# Computer (Kinda) Fails To Boot After Installing New RAM



## Crazy Gaston (May 29, 2019)

Like the title suggests, my computer kinda fails to boot after installing new RAM sticks. First of all, my specs:

Mobo: ASUS PRIME H370M - PLUS/CSM

Chipset: Intel 300 Series Chipset

Processor: Intel Core i7-8700 (6 cores)

RAM:

   - *Original* RAM: Ballistix Sport LT White 4 GB (x2)
   - *NEW* RAM: Ballistix Sport LT White 16 GB (x4)

Now, here's the issue. When I shut down my computer, then try to turn it on, it fails to boot even after waiting an extended period of time. But here's the catch: when I hold down the power button to turn the computer off, then try to turn it on, my BIOS will detect that I've done that and POST in "safe mode". From the "safe mode POST" screen, it will force me to boot into the BIOS. If I click "Discard Changes and Exit", I'll be able to boot my computer as normal. And yes, I double checked to see if my RAM was seated properly (though I have this feeling my computer would not even allow me to boot to the BIOS if my RAM was not seated properly). Any help would be appreciated.


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## oxrufiioxo (May 29, 2019)

Have you tried booting with Just 2 sticks instead of 4.... That specific ram isn't on the qvl list and 16GB sticks can be finicky even on a high end boards. 
Adding 4 dims is asking a lot of a budget board. 

I'm sure you already have but definitely make sure you bios is the latest version to me it sounds like your motherboard is having issues with timings. 

Does it also do this without XMP enabled/disabled?


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## jaggerwild (May 29, 2019)

Make sure the Memory voltage is set correctly, all matching sticks? If they don't match you get what you get, theny er just wasting our time(buy matching if you want help). MAke sure the memory settings in the bios are OK?


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## Crazy Gaston (May 29, 2019)

jaggerwild said:


> Make sure the Memory voltage is set correctly, all matching sticks? If they don't match you get what you get, theny er just wasting our time(buy matching if you want help). MAke sure the memory settings in the bios are OK?



Well, yeah. As you can see in the links that I posted in my original post, I got a 4 stick kit. Obviously they're going to be matching sticks. Also, the sticks are from the same product family as the older sticks. The only difference is capacity. That means there should be no reason to change the voltage. They run at the exact same voltage.



oxrufiioxo said:


> Have you tried booting with Just 2 sticks instead of 4.... That specific ram isn't on the qvl list and 16GB sticks can be finicky even on a high end boards.
> Adding 4 dims is asking a lot of a budget board.
> 
> I'm sure you already have but definitely make sure you bios is the latest version to me it sounds like your motherboard is having issues with timings.
> ...



Well, I mean, Crucial did guarantee that the sticks were "100% compatible" with my motherboard. So even if they weren't on the QVL, they should still work (-ish?). As for the BIOS, I thought I had the latest version, but it turns out that ASUS just released a new version not 3 weeks ago. I'll flash that tomorrow and see if that fixes anything.


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## robot zombie (May 29, 2019)

I'm not sure what you know or what all you've tried so I'm gonna put whatever I have out there. Apologies if it's redundant or patronizing. I really hope you get your problems figured out. RAM can be the most frustrating component in a build sometimes. I know all too well.

IME guarantees mean nothing. Some things can never really be guaranteed. 99% of JEDEC-certified RAM will work with 99% of mobos, but when you populate 4 slots, that percentage dips a little. Even QVL listed sticks sometimes don't work - I have seen it! The mobo isn't the only factor, there... sometimes certain CPUs just hate certain sticks. It could even be that the whole mobo/RAM/CPU combo is just not meant to be, yanno?

That aside, certain modules will just never work in certain boards in a 4-DIMM configuration, even if you can take any two (or any of the sticks alone) and have it work fine. Budget boards don't really help matters... the PCB quality and design matters. The higher your capacity, the greater the number of modules, or the snappier the timings/speed. Any one of those presents greater liklihood of failure or instability. The last two, especially. Honestly, I might've gone with 2 8's instead of 4 4's for that very reason. Something you may still want to consider.

4 DIMMS ask more of everything in the chain, from the board, to the controllers on your DIMMs, to the CPU/chipset controller... it's all being asked to do a lot more juggling, and that's really RAM in a nutshell... juggling delicate power states and impedance to sort rows/columns of data. They're sensitive. Things that ought to work don't always work how you like. Could be a million reasons. And maybe you can find them, but RAM isn't without its mysteries. It gets to the best of us.

