ROG ASUS Z490-I Strix has issues!

[corneliusV1999]

System only stable with one DIMM installed, doesn't matter which RAM stick I use and doesn't matter which slot I use.
System unstable at XMP speeds, no matter how much I try to play with the BIOS settings. Have tried replacing RAM and PSU.

10700k, win10 64 bit, corsair RM 850x

A bunch of other people have experienced the same issue, and the only fix is to buy a different brand motherboard:

https://www.reddit.com/r/intel/comments/gvomjz/anyone_using_32gb_2ea_drams_on_z490_board_lga/
https://rog.asus.com/forum/showthread.php?118622-ROG-STRIX-Z490-I-GAMING-cannot-boot-with-32GB-x-2-R...
https://linustechtips.com/main/topic/1202569-10900k-asus-z490-itx-32gb-2-lots-of-trouble/?tab=commen...
https://www.reddit.com/r/intel/comments/grqh8q/im_getting_occasional_bsods_and_failed_xtu_cpu/
https://www.reddit.com/r/intel/comments/gvomjz/anyone_using_32gb_2ea_drams_on_z490_board_lga/ftnlq8a...

Hoping I can get attention from someone from ASUS here! Asus support has been very unhelpful!
Help please!

[Sarum]

EXILE157 wrote:
Thank you for responding. Now my question is - I downloaded the v0704 Bios file, but I see no "BIOSRenamer" ? I thought you supposed to run that BIOSRenamer before copying the file to a USB? or we don't need to do that??

its pretty idiot proof.. i put the wrong beta file on mine at first and it tells you wrong file when you go to write it..
just put on usb stick and reboot to cmos, then go to bios update..

dont expect afix... some people have claimed this beta 704 bios file fixed most of their problems.. but it has done nothing for me at all..
still running 1 16gb in dimm 1 only... goes into boot loop if i put the pair in... and it happens to all three ram sets i have for it (all on QVL list)

im at my witts end... i love ASUS but need to fix this so going with another brand reluctantly

[morello1n]

ya if you're worried just rename the file to a string with no spaces like asusbios0704.CAP, I think all the renamer does is remove funny characters and spaces. Or you can just load the bios using the ai suite tools if you have them installed while inside windows...

[MecherKane]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TS-gxtgZ7DU&t=1800s

Hope this help, the suggestion in the video make minor improvement of stability, mine enable XMP 3600 don't freeze after loaded into window, but still cannot run any stress test. And my 10700 also have the same high voltage after enable XMP.

I hope anyone from ASUS can let us know what happened.

[chew__]

There's 2 ways to quickly identify if you have the problem one much quicker than the other. Run blender benchmark with scene victor. It will crash in warmup/loading scene.

The even quicker way is to install XTU run avx 512 for most of the time 5 mins is enough and more often than not it will hardlock in less than 20 seconds.

2x16bg will aggravate this problem more. 2x8gb will alleviate the problem to an extent as ii could prime stable i could aida i could hci memtest I could game but i couldn't XTU avx 512 for 5 minutes or blender victor scene and pass ever. I've held out hopes that it was all bios but as the reports trickled in that people rma'd board or bought multiples then finally 3 boards later there problems magically disappeared and or used another brand and no more problems and since i've verified it was not my memory or just a bad cpu or bad imc in my cpu i'm really just leaning towards there are some faulty boards causing everyone these problems.

Vccio/vccsa alleviated but did not make the problem go away it just bought me maybe 5-10 minutes runtime in XTU sometimes. Setting tfaw to 16 in my testing seems to really magnify the problem and any decent set of samsung Bdie memory can do 16 TFAW just fine so it's not the memory causing this issue.

Higher speed memory also makes the problem worse. I tested 3600 3400 3200 2933 and lower. The only time I ever could pass was defaults loaded.

The same 2x16gb memory/cpu can do 4000 16-16-16 in another brand ITX board HCI stable, Prime stable, aida64 stable, tm5 anta777@extreme stable and XTU stable so that rules out the bad memory or weak IMC possibility.

The vccio/vccsa in all vendors boards is overkill. For like 2x16gb 3600 memory you should really only need 1.15 SA 1.10 IO and then it scales up from there so like 3800 memory 1.20 SA 1.15 IO and 4000 1.25 SA and 1.20 IO you can probably start with similar scaling with 2x8gb but i would try 1.10 SA 1.05 IO for 3600 and scale up from there as 2x8gb should require less.

[umdogan]

chew** wrote:
There's 2 ways to quickly identify if you have the problem one much quicker than the other. Run blender benchmark with scene victor. It will crash in warmup/loading scene.

The even quicker way is to install XTU run avx 512 for most of the time 5 mins is enough and more often than not it will hardlock in less than 20 seconds.

2x16bg will aggravate this problem more. 2x8gb will alleviate the problem to an extent as ii could prime stable i could aida i could hci memtest I could game but i couldn't XTU avx 512 for 5 minutes or blender victor scene and pass ever. I've held out hopes that it was all bios but as the reports trickled in that people rma'd board or bought multiples then finally 3 boards later there problems magically disappeared and or used another brand and no more problems and since i've verified it was not my memory or just a bad cpu or bad imc in my cpu i'm really just leaning towards there are some faulty boards causing everyone these problems.

