UEFI/BIOS Settings Causing Code 55?

[theriffsthatkil]

Hello,

I've done a lot of searching and research on this, because my situation doesn't fit the typical causes of this code 55 (No memory installed).  Here's my specs, first of all:

ASUS Apex XIII Z590 / 10900k / GSkill 4000mhz TridentZ (b-die) / RTX 3060 Ti / Crucial SSD (in Dimm.2 slot) / Thermaltake Phantom Spirit 120 dual tower air cooler

I recently handed these components down to my teenage son because I upgraded from the above to an X670E-E Gaming, 9800X3D setup.  The above Intel 10900k with the Apex board were my main rig for a couple of years and worked fantastically. I had all of this water-cooled, but my son is on air cooling. Everything moved over fine to his PC case, everything was set up at default settings working great for a couple of days.  He spends 1/2 time with his mom at her place, so I was setting his PC up so he could have it at his mother's place.  The CPU hasn't left the socket since I used the rig, all I did was change the cooler and repaste, of course.

Before he took it to her place, I did several things: a) turned on the XMPII settings for the ram b) turned on known stable overclocking config (which I ran very tamely compared to how I did it on my water cooled version of the rig, at 5.0 all-core instead of 5.2 all core). Ran stress testing with RealBench, OCCT, Prime95, Cinebench and confirm it was stable as much as possible.  Everything checked out, no issues with booting at all after multiple shut downs, restarts, stress tests, etc.

Once he got it to his mother's place, and we set it up, I noticed my BIOS settings didn't load and it gave me the "Press F1" message like it does when you first install it brand new.  I didn't know why the profile settings didn't hold during the transit between my place and hers, but I just loaded the saved Asus User Profile I created and it worked fine. He played for a bit and then shut it down until the next day.  Next day, we get the 55 Q-code and it won't boot.  I looked it up, said it was no memory installed which I know isn't the case, and then I researched the issue and potential causes (like cooler too tight, memory re-seating, etc). None of that seemed to be the issue.

Initially I just reset the CMOS to see if that would help (to also rule out a hardware issue), and it booted fine and led me to the BIOS/UEFI which I couldnt get to before.  Was able to get into Windows and ran fine.  But, I obviously wanted him to have the XMP and OC benefits (even if the OC is mild/weak) so I enabled the saved profile.  The issue came back the next day after a cold boot from a fully shut-down system (its not literally cold, I am in SoCal). 

So I went back over there today and did the same thing, also some more research and saw that sometimes this Code 55 can be caused by BIOS settings? The only thing I modified from the XMPII profile that is pre-programmed is lowering the VCCIO and VCCSA voltage down to 1.33 (SA) and 1.3 (IO) -- due to voltage drop on SA it actually reads as 1.296v for both of those voltages in HWinfo64.  This is what I normally did to this rig, when it worked beautifully for years, because the XMP profile voltage is very high by default at around 1.4v for both,

The only other thing I changed in the BIOS settings for my son's usage versus my own when using this rig: A) the C-states.  Set them to enabled (from auto).  B) Changed a setting for the PCI-E speed to be x4 instead of x2 (x4 means SATA ports 5 and 6 are disabled, which I don't use anyway). Other than that, just fan speed and PWM settings in that menu were all that were changed.

Has anyone run into issues with BIOS settings triggering a Code 55? I'm wondering what could possibly be the cause given that pressing my Clear CMOS button on the back allows me to boot.

[Silent_Scone]

Hi @theriffsthatkil 

A couple of things of note: all the tests you mentioned aren't memory-centric. 

For testing memory overclocking stability, I'd recommend one of the tests outlined here.

Q-CODE 55 is Memory Not Installed. This can indicate a few issues. Most commonly (outside of DIMMs being incorrectly installed or not at all), it will be caused by overclocking instability, CPU pin-pad contact, or both

If the cooler or CPU have since been removed, check the mounting pressure and CPU pin-pad / socket for any debris or damage. 

If using a contact frame, either ensure it is torqued correctly or remove and reinstall the stock CPU retention mechanism.

As the system has been physically moved from one place to another, pin-pad contact could be one likely cause for the change.

[theriffsthatkil]

Thanks. I know those tests aren't really memory centric -- Ive definitely tested the XMPII profile settings with my CPU overclock also set in the same configuration using the Kahru program mentioned in your link before for about 12 hours and it passed before.  I didn't run that again after moving the components to a different PC case.

The CPU itself hasn't been removed from the socket at all during any of this changing/moving -- the only thing that has been changed is the CPU cooler.  Initially put a ID Cooling 224 on it and never encountered the issue.  It was not a strong cooler, so I upgraded to the dual tower Phantom Spirit 120 and that seemed fine until after I moved the PC (short car ride less than 2 miles, PC case in the back seat for better shock absorption than in a trunk or on the floor of the car).

The Phantom Spirit cooler is a spring-pressured screw mounted cooler that you can screw all the way down until the thread stops it completely. It does come with a plastic backplate (no contact frame), which is different from the metal one used with the ID Cooling 224 of course.  If the issue comes back (as of now after resetting CMOS and re-doing the settings in BIOS without the additional changes I made when the issue started), I will try loosening the cooler a bit by backing off on the mounting nuts.

[Silent_Scone]

Then the most probable cause IMO is mounting pressure. Remove any CPU OC for the time being, test at both stock and XMP.