new ram is acting strange. will not go to stock speed

socrgy9 · 17 Jun 2013

i just installed my replacement FX-8350 because the first one i had was causing BSOD's. while i was waiting on the replacement CPU, my new RAM got here. after doing my research, i've found that that new 8350's memory controller should handle stock ram speeds of 1866. i didnt want to spend too much, so i just got a single, 8Gb stick of DDR3 1866 RAM by G.Skill.

when the computer started up, i had to go into the bios because of the hardware change. i had to manually set the old ram at 1333 because that was the maximum speed my old cpu could handle. i set the ram speed to AUTO and saved and rebooted. the ram is still running at 1333. i tried manually setting it to 1866. as soon as i hit save and enter after that, the computer actually turned off fully, turned back on, and then i had to hard restart by holding the power button down. when i got it back on, it said "overclocking failed" and prompted me to enter the bios to reset the settings.

i'm not sure what's happening. my mobo supports 1866 ram, my processor supports 1866 ram, my ram IS 1866 ram, but it doesnt seem to be working.

does anyone have an idea what is wrong?

my motherboard: ASUS M5A99X EVO R2.0 ATX AMD Motherboard with UEFI BIOS - Newegg.com

my new cpu: AMD FX-8350 Vishera 4.0GHz (4.2GHz Turbo) Socket AM3+ 125W Eight-Core Desktop Processor FD8350FRHKBOX - Newegg.com

my new ram: G.SKILL Ripjaws X Series 8GB 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1866 (PC3 14900) Desktop Memory Model F3-14900CL10S-8GBXL - Newegg.com

DMHolt57 · 17 Jun 2013

Set the power profile to High Performance and see if it makes a difference.

socrgy9 · 17 Jun 2013

do you mean in windows? or in the bios? i already always run high performance power profile in windows because i've tweaked it the way i like it.

socrgy9 · 17 Jun 2013

here's some of the odd things i'm finding. its supposed to be single channel, but even if its a single ram stick, its not supposed to be that slow right?

paulpicks21 · 17 Jun 2013

Hi socrgy9,

The things in your screenshots are totally normal. You only have 1 stick installed so it will only run in single channel mode.
And it's DDR (Double Data Rate) memory so it is running at twice the speed shown in the shots (1333).

I can't help you with how to get it running correctly at 1866 I'm afraid as I am not very experience with AMD platforms.

Paul.

socrgy9 · 17 Jun 2013

ok thanks

Solarstarshines · 17 Jun 2013

Ok First things first

#1 Ram stick is in the Wrong slot it is supposed to be in #0

#2 even if you are running 1866 it will default to 1333

#3 you will have to manually adjust ram to 1866 also doing so should correct this by using XMP

Now if this doesn't work you might have to use FSB to adjust it to the rated speed but that would mean over clocking and you would have to down clock the multi in order to keep the ram with in range of the target also the HT would have to be adjust to 2600 or below to insure stability

All done in the Bios in the memory settings

socrgy9 · 17 Jun 2013

well, actually its in the right slot. i looked in my motherboard manual and it suggests putting it in slot A2 if using a single stick. i went in the bios and looked around a bit and found the SPD information page. using what that suggested, i went in and set the ram speed to 1866, and set the timings to 10-11-10-30 and a tRC of 40 with a command rate of 2T and it seems that did the trick. i did a little digging and apparently many new high performance memories boot initially at a slower speed and you have to go in and set the higher speed manually. my thing is, why? why is it advertised as being a stock speed of 1866 when, to get that speed, i have to manually set it up? IMO, if it says that's what speed it is, that's what it should be when i plug it in.

Solarstarshines · 17 Jun 2013

socrgy9 said:

well, actually its in the right slot. i looked in my motherboard manual and it suggests putting it in slot A2 if using a single stick. i went in the bios and looked around a bit and found the SPD information page. using what that suggested, i went in and set the ram speed to 1866, and set the timings to 10-11-10-30 and a tRC of 40 with a command rate of 2T and it seems that did the trick. i did a little digging and apparently many new high performance memories boot initially at a slower speed and you have to go in and set the higher speed manually. my thing is, why? why is it advertised as being a stock speed of 1866 when, to get that speed, i have to manually set it up? IMO, if it says that's what speed it is, that's what it should be when i plug it in.

Yeah unfortunately that is how it is for both intel and AMD

paulpicks21 · 18 Jun 2013

Yes, it's the motherboards that default ram to 1333mhz.

Glad you got it working any way.

Paul.