Vccio/vccsa alleviated but did not make the problem go away it just bought me maybe 5-10 minutes runtime in XTU sometimes. Setting tfaw to 16 in my testing seems to really magnify the problem and any decent set of samsung Bdie memory can do 16 TFAW just fine so it's not the memory causing this issue.

Higher speed memory also makes the problem worse. I tested 3600 3400 3200 2933 and lower. The only time I ever could pass was defaults loaded.

The same 2x16gb memory/cpu can do 4000 16-16-16 in another brand ITX board HCI stable, Prime stable, aida64 stable, tm5 anta777@extreme stable and XTU stable so that rules out the bad memory or weak IMC possibility.

The vccio/vccsa in all vendors boards is overkill. For like 2x16gb 3600 memory you should really only need 1.15 SA 1.10 IO and then it scales up from there so like 3800 memory 1.20 SA 1.15 IO and 4000 1.25 SA and 1.20 IO you can probably start with similar scaling with 2x8gb but i would try 1.10 SA 1.05 IO for 3600 and scale up from there as 2x8gb should require less.

Yesterday, I left my PC open for 6-7 hours. I used it for couple of things for an hour in total. It was mostly idle. Eventually, I didn't get any hard freeze with VCCIO and SA voltages set to 1.1V using bios 0707.

Today, I ran victor benchmark in Blender using CPU and GPU like you said and it completed it in 14m50s and 44m46s respectively. I also ran AVX2 CPU stress test (couldnt see 512) for a 15 min and didn't get any hard freeze either.

I could run any other tests if you like but I think it would hard freeze several times already if these voltage settings didn't work. Can anyone test and confirm?

I also would like to hear what ASUS respresentatives think about this if they're checking this thread at all...

Edit: I might have spoke too early...

[morello1n]

That's the performance I get now with XMP after the 0704 and 0707 bios. Something like once a week now my PC will have a restart overnight, but no hard freeze during a stress test like I used to get within 5-10s. I've also been playing games and using memory intensive apps (CAD tools, Chrome lol) without any regular crashes.

I haven't seen any of the ASUS staff post here since Shamino was posting beta builds a month ago.

[chew__]

It's possible those random crashes after having system open for hours etc might be related to sleep/wake from sleep and or leaving cpu to do its thing and power saving features on. You can try shutting all that stuff off and if it no longer crashes it could be related to that.

Also make sure you have the latest update for all the ethernet drivers. Those were causing random hardware errors for some users.

The hardlock in avx xtu and blender victor scene prevented me from even bothering or even worrying about any other potential issues.

Maybe I should try my board again. I did send asus a video of the hardlock so maybe they finally fixxed it. video showed defaults loaded then load xmp boot run xtu crash in 5 secs.

None of the betas or 0607 solved my problem however. I'm fairly certain 0704 I was experiencing the same issue i just have not tested 0707 public.

Here's a video of what I was experiencing and what I sent to ASUS. https://streamable.com/cn51cj

[MecherKane]

chew** wrote:
It's possible those random crashes after having system open for hours etc might be related to sleep/wake from sleep and or leaving cpu to do its thing and power saving features on. You can try shutting all that stuff off and if it no longer crashes it could be related to that.

Also make sure you have the latest update for all the ethernet drivers. Those were causing random hardware errors for some users.

The hardlock in avx xtu and blender victor scene prevented me from even bothering or even worrying about any other potential issues.

Maybe I should try my board again. I did send asus a video of the hardlock so maybe they finally fixxed it. video showed defaults loaded then load xmp boot run xtu crash in 5 secs.

None of the betas or 0607 solved my problem however. I'm fairly certain 0704 I was experiencing the same issue i just have not tested 0707 public.

Here's a video of what I was experiencing and what I sent to ASUS. https://streamable.com/cn51cj

I have the same situation as you, thanks for all the testing to clarify the situation. I tested 0707, it can run xtu 10 secs ........

I also waiting ASUS reply to this, then I RMA it again.

[chew__]

I doubt the people that matter even read these forums. I used to be a MOD here but I was just an extreme over clocker on team rog. I helped people tune there rigs but just referred them to support if they had a problem like we are having that and i could confirm it was just not "bad settings"

Only person that might be able to guide someone to get more out of there system here is shamino if he has the time which is doubtful.

I forgot my password so I just added another * to my name and made a new account but I'm no longer team rog and really no longer an extreme ocer. More like semi retired ocer 🙂

A working properly board you should not have to change anything in bios. Load defaults Run XMP turn MCE off and it should pass what i did in video. You shouldn't have to do anything else or tune SA/IO. but If it passes then i'd turn them down 😉

If it doesn't run a quick memtest. If that passes its more than likely the board. I suspect that there Sa/Io phase got a batch of faulty something in that circuit.

[MecherKane]

My SN also XXXXXX-XXXXX-MB13A0-A13 0403, same issue same revision, thanks for sharing:cool:. And congratulations on getting rid of this problem.
Finally, I can go to RMA, can't believe people form ASUS keep silent to this.....