Also worth considering... there can be huge variances within product families of RAM. Just as with any other line, not all Ballistix are created equal. Even the exact same kit can undergo revisions or part-swaps as needed. That's why you could buy a single stick now, and then next year buy another of the EXACT same SKU and have them not work together, whereas a pair of that same SKU bought at the same time would. The actual modules included could be from a different outfit (and even among the 3 main manufacturers, they have several different grades...) or maybe the controller is different. The performance characteristics and compatibility are not interchangeable like that... even boasting similar or even the same timings. It could still be completely different ram with different requirements under the heatsinks. The only thing you can usually be sure of is that the PCB will be the same.

How much is your BIOS config worth to you? My very first thought with this being an upgrade is to update the BIOS and thus revert to factory settings. Something about the fact that it will POST in safe mode and then actually run fine has me thinking it's somewhere in the current BIOS configuration. There's something to that. The fact that it's able to train and ultimately boot after a failed start is indicative of an unstable, non-stock configuration. What's probably happening is that it is attempting timings or voltages that don't work... just trying and trying. And then when you get into safe mode it's dropping down to timings that are much more likely to work no matter what. It's not getting over that hump.

I don't have a ton of experience with that platform, so grain of salt to what I'm saying, but a few nonspecific things come to mind. I know it seems counter-intuitive, but this is often how it is with RAM. Going from 2 lower capacity DIMMs to 4 higher capacity ones can get dicey. Yes, they should run at rated speeds and voltages, but sometimes you have to tweak it a little. It's impossible to account for everything. Sometimes it's a BIOS problem, which may or may not persist across revisions (sometimes newest versions even break certain RAM configs, with one a few revisions back being the best bet!) Other times it's a physical limitation of the board or CPU and simply can't be overcome.

I would probably mess with voltage a little. Usually, you won't need to unless manually overclocking, but it can't hurt to up your core memory voltage. I might also recommend upping VCCIO/VCCSA, or whatever your main controller voltage is in your BIOS. Sometimes with 4 modules it needs that in order to POST. Again, it's simply being taxed harder. Try little incremental bumps... just the smallest you can do, one or two baby steps at a time. And only a handful of steps max. If you're continually upping voltage with no results, something else is wrong. Start with your memory core voltage and if that doesn't work try upping the main board-side voltage. Maybe it'll help, maybe it won't. But it's an easy first step that takes just a little time. Just don't overdo it. It isn't without it's risk and past the necessary point, more can hurt stability, sending you in circles.

It may also be that your board, for whatever reason, can't handle running those particular sticks at the same speeds/timings as it would two, no matter the voltage. Less of an issue with newer Intel (especially XMP,) but still possible, as with any platform. With stuff like this, a little voltage nudge can still help get it there, though it's less likely to work. You may need to experiment with higher primary timings. Not ideal, but you could raise the CAS by one... or lower the speed by a stop.

I might also ask if you have XMP enabled. Those generally work fine, but not always. Just because a mobo has XMP capabilities doesn't guarantee that every profile for every compatible stick will work. It is pretty common for the exact same sticks to not run quiite as high bandwidth and/or low latency when running 4 as it will 2... especially when the capacity of the individual modules is higher (though in your case the capacity is still on the low end, so that would surprise me if it were true.) Usually the XMP will be set according to these things, but there are more things to go wrong.

That said, stock, non-XMP should always work with no fuss, assuming everything is in proper order. If a voltage kick doesn't help and they won't even POST with bone-stock timings, I would probably return them ASAP and try a different kit. Maybe you can get it to work, but not without heartache and performance loss. It's often not worth troubleshooting brand new RAM that doesn't work like it should, even if it is technically possible to work with it. Not worth it, IME and IMO. To me, RAM either works or it doesn't. The only thing that shouldn't reasonably be expected to work under normal circumstances is a full manual OC, especially in conjunction with an unlocked CPU, which isn't the case for you.

If there are no obvious reasons why it shouldn't work, but still doesn't, I don't bother asking why anymore. So much easier and often quicker to move on to another kit. Honestly, I'm leaning more towards that ultimately being what comes of this. That's just my hunch, though I do still think you should try to eliminate other factors... and maybe somebody will have your answer.


...could even be luck of the draw with that batch. Maybe one of the sticks is causing problems. Tried running just one or two at a time and swapping them out to see if they all work the same? You may just find that one of them is bad.


