It's not always the motherboard when your having trouble with memory.

[wingman99]

I was working on my PC in the signature since I purchased it 6/20/16 till now, what a pain. The PC was slightly unstable in windows 10, however it passed prime95 for 15 hours many times also passed RealBench for 4 hours. It seemed like running the memory at it's rated speed of 3200MHz made stability worse. There is one other thing that is vary interesting when changing settings in Bios like the CPU or memory I would sometimes have contentious Beeps, then the PC would reboot and post. Now that I have my new memory from RMA everything is working as it should, no more Beeps sometimes when I change CPU or Memory settings in Bios..

What prolong me from the memory RMA is all the advice I see in this forum that motherboard is not matched to the memory causing a problem with memory and not the memory it self. People in this forum from what I see never RMA the memory.

 

[ATMINSIDE]

So, just to make sure, you never ran Memtest86+ or AIDA64 to test the RAM?

It's not that we never RMA memory, but most of the time it is the motherboard.
Even so, we almost always ask the user to test the memory with one of the two programs above to verify it isn't the issue.

 

[wingman99]

Yes in a month I tested with everything including Pas Mark Memtest86+ overnight. From what I see in this Forum People just try different memory when they have a problem with memory, I don't see memory RMAs.

Now that I don't sometimes have beeps in Bios when changing memory and CPU settings, I think Bios does the best job checking memory.

On a technical note G.SKill blamed it on the motherboard for the Beeps and Gigabyte blamed it on the memory for the beeps.

 

[EarthDog]

So, let me get this straight...You are blaming advice you have seen on forums about looking at the motherboard first which caused a delay for you? Yet, I dont see a thread that you started on this from 6/20 or newer. How can you blame the forum when it appears we never had a chance to help?

Anyway.. I hope you found the issue. It seems, from your other thread from may, if that is the same system, that the problem does not happen frequently so, we will all keep our fingers crossed for you!

"Try different memory when they have a problem with memory"... makes sense to me! Being more serious, I am sure people RMA memory. So they don't have to wait and be without a PC, some order other sticks for testing. If they work, its for sure the memory either being borked or not compatible.

 

[wingman99]

This is the second skylake that I have had trouble with. like said above it is in my signature that I had the problem. The OS did not freezes or lockup I was having random problems, I did not know if it was memory also I did not want to buy all new parts to test.

Yes I was thinking there was some setting on the motherboard I could not get to or a bad motherboard that was making my OS and web browsers slightly unstable.

After the memory RMA of the G.SKILL 3200MHz the Bios does not Beep sometimes when changing CPU or memory setting in Bios.

What I'm trying to say is motherboards is blamed for memory trouble too much compared to memory timings and speed that are not approved for the motherboard, also defective memory.

 

[ATMINSIDE]

So, by what you're saying, you had an atypical issue, but you feel like we should have people checking the problem you had instead of the majority issue... Got it.

 

[wingman99]

Is it atypical. Supposing the Bios was beeping rebooting all the time unlike mine. So it did not post at default speed or it would post default speed and not post rated speed. You feel the memory is not compatible with the motherboard, then you tell some to try a different brand and it works. All along it was defective memory like mine was.

I see that people here say motherboards are picky about ram and the suggestion always is try different brand ram instead of a RMA. There is JEDEC also X.M.P specification that is it.

 

[ATMINSIDE]

JEDEC and XMP aren't the be all, end all of RAM compatibility.
Swapping RAM rules out both compatibility and defective product, so why not do it??

 

[Woomack]

JEDEC = specs given by organization, every memory and motherboard has to be compatible with it but it's "auto" setting without anything above IC general specs
XMP = settings not standarized, every manufacturer can set it in a different way, it's usually working but not always, usually problems are with motherboards, not the memory, if it's not working then manual settings should work

There were issues with Gigabyte motherboards and threads about it were appearing quite often on the forums. I was never recommending Z170 Gigabyte motherboards also because Corsair RAM had constant problems to run on these boards.
I had no issues with G.Skill memory from any newer series. I had problems only with one Ripjaws 4 kit. However it's only electronics and there are sometimes issues with single memory sticks.

