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Gigabyte GA-X99-Designare EX - Bios Issues with Memory

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Jimbop

New Member
Joined
Dec 7, 2016
Motherboard GA-X99-Designare EX(rev.1.0)
BIOS Ver. F2, F3 and F4
VGA Model 4095MB NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1080 (ZOTAC International)
CPU Model Intel Core i7 6800K @ 3.40GHz
Memory: Corsair Vengeance® LPX 64GB (4x16GB) DDR4 DRAM 3333MHz C16 Memory Kit - Black (CMK64GX4M4B3333C16)
Memory Size 64GB
Power Supply CORSAIR HXi Series HX1000i 1000W 80 PLUS PLATINUM Haswell Ready Full Modular ATX12V & EPS12V SLI and Crossfire Ready Power Supply with C-Link Monitoring and Control
Operating System Win 10 64-bit
Service Pack up to date

Question:

Hi,
I put this system together and thought it was running slow. I looked at the memory speed and noticed it was running at only 1066MHz and the timings were wrong. For the most part, everything is set to the default bios with the only thing I changed being the boot order. It appears that I can't change the CPU settings. Not that I am that concerned about overclocking it right now, but I just want the proper settings for it.

So, next I changed the Memory to the XMP profile and the proper timings 16-18-18-36 were put in automatically. I saved the bios and the reboot failed, giving me a message to boot back into the bios in order to fix it. I loaded the optimized settings, rebooted and it worked, but again with the slower speed and settings.

I then updated to the F4 Bios from Gigabyte. I changed to the XMP profile and the system booted into Windows. However, only 32 (DRAM #1 and #2) of the 64GB was recognized. The bios showed all 64GB if I remember correctly. The system was faster, though, with the proper speed on the memory. Changing to the optimized settings still only showed the 32GB in Windows.

So, I changed the bios down to version F3 and then both the bios as well as Windows saw only the 32GB no matter how it was set with auto or XMP.

Then, I rolled the bios back to F2 and now just have a slow system with the bios set to AUTO across the board but it sees all 64GB of RAM.

Can you tell me how to set up the bios so that everything is running as optimized as it should? This has me stumped!

NOTE: The memory is on the compatibility list for this motherboard

Thank you!

Screenshot 2016-12-07 16.54.13.png Screenshot 2016-12-07 16.54.23.png Screenshot 2016-12-07 16.54.27.png Screenshot 2016-12-07 16.54.30.png Screenshot 2016-12-07 16.54.35.png Screenshot 2016-12-07 16.54.38.png Screenshot 2016-12-07 16.54.41.png Screenshot 2016-12-07 16.55.14.png Screenshot 2016-12-07 16.56.00.png
 
After load the newest bios did you try setting the Bios to default to see if it shows 64GB, also have you tried reseating the memory with the latest bios?
 
After load the newest bios did you try setting the Bios to default to see if it shows 64GB, also have you tried reseating the memory with the latest bios?

The bios was set to "optimized defaults."
The only thing I changed was the boot order.

I don't need to reseat the memory. This is not a hardware issue. Rather it is a BIOS issue. The memory is shown as 32GB in the F3 bios and 64GB in the F4 bios when using the XMP profile. When in auto, F3 shows 32GB and F4 shows 64GB. The F2 BIOS shows 64GB in auto. Using the XMP profile causes a boot failure.
 
I'd try to reseat as well. Its free and takes 2 minutes.

Make sure all four sticks are in the proper slots (see manual).

You have a lot of memory, so you may need to add some SA and IO voltage. See if adding .1V to each first, then enabling XMP works. Those are some fast speeds for a lot of ram.................

If not, set the major memory speed and timings, DRAM voltage, and SA + IO voltage manually.
 
CPU-Z shows one half the effective DDR rate, so 1066.5 MHz means the RAM is running at 2133 MHz speed which is the default speed for DDR4 in an X99 motherboard (DDR4-2133). Go into the BIOS and either set it using the XMP profiles or manually, whichever works. If you do it manually, be sure to set the memory voltage to 1.35V up from the default value of 1.2V.
 