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## Crazy Gaston (May 30, 2019)

All right. Here's what I tried:

Tried turning on XMP - no boot
Tried increasing the voltage from 1.2 to 1.25 - no boot
Tried lowering the clock from 2666 MHz to 2133 MHz - no boot
Tried flashing the latest BIOS - no boot

Tried taking out all of the RAM an installing only one RAM chip - boot on all four chips (in other words, all of the RAM is good)
Installed two RAM sticks- boot
Installed three RAM sticks (Slot 1) - No boot
Installed three RAM sticks (Slot2) - No boot

So it would appear that the motherboard doesn't like three or more RAM sticks. I contacted the manufacturer, and they said they'll replace the board under warranty. So for now, it would appear that it was a faulty motherboard all along! Hoping the new motherboard fixes everything.


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## EarthDog (May 30, 2019)

I bet it needed more SA voltage....that is a lot of stress on the IMC.

Could run 2 sticks in the 'wrong' slots to see if the slot was bad?

I hope you need all that memory you bought...

I'd also stick with the qvl list for this high capacity.


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## Crazy Gaston (May 30, 2019)

EarthDog said:


> I bet it needed more SA voltage....that is a lot of stress on the IMC.
> 
> Could run 2 sticks in the 'wrong' slots to see if the slot was bad?
> 
> ...



I tested each slot on an individual basis with a single stick of RAM, so I don't think that any of the slots were actually bad. But hey, the manufacturer is willing to give me a brand new board. Can't necessarily complain about that, eh?


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## dgianstefani (May 30, 2019)

Imagine buying 64GB of RAM, but it's 2666/16. Lol, buy at least 3200/16, preferably 3200/14.


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## Mr.Scott (May 30, 2019)

What are you gonna do when the new board does the same thing?


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## EarthDog (May 30, 2019)

Mr.Scott said:


> What are you gonna do when the new board does the same thing?


Hopefully...
1. Reassess the ram purchase and makes sure he NEEDS more than 32GB
2. If that assessment yields a need, return what he has and buy off the qvl.
3. Add SA and VccIO voltage.


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## Crazy Gaston (May 30, 2019)

Mr.Scott said:


> What are you gonna do when the new board does the same thing?



Don't you mean "if"? Let's try to have a little optimism.


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## Mr.Scott (May 30, 2019)

No expectations, no disappointments


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## 27MaD (May 30, 2019)

dgianstefani said:


> Imagine buying 64GB of RAM, but it's 2666/16. Lol, buy at least 3200/16, preferably 3200/14.


Not our topic.


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## jaggerwild (May 30, 2019)

You mentioned 2 sets of memory in the Original post, I'm not hear to read minds. Next time read the suggested memory list!


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## Crazy Gaston (Aug 16, 2019)

I'm sure absolutely nobody everybody was waiting on the conclusion to this forum. Turns out, it was the RAM all along. So long story short, I got replacement RAM from Crucial, still problems. Got more replacement RAM from Crucial, still problems. Asked for a refund, then put my refund money toward some high quality Corsair Vengeance RAM and now I run 64GBs on my computer with no issues whatsoever. So in conclusion, it seems like Crucial can no longer make high quality RAM components ever since they shut down their American manufacturing facilities, and outsourced the production of all of their products to other countries. Never Crucial, never again!

Anyways, if a moderator could mark this forum post as [SOLVED], I would be most appreciative and thankful.


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## robot zombie (Aug 17, 2019)

Crazy Gaston said:


> I'm sure absolutely nobody everybody was waiting on the conclusion to this forum. Turns out, it was the RAM all along. So long story short, I got replacement RAM from Crucial, still problems. Got more replacement RAM from Crucial, still problems. Asked for a refund, then put my refund money toward some high quality Corsair Vengeance RAM and now I run 64GBs on my computer with no issues whatsoever. So in conclusion, it seems like Crucial can no longer make high quality RAM components ever since they shut down their American manufacturing facilities, and outsourced the production of all of their products to other countries. Never Crucial, never again!
> 
> Anyways, if a moderator could mark this forum post as [SOLVED], I would be most appreciative and thankful.


Ha! Thought so! FWIW I was wondering what became of this. Though I was shocked the notification actually came through, it was so long ago now. 

Nah, but I'm glad you got it worked out. Go easy on em, though! Maybe their kits were junk, but they sent you two replacements and finally a refund. So at least the service seems decent  Sad times when basic courtesies are considered exceptional... but some companies really like to run you around. How hard was it to get them to work with you, if you don't mind me asking?