Personally I can't agree that motherboards are picky regarding RAM. Actually except single kits ( like new HyperX which I'm testing right now ) I had no issues with any RAM on ASUS, MSI and ASRock motherboards and I tested about 20 different motherboards.
Popular RAM is based on literally 3 IC in 2-3 versions which have similar timing scheme. Every motherboard manufacturer tested every motherboard on these IC so there is no way they had no chance to prepare BIOS right. Gigabyte simply didn't make it right while later they were fixing issues with multiple new BIOS releases. ( I'm not saying it's the case here but in general )

There is next thing. On cheaper motherboard series DDR4 is rated at 3200 max and nothing above is guaranteed. That's also because of cheaper design what can cause interference. It's not all as Windows may cause instability because of problems with addressing memory when timings are too tight. It's happening on OC series boards at CL12 or lower but it can happen at CL13/14 too.

Considering all factors, there is much higher chance on motherboard issue than RAM so if memory is passing popular stability tests then barely anyone will recommend to make RMA on memory.

 

[EarthDog]

Logic FTW!

 

[Mr.Scott]

Wow.
Never seen free advice hate mail before.

 

[ATMINSIDE]

Wow.
Never seen free advice hate mail before.

First time for everything, eh?

 

[Nebulous]

First time for everything, eh?

Nice sig material right there!

 

[SalemSaberhagen]

JEDEC = specs given by organization, every memory and motherboard has to be compatible with it but it's "auto" setting without anything above IC general specs
XMP = settings not standarized, every manufacturer can set it in a different way, it's usually working but not always, usually problems are with motherboards, not the memory, if it's not working then manual settings should work

There were issues with Gigabyte motherboards and threads about it were appearing quite often on the forums. I was never recommending Z170 Gigabyte motherboards also because Corsair RAM had constant problems to run on these boards.
I had no issues with G.Skill memory from any newer series. I had problems only with one Ripjaws 4 kit. However it's only electronics and there are sometimes issues with single memory sticks.

Personally I can't agree that motherboards are picky regarding RAM. Actually except single kits ( like new HyperX which I'm testing right now ) I had no issues with any RAM on ASUS, MSI and ASRock motherboards and I tested about 20 different motherboards.
Popular RAM is based on literally 3 IC in 2-3 versions which have similar timing scheme. Every motherboard manufacturer tested every motherboard on these IC so there is no way they had no chance to prepare BIOS right. Gigabyte simply didn't make it right while later they were fixing issues with multiple new BIOS releases. ( I'm not saying it's the case here but in general )

There is next thing. On cheaper motherboard series DDR4 is rated at 3200 max and nothing above is guaranteed. That's also because of cheaper design what can cause interference. It's not all as Windows may cause instability because of problems with addressing memory when timings are too tight. It's happening on OC series boards at CL12 or lower but it can happen at CL13/14 too.

Considering all factors, there is much higher chance on motherboard issue than RAM so if memory is passing popular stability tests then barely anyone will recommend to make RMA on memory.

That's surprising with the Gigabyte boards, they are usually a go-to with their "extra copper" and I thought more comparable to a "ROG tier" board?

Strange, I usually buy Gigabyte but for some reason I never even considered them this build, maybe I subconsciously noticed.

As for DDR4 not being guaranteed over 3200, I don't think any really currently guarantee over 2666, everything else is (* overclocked speed)

 

[EarthDog]

The only Giga that boards that are like the "ROG" boards, is the SOC and SOC Force. The extra copper really doesn't mean much to 99% of people. The ROG line has been 'watered' down over the past generation or two with the addition of 'gamer' boards. It used to be more focused on overclocking, but these days, they are focused on everything and have nearly 6 ROG models I believe.

