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ASUS Prime Z490-A, Intel Core i9-10850K, 64GB RAM, RX 5700 XT GPU

Hey.
I had my system working fine and upgraded the CPU fan, and now I can’t enable XMP. I don’t mind as much as I found that not running XMP mode in my system is much more stable. I was able to set my RAM to 3200 although 3600 is what it’s rated as via XMP.
I don’t mind, everything is working flawless.
I spent approx $365 for this RAM. I would like to get XMP working since I work with Pro Tools. Something just came to mind sitting here reading through articles on the Internet. I think I know what is going on. Whenever I place the RAM in slots A2 & B2, the machine appears it will not post. Then, whenever I place them in slots A1 & B1, it POST and boots fine. But, whenever I enable XMP again, it will not post nor boot using XMP.

So I have a hunch, I am going to try to enable XMP, then save setting and reboot. Then, as it begins to reboot, I will shut down, and switch the RAM stick to A2 & B2. I believe XMP only works on A2 and B2 slots for two sticks in this board.

My memory is rated for 3200MHz but it just defaults to 2133MHz, a huge 1167MHz difference. That is way too low. I get much faster speeds from my DDR3 system, 2400MHz kit.
 
Yes. I hear you. Interesting. Do let me know if you can get this to work. Would be a real help as it’s the only thing left that I could not get working on my build.
 
The issue I am having is I purchased the exact RAM modules Shiloh posted in post #1, 2x32 sticks for a total of 64GB. I upgrade my BIOS to 1003. I've tried everything, setting my system to XMP I and XMP II. (Which BTW these memories modules support XMP II per Corsair's website. So that means they should support either XMP I OR II.) But no matter what, the LED on the motherboard turns red then yellow for about 30 seconds. Then it will eventually post in safe mode with RAM at 2133MHz. I looked at Intel's sheet for this CPU memory specs, and it's DDR4-2933 spit makes zero sense that it's defaulting back to 2133MHz.
So, something is not set correctly by default in the BIOS, or there is a bug in the BIOS. I am going to try to reset the BIOS by taking out the battery for 10+ minutes, and then I am going to try using the "beta BIOS" they now have on their website. That BIOS upgrades to allow 11th generation processors.

What would cause XMP not to work like this? I booted into the bios, did what I always did on every fresh OSX install, and that is first load defaults and then proceeded to follow Shiloh's guide. I'm beginning to think 2 x32gb sticks will not work with XMP, and we should have bought 4 x16gb sticks.
Having issues with XMP on my side too, with the same RAM, on BIOS 1003. System won't post with XMP settings, but works fine when you leave it on auto, which causes it to default to 2133. So far my attempts at overclocking haven't been successful.

Edit: Just noticed that my RAM was in A1 and B1, switched it to A2 and B2 (as recommended in the MB guide...) and now XMP works! RAM is recognised as 3200 instead of 2133. On to overclocking now...

Thanks for the tip roboman01!
 
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I have AI OC up to 44% and XMP I for my RAM ( 4 modules of 16 ) ( 3200 ), and it´s OK.
 
Having issues with XMP on my side too, with the same RAM, on BIOS 1003. System won't post with XMP settings, but works fine when you leave it on auto, which causes it to default to 2133. So far my attempts at overclocking haven't been successful.

Edit: Just noticed that my RAM was in A1 and B1, switched it to A2 and B2 (as recommended in the MB guide...) and now XMP works! RAM is recognised as 3200 instead of 2133. On to overclocking now...

Thanks for the tip roboman01!
I haven't messed with it yet but I couldn't even get my build to boot with the sticks in A2 & B2 slots thats why I placed them in A1 and B1. But I am going to put one stick only in A2 and see what happens from there. Asus makes some screwy boards!!! With Gigabyte its was simple even their BJKS was simple. Asus on the other hand it takes an act of Congress just to find something in their BIOS I use to use Asus, and I switched to Gigabyte back in 2013. I wish I never bought this Asus motherboard and just wish I bought the Gigabyte version of it. Oh, well, it keeps me busy, I need to stay somewhat busy.
 
Nothing I do works. I don't know if its the RAM or Motherboard. I am going to go with what I have and in a couple of months I will buy 2 more exact sticks of RAM. If it doesn't allow me to boot with the new sticks in A2 & B2 then I will know its the motherboard and I will request and RMA from Asus.

