Ram not working at correct speed.

[denbie]

HI
Please, how can i get this to work correctly at 1600 mhz, it says its been tested with the ASUS M5A97 (although i got R2.0 with current bios update)

My pc wont boot with standard (optimised ?) settings. I have to press the memory ok key on the motherboard and it then reboots saying "memory ok succeeds in booting -press F1"
I have to save these settings in bios in it then reboots and works.
But it only works at 1333 mhz.
Ive tried entering the various gedec values found on CPU-Z but it wont boot again, Ive tried D.O.C.P ? but that wont work either
The memory test function manually puts the speed at 1333 mhz and the DRAM voltage at 1.6 v (which is highlighted in yellow).

ps ive checked http://www.gskill.us/forum/showthread.php?t=11742
but cant get the proper speed.

I bought this ram
G.Skill 8GB (2x 4GB) Dual Channel Ares Series Memory Kit (DDR3 1600, 9-9-9-24, 1.5v, Intel XMP Extreme Memory Profile Ready)
http://www.gskill.com/en/product/f3-1600c9d-8gao

and this motherboard
Asus M5A97 R2.0 Motherboard (AMD 970/SB950, 4x DDR3, S-ATA 600, ATX, PCI-Express 2.0, USB 3.0, USB BIOS Flashback, Windows 8 Ready, Socket AM3+)
http://www.asus.com/Motherboards/M5A...specifications

Cpu fx 6300 black edition

[denbie]

Have tried "memory testing" suggestion by damric http://www.gskill.us/forum/showthread.php?t=12629

My FSB only goes to 223 and about RAM 1499 mhz (on manual settings with everything on Auto) before the computer stops booting. The Cpu speed is getting higher although i imagine the other settings will bring that down...but will that also slow the RAM down again ?
As ive only got a stock cooler i dont really want to risk to much damage as i dont really know what im doing.
Should my ram work at 1600mhz as advertised or is it only tested at 1333mhz as suggested in the above link ? or is it faulty ram ?
Any suggestions please ?

[supahos]

Not sure if you played with the voltages (vcore and cpu-nb) mentioned in this part, they should help a bit


1. Set DRAM Frequency to DDR3-1333.

2. Set CPU Host/Bus Frequency to 240 (this will overclock the memory frequency to DDR3-1600)

2a. Raising the bus frequency will also overclock the CPU, so if you do not want this, you will need to lower CPU Ratio to your desired frequency. If you do want to keep it, you may need to raise CPU VCore to stabilize the overclock. If you have a Black Edition CPU, then it should be capable of the overclock without any voltage adjustments, but for non-BE's most likely you will need to raise CPU VCore.

3. Set timings to tCL 9 - tRCD 9 - tRP 9 - tRAS 24, or whatever your memory is rated for.

4. Set DRAM Voltage to 1.50V, or whatever your memory is rated for.

5. Most CPUs will need a CPU-NB Voltage boost of +0.10V, so if your default is 1.10V, set it to




I have a pretty similar board and a fx-6100 cpu in my nephew's build I just made for him and its running 2x4gb sticks of 1600 memory just fine, It didn't need many tweaks but I guess its not the case here for you. I did note that even touching his timings above spec was a miserable affair. Any setting no matter how much voltage I added or any other setting instantly kept computer from even posting, kind of weird.

[denbie]

Thanks, ive changed all the things mentioned in various configurations, the ram just doesnt want to work at its advertised speed it seems, so i imagine the ram is faulty?
ive followed your suggestions and the below links
http://www.gskill.us/forum/showthread.php?t=11742
http://www.gskill.us/forum/showthread.php?t=12629

I think i need to send it back to get replaced or get something absolutely guaranteed to work as described. I might have to put a RAM suggestion post on here and perhaps the asus forums.
Thanks

[supahos]

well if your fsb can't do 240, I'm not sure its the memory's fault, or that any memory will run 8 gb at 1600 in your setup. I'm not 100% sure of your board, but many amd boards list a 4 gb max for 1600, you may fall in that category, in which case I would just use your memory you have at 1333 ghz and work on squeezing as tight of timings as possible out of it to offset any speed loss.

[denbie]

Yeah sorry, i probably havent explained myself properly..the system will only boot if i dont set the FSB higher than 233 although it will allow me to enter higher numbers.

I can get the ram it running at nearly 1500 mhz , ive come across lots of problems like this on the internet .I suppose on the bright side the computer is working and the speed difference is probably really small ? plus i got the ram very cheap it seems.
Just havent got what i paid for unfortunately.
Thanks

[supahos]

I know you can put in whatever number you want for the FSB, however if you can't boot it then its of no use . You got what you paid for it sounds like (if its stable at 1500 MHz it would almost certainly be so at 1600 MHz) it just that your cpu isn't capable of pushing the memory that fast. I can't imagine 100 MHz would be that much better, what you could do is start stepping down the timings a bit and see how much u can push it.

8-9-9-24-2 then 8-9-9-24-1, and if you're lucky 8-8-8-24-1... its all in how much time you want to spend to max out what you can do

[denbie]

Spent more hours trying to get this to work tonight, Tried the sticks in the two black slots instead and it actually got to the windows loading screen then froze....(only one stick of ram showed in BIOS...i tried removing one stick of ram and it got a little further but then went into the Windows error..automatic recovery screen. Im sure the auto and D.O.C.P settings had workied at 1600 mhz in the bios although windows didnt fully load .
After the windows auto recovery..which seemed to stick/ plus i also rebooted. The whole issue returned to the usual state.
Ive just left it at 8-8-8-24 and 1333mhz and feeling pretty mentally drained.(taken my a week to get nowhere)..i might have to take it to the pc shop and hopefully they will either get it working or tell my what the problem complainant is.
Really galling as i thought id build it myself and save some money.
The cpu is a fx6300 which is supposed to handle 1866 mhz easily....another though is can a dodgy hardrive be part of this problem ?
8-8-8-24 is the fail safe setting ? thats better tha 9-9-9-24 at 1333mhz ?
Thanks for your help

[supahos]

The harddrive won't cause those kind of issues. 8-8-8-24 is a faster version of 9-9-9-24, the lower the numbers the better. You can offset some of the speed loss by not getting 1600 mhz by lowering the timings below 9-9-9-24.

[denbie]

Sorted !

Just a update, Amazon sent some more Ram to try (same stuff) .
Worked beautifully, changed auto settings to 1600 mhz and worked straight away with high timings. Changed it to D.O.C.P profile and worked straight away with correct timings..nothing could be easier....so the bad ram can now be returned (and i can let my local pc shop know i was correct, that fx6300 isnt a 100 series and that it can run 1600mhz ram)
Thanks for the support
Cheers

[supahos]

Now try and drop the first 9 to 8, and the command rate(timing) from 2 to 1, and see if it will still run stable, you will notice a bit of a difference if either of those settings work.

[denbie]

Yep, ill give that a go later...just nice to actual enjoy the pc. Although actually looking for another harddrive to use as boot and storage drive, but I will try the differant ram settings later.