CPU-Z shows one half the effective DDR rate, so 1066.5 MHz means the RAM is running at 2133 MHz speed which is the default speed for DDR4 in an X99 motherboard (DDR4-2133). Go into the BIOS and either set it using the XMP profiles or manually, whichever works. If you do it manually, be sure to set the memory voltage to 1.35V up from the default value of 1.2V.

If I set the the F2 bios to XMP, it will go back into the bios with the message that a boot error has occurred instructing me to reset the bios to the optimized results. Bios versions F3 and F4 will boot into windows using XMP profiles but only recognize 32GB of RAM, which is half of the 64 GB memory installed.
 
Is the memory voltage at 1.35V when you set the memory to the XMP profile? These high speed DDR4 DIMMs are all overvolted from the default 1.2V to 1.35V. Did you try BIOS Ver. F4c? It was specifically for: "Improve DDR compatibility".
 
It looks like this example with XMP mode default Bios.

View attachment 185943

If I change to the XMP profile, the timing is correct at 16-18-18-36 and the voltage is correct at 1.35v. The caveat here is that the pc will not boot after that.

I have included the shots of how the bios is currently set up. If a setting can be changed, it is shown, otherwise, it can only be at auto and I have no control over it.

Gigabyte support has been pretty slow to answer anything but did mention that if the XMP profile is selected, then the CPU is automatically overclocked. Perhaps this is why it will not boot past the bios and generates a bios error message?

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I Looked at all your settings and they look correct. Can you post into Bios with XMP? Try not using XMP and setting the memory timings manual also voltage.
 
Motherboard GA-X99-Designare EX(rev.1.0)
BIOS Ver. F2, F3 and F4
VGA Model 4095MB NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1080 (ZOTAC International)
CPU Model Intel Core i7 6800K @ 3.40GHz
Memory: Corsair Vengeance® LPX 64GB (4x16GB) DDR4 DRAM 3333MHz C16 Memory Kit - Black (CMK64GX4M4B3333C16)
Memory Size 64GB
Power Supply CORSAIR HXi Series HX1000i 1000W 80 PLUS PLATINUM Haswell Ready Full Modular ATX12V & EPS12V SLI and Crossfire Ready Power Supply with C-Link Monitoring and Control
Operating System Win 10 64-bit
Service Pack up to date

Question:

Hi,
I put this system together and thought it was running slow. I looked at the memory speed and noticed it was running at only 1066MHz and the timings were wrong. For the most part, everything is set to the default bios with the only thing I changed being the boot order. It appears that I can't change the CPU settings. Not that I am that concerned about overclocking it right now, but I just want the proper settings for it.

So, next I changed the Memory to the XMP profile and the proper timings 16-18-18-36 were put in automatically. I saved the bios and the reboot failed, giving me a message to boot back into the bios in order to fix it. I loaded the optimized settings, rebooted and it worked, but again with the slower speed and settings.

I then updated to the F4 Bios from Gigabyte. I changed to the XMP profile and the system booted into Windows. However, only 32 (DRAM #1 and #2) of the 64GB was recognized. The bios showed all 64GB if I remember correctly. The system was faster, though, with the proper speed on the memory. Changing to the optimized settings still only showed the 32GB in Windows.

So, I changed the bios down to version F3 and then both the bios as well as Windows saw only the 32GB no matter how it was set with auto or XMP.

Then, I rolled the bios back to F2 and now just have a slow system with the bios set to AUTO across the board but it sees all 64GB of RAM.

Can you tell me how to set up the bios so that everything is running as optimized as it should? This has me stumped!

NOTE: The memory is on the compatibility list for this motherboard

Thank you!

