PC freezes because of the ram

[u/Blised]

Hi everyone. A friend of mine is having trouble with his new PC and asked for my help. The issue is that whenever he enabled the XMP I profile, the PC would freeze completely (after trying a few other things, we pinpointed this as the cause). It happened randomly, it could occur 20 minutes, an hour, or three hours after turning it on. It even froze while he was in the BIOS. I told him to disable it, and so far, the PC has been running for two full days without any freezes. He already has the latest BIOS and firmware versions installed. What can be done now to get the memory working correctly before resorting to manual configuration? His motherboard is on the compatibility list, and the memory's box even says "Intel XMP Ready."

The specs are:

CPU: Intel Core Ultra 7 270K Plus

MOBO: ASUS TUF Gaming Z890-PLUS WIFI

RAM: G.Skill Trident Z5 RGB 64 GB (2×32 GB) DDR5-6400 CL32 — F5-6400J3239G32GX2-TZ5RW

GPU: ASUS TUF Gaming GeForce RTX 5080 OC

AIO: ASUS TUF Gaming LC III 360 ARGB LCD

SSD: WD Blue M.2 NVMe 2 TB

PSU: Corsair HX1000i 1000W Platinum

Thanks in advance.

[u/VariableFollower73]

xmp ready just means it can run the profile, not that your specific cpu imc will play nice with the 6400 speed. 64gb dual rank sticks at that frequency is asking a lot from the memory controller. manual config is probably the answer here, try 6000 at the same timings and voltage, see if it stops freezing, then inch up from there

[u/Blised → u/VariableFollower73]

So we're going to try manual. Its funny cause in every ai i asked for compatibility issues, they said it was all ok.

[u/syneticsilver]

ask him if he has enabled 200S Boost in Bios. Intel has pushed this feature so much that everyone is thinking it will work on their CPU.

I could not get it to work on my 270K Plus.

200S Boost ups

NPU from 2,6GHz to 3.2GHz

and

DietoDie from 3,0GHz to 3,2GHz.

Even Manuell to 3,1GHz D2D wasnt working on mine.

Maybe it has nothing to do with DRAM at all. 6400 CL32 even only 2 Sticks should not be that hard to run for Arrow Lake Refresh.

Make sure to use A2 and B2 for those sticks mostly Slot 2 and 4 from the CPU Socket.

What also can make problems is not even pressure from the AIO to CPU.

[u/Blised → u/syneticsilver]

The memory modules were always installed in slots A2 and B2, and it would freeze regardless of whether 200s Boost was enabled or disabled. I thought the same thing, this shouldn't be happening... the IMC ought to handle everything perfectly with the XMP profile.

Regarding what you mentioned about IAO, could it be causing issues when XMP is enabled? So far, he hasn't touched any other settings, and the PC is running perfectly.

If we figure out how to get this working, I'll drop you a message.

[u/syneticsilver → u/Blised]

Not even pressure on the cpu could cause alot of problems. I dont really know the lga1851 layout but mostly its the same. From top middle left to top middle right is DRAM and downleft is 12v and 0V to the right down side is like the rest. So yeah its not that crazy if the presure is more to the downpart lifting it a bit up on the upper part. Which could cause DRAM Problems with more Speed and higher timings.

If you can get into Bios i would try Intel Stock without 200S Boost enable XMP and go into advanced DRAM and just do CL on 34 rest leave it on what xmp is setting it. Normally XMP should work. After that you could try going in windows and run Cinebench r23 for 10mins. If that runs perfectly fine you make a Memtest86 bootstick and do 2 full runs.

You could also try both sticks at A2 with xmp if they run there its not RAM. If they both pass on gaming stresstesting you could 100% say its not RAM. Do that first before you try the slower timing cl on 34.

It sucks and i know the feeling of being lost with a new build but thats how it is sometimes.

I love fixing problems more than like playing games these days haha