Thursday, September 1st 2022
ASRock X670E Steel Legend Motherboard Needs Hundreds of Seconds at First Boot or Clear CMOS to Train Memory
At this point, we don't know if this is a limitation at AMD's level or ASRock's, but someone with access to a retail ASRock X670E Steel Legend motherboard, with all its packaged paraphernalia in place, spotted an interesting sticker covering the board's four DDR5 DIMM slots. The sticker has some info on the ideal DIMM slot selection for dual-channel memory (4x sub-channels); but what catches our eye is a table which states just how long the motherboard will take to train the memory the first time it's booted up, or after a clear-CMOS operation (where your BIOS settings are erased).
The table says that a typical setup with two 16 GB modules (read: two single-rank modules in a 1 DIMM per channel/1DPC configuration), takes 100 seconds to train (or until first boot). Two 32 GB modules (typically a pair of dual-rank modules in 1DPC configuration) take 200 seconds, as do four 16 GB modules (four single-rank modules in a 2DPC configuration). The least optimal config, four dual-rank modules in a 2DPC configuration, takes a whopping 400 seconds (almost 7 minutes) to train. That's 100 to 400 seconds of a black screen, or no display signal, enough to unnerve anyone and assume something is DOA.
Update Sep 2nd: The source behind this story confirmed that this is an ASRock-level issue, and that it's been "fixed" with the latest BIOS.
Update Sep 8th: This has been fixed according to ASRock.
Here's the kicker—since UEFI BIOS updates typically clear CMOS, you'll have yourselves some nerve-racking hundred(s) of seconds until the display lights up, letting you know that the BIOS update went through. Interestingly, we haven't yet seen anything to suggest that memory overclock (which involves dozens of reboots and re-training of memory), takes hundreds of seconds—not unless you clear CMOS for some reason.
Source:
HXL (Twitter)
The table says that a typical setup with two 16 GB modules (read: two single-rank modules in a 1 DIMM per channel/1DPC configuration), takes 100 seconds to train (or until first boot). Two 32 GB modules (typically a pair of dual-rank modules in 1DPC configuration) take 200 seconds, as do four 16 GB modules (four single-rank modules in a 2DPC configuration). The least optimal config, four dual-rank modules in a 2DPC configuration, takes a whopping 400 seconds (almost 7 minutes) to train. That's 100 to 400 seconds of a black screen, or no display signal, enough to unnerve anyone and assume something is DOA.
Update Sep 8th: This has been fixed according to ASRock.
Here's the kicker—since UEFI BIOS updates typically clear CMOS, you'll have yourselves some nerve-racking hundred(s) of seconds until the display lights up, letting you know that the BIOS update went through. Interestingly, we haven't yet seen anything to suggest that memory overclock (which involves dozens of reboots and re-training of memory), takes hundreds of seconds—not unless you clear CMOS for some reason.
89 Comments on ASRock X670E Steel Legend Motherboard Needs Hundreds of Seconds at First Boot or Clear CMOS to Train Memory
Nothing overclocks like old hardware did. AMD FX did 8.8GHz, pentium 4 did 7.1GHz
And... it means nothing. The more complex hardware gets, the less freedom there is to play around with it
May i draw your attention to #25 at the bottom near the USB headers?