Honestly Crucial has never been on my list... I remember them being generally well-regarded back in the day, though. I was always partial to Kingston, myself. Lately I've been having great success with G.Skill kits. 

My brain is racking trying to remember... there is a particular line of RAM from a certain manufacturer that has a reputation here and elsewhere for being dogshit with Ryzen... multiple people here had major problems with a handful of kits from the same family. I know this is Intel, but for some reason I think it might've been Crucial. Hmm... anybody have any idea what I'm referring to? It was a while ago now.


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## eidairaman1 (Aug 17, 2019)

Corsair has problems with ram too.


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## robot zombie (Aug 17, 2019)

They all seem to have bad sticks at some point in time. Nature of the beast I guess.

Really wish I could remember which modules were completely non-viable with Ryzen for no apparent reason. It might actually have been Corsair.


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## Crazy Gaston (Aug 18, 2019)

robot zombie said:


> Nah, but I'm glad you got it worked out. Go easy on em, though! Maybe their kits were junk, but they sent you two replacements and finally a refund. So at least the service seems decent  Sad times when basic courtesies are considered exceptional... but some companies really like to run you around. How hard was it to get them to work with you, if you don't mind me asking?



Not hard at all. After the motherboard was ruled out as not causing the issues, I simply emailed Crucial and explained what had happened within the last few weeks. They apologized, and had the new shipment out the same day my package with the old RAM entered their warehouse. Same with the second set that didn't work.



robot zombie said:


> Honestly Crucial has never been on my list... I remember them being generally well-regarded back in the day, though. I was always partial to Kingston, myself. Lately I've been having great success with G.Skill kits.



They were in fact regarded as one of the best manufacturers of RAM out there by not only many people, but by me personally! I used to swear on a stack of Crucial RAM because I considered it to be more reliable than the Bible! But then they shut down their American factory. I mean seriously, I bet you didn't even know that 100% of all RAM sold by Crucial in the United States was in fact *made in the United States!* And they were the *ONLY* RAM manufacturer that still made their RAM here in the good ole' US of A! At least up until 2017 when they made the bone headed move to outsource everything! 3,000 hard working Americans lost their jobs.

But worse than that, it seems like they threw out quality control along with their customer's trust because I went through three sets and none of them worked. My first set from Corsair worked perfectly. Yeah, I know I'm ranting, but it boils my blood that they would do that.



robot zombie said:


> My brain is racking trying to remember... there is a particular line of RAM from a certain manufacturer that has a reputation here and elsewhere for being dogshit with Ryzen... multiple people here had major problems with a handful of kits from the same family. I know this is Intel, but for some reason I think it might've been Crucial. Hmm... anybody have any idea what I'm referring to? It was a while ago now.



If you hadn't of ended that paragraph with the words "It was a while ago now", I would have responded "Yep, that describes Crucial in it's current state perfectly". Otherwise, I'd guess Patriot Memory. They seem to have the reputation of being the Dollar Tree of RAM.


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## biffzinker (Aug 18, 2019)

How come no one talks about Mushkin? Haven't seen anything about them in awhile.


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## eidairaman1 (Aug 18, 2019)

biffzinker said:


> How come no one talks about Mushkin? Haven't seen anything about them in awhile.



I prefer their value ram for builds than Kingston or Corsair


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## newtekie1 (Aug 18, 2019)

The BIOS booting in safe mode means that something you've changed is causing the computer to not boot.

First thing I'd do is reset the BIOS to defaults and see if it boots.  I doubt the system will run 64GB at full speed.  You'll probably be stuck at 2133 and loose timings without some good tweaking.


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## Crazy Gaston (Aug 19, 2019)

newtekie1 said:


> The BIOS booting in safe mode means that something you've changed is causing the computer to not boot.
> 
> First thing I'd do is reset the BIOS to defaults and see if it boots.  I doubt the system will run 64GB at full speed.  You'll probably be stuck at 2133 and loose timings without some good tweaking.



I already solved the issue. I currently got the system running all 64 GBs not only at full speed, but at optimal timing. That's the power of Corsair RAM.


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## antmaper (Jun 23, 2020)

Crazy Gaston said:


> I already solved the issue. I currently got the system running all 64 GBs not only at full speed, but at optimal timing. That's the power of Corsair RAM.


Im with exactly same problem with 4x8 crucual ballistix lt and z390 aorus ultra.  I will try to return all.


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