Z270X Gaming 5 + G.Skill 3000Mhz = Fail No Boot

[FuryUK]

Just got the board setup with an i5 7600k and right away i got a DRAM error led on and no boot.  4x4Gb G.Skill Ripjawz 4 DDR4 3000Mhz.  So i took out 3 and left one in what i presumed to be slot 1, according to the board.  No joy, tried them all 1 by 1 in this slot and nothing.  So trying other slots i found i could boot into bios with 1 single stick in slot 4 - bios reported this as slot 1 despite what the board and manual says. 

I upgraded the bios from F2 to F5 with F3 showing DRAM fixes and compatibility improvement.  Rebooted with the single stick and set xmp so the ram was now running 3000mhz.  All good until i put another stick in.  Again the board is misleading and i find i can get into bios with 2 sticks in 1 & 3 according to the bios, board actually says 4 & 2.  However once in the bios the overall memory shows as 4Gb and the slots show a 4gb stick in slot 1 and a 32gb stick in slot 3! I tried all combinations of ram and only 1 piece out of all 4 would boot this up in slot 1.  I got this 32Gb nonsense when i put any other in slot 3 (bios slot 3 not boards of course) and with 3 or 4 sticks it will crash out the bios until i reset the cmos.  Then back to the beginning again.

Now i did check the supported memory on the site and it is not listed, it is a quad channel kit eBuyer describes as "For 2011 V3 X99" however i have used quad channel kits many times without issues in dual channel board - just running in dual channel of course.

Spent 4 hours last night with this before finally putting in an RMA on the ram and ordering some G.Skill Ripjawz V dual channel kit 2x4gb x2.  Should be here today so hopefully i got bad/incompatible ram.

Anyone had any issues like this?  Surely i would have just got this running in dual channel with no problems...

[shadowsports]

Greetings,
Yes.  There are lots of people having these types of compatibility issues with Z170/Z270 chipsets and higher speed memory.

Using ram that is not on the QVL is a gamble.  You would think that DDR4 memory with identical timing and voltage would work, but in many cases they do not and there doesn't appear to be a clear reason why.  JDEC profiles met, XMP profiles supported, but the RAM simply won't work.

I would go with CL14-14-14-34 @1.35v.  Let us know if the new ram works.  Will be helpful for others.  Good luck.   

[FuryUK]

I tried the memory in a Z170 Gaming 3 board with identical problems, would not work AT ALL.  So, I got the new memory and again the exact same problems too.  Dual channel 2400mhz and would not work with 1 2 3 or 4 sticks in any of the slots.  Absolute sick as a pig and I will not be buying G.Skill memory ever again now.  I tried in 2x 8Gb HyperX modules @2666mhz and they work perfect but do not have the look I was aiming for, black sticks of ram too.  I tried these new memory sticks in the Gaming 3 board and luckily they work fine in there so I don't have to RMA these too.

G.Skill I will never use again after this.  Rather gutted as the red/black theme of my system is somewhat ruined but could salvage it if I can find 2x 8Gb HyperX in red I guess =/

[shadowsports]

Unfortunately, I don't think this is related to the memory 100%. 

2400Mhz ram on z170 chipsets (gigabyte boards) have been one of the most challenging to get to work. LPX vengeance @ 3000Mhz has had better results and 3200Mhz seems to be working with Z270's.

What about manual settings?  Have you tried a small overclock?  Which is required for anything above 2133Mhz on the Z170 anyway. Other info that is misleading.....   Specs page shows Support for non-ECC UDIMM 1Rx8/2Rx8/1Rx16 memory modules, but half of the QVL shows DS modules as being supported.   

There was someone else who got dual channel to work properly populating slots 1 & 2 (which is first and third slot) from right to left.  I think your issue is compatibility over ram placement however.