BTW Asus and most other manufactures disables SATA ports 5&6 whenever using the M2.2 @ x4. But I found a work around. I knew this PCIe card would work because of the Chipset as the Highpoint cards uses the exact chipset. Basically its a expansion card that has two ports but comes with TWO BREAK OUT Cables that gives you 8 extra SATA Ports. I installed it earlier and its works fine. It uses a ASM1806 PCIe bridge and Dual Marvell 9215 Chipset and Marvell 9215 is supported by OSX OOB. So far it works fine. I did mess with some thing in the bios and whatever I did ended up disabling that card so be careful tinkering with anything with the PCI stuff in the bios if you get this card. If you do and it ends up disabling this card just default the bios and then go back through and set everything that needs to be set by Shiloh's guide OR just setup a profile then load it. Just a warning if you decide to get this card. I got it because the breakout cables are long and they are already setup perfectly for storage drives. I already am using both M.2 slots so now I have to move my HDDs from my old build over one drive at a time.

I have yet to create a SSDT specific for the motherboard and the devices I have in the PCIe slots. I wanted to add what I needed to add before I do this. I will do this next as Open Core has a simple guide to do with using Linux Live.

Here is the card I bought:

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07NFRXQHC/?tag=tonymacx86com-20
 
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I hear ya, Roboman! Complicated BIOS, lots of stuff in there the more confusing than helpful. Found the ASUS BIOS constitution online, good bathroom reading material. Here it is if you're interested!
 

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The issue I am having is I purchased the exact RAM modules Shiloh posted in post #1, 2x32 sticks for a total of 64GB. I upgrade my BIOS to 1003. I've tried everything, setting my system to XMP I and XMP II. (Which BTW these memories modules support XMP II per Corsair's website. So that means they should support either XMP I OR II.) But no matter what, the LED on the motherboard turns red then yellow for about 30 seconds. Then it will eventually post in safe mode with RAM at 2133MHz. I looked at Intel's sheet for this CPU memory specs, and it's DDR4-2933 spit makes zero sense that it's defaulting back to 2133MHz.
So, something is not set correctly by default in the BIOS, or there is a bug in the BIOS. I am going to try to reset the BIOS by taking out the battery for 10+ minutes, and then I am going to try using the "beta BIOS" they now have on their website. That BIOS upgrades to allow 11th generation processors.

What would cause XMP not to work like this? I booted into the bios, did what I always did on every fresh OSX install, and that is first load defaults and then proceeded to follow Shiloh's guide. I'm beginning to think 2 x32gb sticks will not work with XMP, and we should have bought 4 x16gb sticks.
No it's not. The reason it failed is because you failed to check that the specs of your i9-10850K is limited to 2933Mhz by design. That's the reason why its not going past this setting via XMP. It happens the same on the i9-11900K that I have on my Z490 Aorus Xtreme. I cannot go beyond 3200Mhz on the XMP despite having 3600Mhz rated DDR4.

If your system cannot boot up properly without safe mode, there's a chance you may have faulty RAM fitted. Best way to do this is run Memtest on a USB stick and run some burn-in or error check benchmark tests.
 
No it's not. The reason it failed is because you failed to check that the specs of your i9-10850K is limited to 2933Mhz by design. That's the reason why its not going past this setting via XMP. It happens the same on the i9-11900K that I have on my Z490 Aorus Xtreme. I cannot go beyond 3200Mhz on the XMP despite having 3600Mhz rated DDR4.

If your system cannot boot up properly without safe mode, there's a chance you may have faulty RAM fitted. Best way to do this is run Memtest on a USB stick and run some burn-in or error check benchmark tests.
I can't even get ENABLE XMP I nor II and this RAM is XMP II qualified so it should work in either one. Like I said in other posts if I place both sticks in A2 and B2 which is the recommended slots for two sticks for this board it will not even boot, it just sits there at black screen and the mobo LED stays on yellow and will not switch to green. Same goes by placing 1 stock only in A2. This RAM is QVL to this mobo and even though they are 3200mhz and the CPU is 2933MHz it should still run at 3200mhz. My i7-4770k runs perfectly fine at 2400mhz and that has 1333/1666mhz. Those RAM sticks are 2400mhz btw.

You could be right I should do a memtest one or both may just be faulty and will not run over 2133mhz. I tried manually and they will not run higher than 2133mhz. I read others had the same issue with this motherboard or similar board ALL ASUS BOARDS btw so I am going to try their solutions.

I'm think of pulling the CPU off to have a look at everything again once I try everything else. I never had issues like this with memory in 25 years of building computers. Usually if you don't get video that normally means bad memory, or dust go in the slots...I will blow out the slots also I could have gotten something in one of them.
 
Well I do not know how this is working but it is, I think there may be an engineering glitch or something with this motherboard. I decided to put the RAM Sticks in B1 & B2 slots and guess what, XMP works great!!! Explain that!!!

Let me ask you folks who has this motherboard with the same exact RAM, which slots do you have your RAM in, the 2nd and 4th one, 1st & 3rd or the 3rd and 4th one? 1st slot = A1, 2nd slot = A2, 3rd slot = B1, & 4th slot = B2 this is per the manual. Makes me wonder if this accurate?
 
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