disable xmp or it probably won't work. 

[Sean2512]

15 hours ago, Mumintroll said:

Don't you have an option to disable XMP?

If so try without XMP.

I only have the option of xmp profile 1 or auto, when I go into advanced I can manually set the ram speed but still won't post at 2133 or 2400. I've tried removing the motherboard battery so that xmp should be off but that doesn't seem to work either. 

[Mumintroll]

2 minutes ago, Sean2512 said:

I only have the option of xmp profile 1 or auto, when I go into advanced I can manually set the ram speed but still won't post at 2133 or 2400. I've tried removing the motherboard battery so that xmp should be off but that doesn't seem to work either. 

Look carefully for an option above or below it. You should be able to disable XMP.

[Sawa Takahashi]

18 hours ago, Sean2512 said:

Shouldn't it downclock itself after a few failed starts?

It can downclock but there is a huge gap between 3600 and 2400. Maybe the manufacturer did not care to test at that lower speed.

Also, DDR4 does not really do memory training like DDR5 now do. DDR4 boots or does not. When it fails to boot, BIOS resets to default (maybe with a a "failed overclock" warning). If the default is still no good for the ram, then it won't post.

What happens with the old+new mix of RAM sticks is probably that the new ram just won't downclock all the way up to 2400 but it is still able to run at that speed if manually set or if the old ram requires that lower speed.

What you can do is boot with the old and new RAM and copy the timings. If your BIOS won't show the actual timings, you can use an utility like CPU-z to get the actual timings. Make sure the settings are set to manual and try removing the old RAM. Boot into BIOS and make sure the settings are still set to manual.

This is not guaranteed to work because if your BIOS resets to default when you remove your old RAM, your computer won't probably boot again. But there is a chance that it will keep the settings and then boot with the new RAM alone.

Last question, is there a reason you want to remove the old RAM from your system ? Unless you are running out of memory slots, more RAM won't hurt your performance.

Good luck !

[Sean2512]

On 11/16/2024 at 4:45 PM, Sawa Takahashi said:

It can downclock but there is a huge gap between 3600 and 2400. Maybe the manufacturer did not care to test at that lower speed.

Also, DDR4 does not really do memory training like DDR5 now do. DDR4 boots or does not. When it fails to boot, BIOS resets to default (maybe with a a "failed overclock" warning). If the default is still no good for the ram, then it won't post.

What happens with the old+new mix of RAM sticks is probably that the new ram just won't downclock all the way up to 2400 but it is still able to run at that speed if manually set or if the old ram requires that lower speed.

What you can do is boot with the old and new RAM and copy the timings. If your BIOS won't show the actual timings, you can use an utility like CPU-z to get the actual timings. Make sure the settings are set to manual and try removing the old RAM. Boot into BIOS and make sure the settings are still set to manual.

This is not guaranteed to work because if your BIOS resets to default when you remove your old RAM, your computer won't probably boot again. But there is a chance that it will keep the settings and then boot with the new RAM alone.

Last question, is there a reason you want to remove the old RAM from your system ? Unless you are running out of memory slots, more RAM won't hurt your performance.

Good luck !

I will try to give this a go, the reason I wanted to remove the old ram was that I've seen other people have 3200Mhz+ on skylake with slightly different setups but my mobo specs say that it supports upto 3800 so hopefully run quicker than 2400mhz and 32gb is plenty of capacity if I could get a higher speed out of them. 

[Sean2512]

On 11/16/2024 at 2:18 PM, Mumintroll said:

Look carefully for an option above or below it. You should be able to disable XMP.

I haven't found an option to disable under the oc tweaks tab but it may be elsewhere, the description for auto says that it will change the clock speed to what will work with the stick which is confusing because they obviously work at 2400Mhz currently but even when I remove the old ram in this configuration it fails to post with error 55 which is ram and suggests reseating . 

[Sawa Takahashi]

On 11/18/2024 at 3:17 PM, Sean2512 said:

I will try to give this a go, the reason I wanted to remove the old ram was that I've seen other people have 3200Mhz+ on skylake with slightly different setups but my mobo specs say that it supports upto 3800 so hopefully run quicker than 2400mhz and 32gb is plenty of capacity if I could get a higher speed out of them. 

I support your point of view but still, overclocking is really hit or miss. It should work most of the time but if it doesn't, you are kind of left alone by the manufacturer.

One suggestion I can give you (if you have the budget for) is to go for a discounted AM4 motherboard and CPU combo. You can use you new RAM and all other peripherals with it.

Good luck !