GA-Z97X-UD5H-BK memory causing restarts.

[Onebadveggie]

Hello, as you can see from the title, my memory is causing restarts on my system.

I have X2 8 GB gskill Ripjaw 2133 ram. This motherboard has gray and black slots for the memory. When I try to dual channel it, this is when I get the restarts. But if I put one stick in gray and one in black it works fine. It only restarts when I try to dual channel it.

The moment I turn it on, the led on the motherboard itself says "C0" and then the system restarts. This almost instant, so I can't even get into the bios.

I have gone into the bios and changed the XMP to Profile 1 & 2, tested both, still get restarts.

[dmdilks]

You have to OC the CPU to get the memory to run at that speed. Plus what CPU are you running.

[Onebadveggie]

I'm running a I7 4790K, but I had no plans on overclocking the CPU.

[dmdilks]

Well than I'm sorry to tell you this that trying to run the memory in dual channel it will only run at what the CPU will support 1333 / 1600. See the motherboard companies mislead you on the memory.

Support for DDR3 3000(O.C.) / 2933(O.C.) / 2800(O.C.) / 2666(O.C.) / 2600(O.C.) / 2500(O.C.) / 2400(O.C.) / 2200(O.C.) / 2133(O.C.) / 2000(O.C.) / 1866(O.C.) / 1800(O.C.) / 1600 / 1333 MHz memory modules.

All memory from 1800 to 3300 you have to OC your CPU a Little to get that memory to run at those speeds. The 1333 / 1600 is the only memory that will run at those speed without OCing. 

[Onebadveggie]

I've never tried to OC a CPU before, but now's as good a time as any I think. I have a Cooler Master Hyper Evo 212 cooler and a Seasonic 750W PSU. That should be sufficient, right?

How much do I need to OC the CPU to run the memory then? Sorry, like I said, pretty new to this.

[dmdilks]

I would like to help, but I don't OC anything never had and never will. Maybe somebody else can jump in or go over to the OC part of the forum and ask there. Plus if you do a little research on the internet there is guides out there that will help sorry.

[jpmillman]

@ TS, you don't need to overclock the CPU in order to get your Ram Running on the right speed. The fact is that the memorycontroller itself is rated at max 1600Mhz DDR3. Anything beyond that speed is concidered an overclock, but is not an actual overclock CPU wise, but merely a memorycontroller OC (that in this case happends to be on the CPU)

Some questions for you before we go any further:

- What sticks are we talking about exactly?
- Did you tested both stick apart? (not just one stick) with Memtest86?
- did you try to run both sticks in lower speed? (i.e. 1600Mhz or lower)

How well your Ram will work at its rated speed depends for a big part on the quality of the intergrated memory controller of the CPU. Thats in the same way as you can aquire a good overclockable CPU vs a bad one. Sometimes you need considerably more voltage on the controller in order to work on higher memory speeds.

The fact remains that an 2133Mhz 'OC' should be easy for the current Haswell intergrated memory controllers (in fact, Haswell should do 2666Mhz relatively easy compared to s1155's sandy and ivy bridge). Fact two is that the pc boots  with one stick of memory, right? But does it work at the rated speed and timings? Check that with Cpu-Z in windows. You should see '1067mhz'on the memory tab of cpu-z. And you should see the timings

Like i said earlier, sometimes you need a little more voltage on the memory controller in order to get things stable memory-wise.

- So, boot with one stick into bios.
- Turn on the XMP for the stick (the speed and timings will set @ its rated speed automaticly)
- Most 2133Mhz ram need 1,65v for operation, so check Dram voltage in Voltage tab, set at 1,65v accordingly
- Set Vrin voltage at 1,9v (voltage where all other voltages are 'extracted' from)
- set Sys agent voltage at +0,1v (memory controller voltage)
- Set CPU i/o analog and digital both at +0,1v (stabilizes higher memory clocks)
- F10 save and exit, let it boot completely once.
- shutdown and place 2nd stick

Above steps should stabilize any 2133Mhz set on this 1150 platform, if not, there should be some extensive testing with other memorysticks. Good luck!

* sorry for any grammar mistakes, English is not my native language.

[Onebadveggie]

I have not tested the sticks in Memtest. I will have to do that. Like I said before though, I did test to see if the system would start with each stick individually, and then Two sticks in each slot (which you will see works fine). The only time I get restarts is when they're in the same colored slots.

Anyway, I followed your instructions. Changed the XMP profile to 1, changed all the voltages, rebooted, put in second stick AND... still restarted with C0 error on the led.

I put the second stick back into the non-dual channeled slot, and started my pc back up, and it's working, but that's nothing new.

Also, here's a screenshot from my CPU-Z after starting back up my PC:

[Onebadveggie]

So, my friend is also building a PC right now, and was kind enough to let me borrow his memory so I can test it on my board. This is what he's got: http://www.gskill.com/en/product/f3-1866c9d-16gsr

Similar to mine, but lower speed and so on.

I set my bios back to defaults, uninstalled my 2133 sticks, installed one stick of his 1866. Went into my bios and XMP, changed it to profile 1, saved settings, shut down PC, and installed 1866  stick two... AND got the C0 error again, with the computer restarting.

So, now having tested two different speeds of RAM, either I am doing something completely wrong, or I am looking at a motherboard problem, which would really really suck...

[absic]

Hi there,

the memory controllers are actually part of the CPU. Have you checked that the CPU is seated correctly and that there are no bent pins in the CPU socket?

Which BIOS version are you running?

[Onebadveggie]

I am running BIOS version F6, I know there's an F7b out, but I don't necessarily want to tempt fate with a beta...

I have not checked if my CPU is seated right, but I haven't seen anything alarming going on with my CPU to warrant checking it. So I should do this then?

[absic]

If I were in your position I would first try updating to the latest F7g beta BIOS that is available over at TweakTown: http://forums.tweaktown.com/gigabyte/28441-gigabyte-latest-beta-bios.html I have the GA-Z97X-UD5H motherboard and you can actually swap between BIOS chips, using the switch on the motherboard & I think your motherboard also has this facility, so don't worry too much about trying a beta version.

If, after updating the BIOS, you still have the same issue then I would double check that the CPU is mounted properly and that there are no bent pins in the CPU socket.

[dmdilks]

I know absic is helping you out, but I have to ask this. Will the memory run in the right slots 1 & 3 without the XMP? At what the MB will set it at auto. If it doesn't then there is something wrong with the MB.

[absic]

If it doesn't then there is something wrong with the MB.

Sorry to disagree with you on this dmdilks but the problem could also be with the memory controller on the CPU and without having another processor/motherboard to test with we cannot be certain where the problem lies.

[dmdilks]

After looking at the book if you run the memory in single channel. That would be channel A that would be slots 2 & 4. Than if you run them in channel B that would be 1 & 3. Then that would say all the slots are working.

Plus you can run the memory in slots 1 & 2 or 3 & 4. That would be dual channel. Yes it could be the CPU, but I have had 3 or 4 Gigabyte boards with memory slot problems.