There are boards that are over 2666 for OC speeds. Check newegg out.

 

[SalemSaberhagen]

The only Giga that boards that are like the "ROG" boards, is the SOC and SOC Force. The extra copper really doesn't mean much to 99% of people. The ROG line has been 'watered' down over the past generation or two with the addition of 'gamer' boards. It used to be more focused on overclocking, but these days, they are focused on everything and half nearly 6 ROG models I believe.

There are boards that are over 2666 for OC speeds. Check newegg out.

Yes, for (OC) speeds, but none of them flat out guarantee anything over 2667 as standard.

That 2667 is some crap Supermicro board with horrible reviews, everyone else is 2400 or less without parentheses or asterisk.

 

[EarthDog]

Of course not. The JEDEC standard is 2133 MHz. So technically, according to that, EVERYTHING is overclocked.

 

[Leegit]

What do you mean by this?

That's surprising with the Gigabyte boards, they are usually a go-to with their "extra copper"...

Do you mean thicker copper microstrip/stripline traces on the mobo? That would allow for higher current (i.e. voltage) leading to more OC potential but also higher conductor losses...

 

[wingman99]

JEDEC = specs given by organization, every memory and motherboard has to be compatible with it but it's "auto" setting without anything above IC general specs
XMP = settings not standarized, every manufacturer can set it in a different way, it's usually working but not always, usually problems are with motherboards, not the memory, if it's not working then manual settings should work

There were issues with Gigabyte motherboards and threads about it were appearing quite often on the forums. I was never recommending Z170 Gigabyte motherboards also because Corsair RAM had constant problems to run on these boards.
I had no issues with G.Skill memory from any newer series. I had problems only with one Ripjaws 4 kit. However it's only electronics and there are sometimes issues with single memory sticks.

Personally I can't agree that motherboards are picky regarding RAM. Actually except single kits ( like new HyperX which I'm testing right now ) I had no issues with any RAM on ASUS, MSI and ASRock motherboards and I tested about 20 different motherboards.
Popular RAM is based on literally 3 IC in 2-3 versions which have similar timing scheme. Every motherboard manufacturer tested every motherboard on these IC so there is no way they had no chance to prepare BIOS right. Gigabyte simply didn't make it right while later they were fixing issues with multiple new BIOS releases. ( I'm not saying it's the case here but in general )

There is next thing. On cheaper motherboard series DDR4 is rated at 3200 max and nothing above is guaranteed. That's also because of cheaper design what can cause interference. It's not all as Windows may cause instability because of problems with addressing memory when timings are too tight. It's happening on OC series boards at CL12 or lower but it can happen at CL13/14 too.

Considering all factors, there is much higher chance on motherboard issue than RAM so if memory is passing popular stability tests then barely anyone will recommend to make RMA on memory.

My Budget Gigabyte board Z170 HD3 has suport for overclocked memory to 3466 MHz OC.

Memory Support for DDR4 3466(O.C.) /3400(O.C.) /3333(O.C.) /3300(O.C.) /3200(O.C.) /3000(O.C.) /2800(O.C.) /2666(O.C.) /2400(O.C.) /2133 MHz memory modules http://www.gigabyte.us/products/product-page.aspx?pid=5485#sp

Well my point is if your hearing memory beeps sometimes when changing memory or CPU settings with posting and tweaking the motherboard does not work for the recommended speed and timings for memory regarding the board specifications, even if all the software memory tests pass, you have to trust your hardware Bios sensing fault diagnostic and RMA the memory.


I Contacted Kingston and they said everything from the XMP standard has to be submitted to JEDEC.

 

[Tír na nÓg]

Actually, memory is what gave me the most trouble.

Very sensitive, sticks have to be PERFECTLY fitted in the slot...

X99 platforms seem highly sensitive to that, and so are AM3+.

Yep, Mobo ain't always the culprit!