View attachment 185905

In your 2nd CPU-Z screen shot, I see your CPU speed at 1.2GHZ, that is 1 reason your system was running slow, also did you clear the CMOS ram after you re-flashed the BIOS? Sometimes settings from an old BIOS is not compatible with a new BIOS so the CMOS ram needs to be cleared.
I looked at your manual for that MB and as long as a setting is in Auto mode, you can't change it, you need to change the mode to manual mode. That then opens up a new menu to make changes.
 
That's where the cpu idles with power savings enabled I believe. To confirm, he needs to put a load on it and see the speed ramp up.
 
This memory can be on the tested memory list but it doesn't mean it will work with all other components. There are many variables that affect stability, especially when you are using high capacity modules.
I would check manually CPU multi x30, bclk 100mhz, memory ratio x32 and uncore ratio x28. Timings 16-18-18 and 1.35V memory voltage. If you make it run like this then XMP is setting something wrong. You can also check 1-2 memory sticks in first slots as maybe some channels don't want to work at higher frequency.

Uncore can't be too high - up to ~3200MHz should work without bigger issues but I don't know how your motherboard is acting. I mean x28 is standard and XMP is 125MHz+ so I don't know if it lowers cache ratio to run at ~2800MHz or just force to run at 3500MHz.
You can try higher cache voltage and higher VCCSA voltage. 2nd one because of higher memory capacity is more demanding and at auto I don't think it's setting high enough voltage ( I won't tell you exactly how high it has to be but check +0.1V ).

At the end stupid question... is there a dead sub-pixel on your monitor ? :)
 
This issue is still an issue...*sigh*

I updated the bios to F3. I can see the 64GB but the timings are not right and the system is sloooooowwww for what it should be. Nothing ventured, nothing gained, I was enabling anything that could be enabled including the XMP profile. It worked for a little while at speed and seeing all 64GB at the proper timings, but the system randomly rebooted while I was working in Photoshop and wouldn't post past the bios unless I loaded the optimized results. I noticed that when the XMP profile is enabled that the processor is overclocked automatically 1.25X and I have absolutely no control over that. I feel like this is where the problem is and it's an issue with Giga-byte? I wrote their support and they actually said that they never saw this behavior on their end. Hmmm, well, [insert sarcastic tone here] I guess it doesn't exist then. Seriously, what a stupid answer. I'm about ready to give up on this board and move to ASUS.

04-bios.jpg 05-bios.jpg Screenshot 2016-12-26 19.43.00.png Screenshot 2016-12-26 19.43.15.png Screenshot 2016-12-26 19.43.19.png Screenshot 2016-12-26 19.43.22.png Screenshot 2016-12-26 19.43.28.png Screenshot 2016-12-26 19.43.37.png Screenshot 2016-12-26 19.43.42.png Screenshot 2016-12-26 19.43.47.png Screenshot 2016-12-26 19.43.53.png Screenshot 2016-12-26 19.43.58.png Screenshot 2016-12-26 19.44.02.png Screenshot 2016-12-26 19.44.06.png Screenshot 2016-12-26 19.44.10.png Screenshot 2016-12-26 19.44.28.png 01-bios.jpg 02-bios.jpg 03-bios.jpg 06-bios.jpg 07-bios.jpg 08-bios.jpg 09-bios.jpg 10-bios.jpg 11-bios.jpg 12-bios.jpg 13-bios.jpg 14-bios.jpg 15-bios.jpg 16-bios.jpg 17-bios.jpg 18-bios.jpg 19-bios.jpg 19-bios.jpg 20-bios.jpg 21-bios.jpg 22-bios.jpg 23-bios.jpg 24-bios.jpg 25-bios.jpg
 
Have you tried just installing one stick of memory at a time to see if there is a bad stick of memory?
 
For some reason Gigabyte and Corsair isn't the best match in last months. Anyway I would check if manually 3000 15-16-16 or 15-17-17 1.35V and +0.2V SA is working. 16GB modules can cause issues at 3333 on this platform. Even though someone tested it then not with your CPU/IMC.
 
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