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!

[adrteo]

umdogan wrote:
I've been mailing Asus back and forth and after a lot of explaining to them, finnally two weeks ago they said they're investigating the issue. Now after all those "investigations" they're saying HQ R&D team can not duplicate the problem we have.

So, I don't know what to make of it. Does that mean people here are lying? It's been said multiple times that it's a "random" hard freeze. So it means you can get a hard freeze in 10 minutes or 20 hours but eventually you will get one. Saying that we couldn't replicate your problem and proposing nothing is the opposite meaning of job description of a Customer Service. What to do now...

I wish I had seen this thread before purchasing this board last week. I'm experiencing random reboots and crashes as well when I enable XMP. They go away when I disable XMP and run my XPG (16GB x 2) DDR4-3600 at stock speeds, i.e. 2666MHz.

The fact that they are not able to duplicate the problem is just incredulous. I expected better from ASUS.

[Frost7]

Just wanted to say thank you to the folks who suggested 1.1v VCCIO and SA voltages. I am actually able to run my computer more or less stably now after fighting with this thing for over two months, RMAing two sets of RAM with G.Skill, RMAing a CPU with Intel, and buying a second motherboard.

Quality control on this board is an absolute cluster. I can't believe they shipped something with DRAM listed in the QVL that, if used, can't make it 10 seconds into an AVX2 stress test before exploding and having random hard lockups under even regular desktop use. I feel bad for wasting Intel's and G.Skill's time and costing them money returning perfectly good hardware.

ASUS needs to get on this issue and right now.

[adrteo]

So is ASUS going to fix this or continue to pretend that it doesn't exist?

[Tommas]

Just posting to say that i have the same exact problem. I would like to rma the board has anyone done that ? is asus gonna replace the board ?

[umdogan]

Correct me if I`m wrong but looks like there is a new option for setting voltage cap for VCCIO and SA voltages in BIOS 0901. Someone with older BIOS should verify that.

New BIOS 0901 doesnt solve anything with regard to hard freezing problem but these new options are useful for setting max voltages rather than fixing them. It is useful because if I dont set those voltages to 1.1V they go up to 1.5V which is too high and I believe it leads to hard freezes. Would be good to hear from other owners.

Link for 0901:
https://rog.asus.com/forum/showthread.php?121439-Z490-New-bios-with-new-feature-OCTVB

[umdogan]

0901 BIOS is officially released. Did anyone have a chance to try regarding hard freezing?

[cheny414]

umdogan wrote:
0901 BIOS is officially released. Did anyone have a chance to try regarding hard freezing?

No freezes any more so far with 0901, there is a beta 1002 on their site now, but since I don't have any issues, I'm not going to test a beta.

[MecherKane]

Asus seem finally know the memory issue and have a solution.:cool:

Forum link

https://zentalk.asus.com/zh/discussion/35907/rog-strix-z490i-gaming-%E4%B8%BB%E6%A9%9F%E6%9D%BF%E8%A...

Posted on 11/25 AL_Asus reply
Google Translate
Regarding your ROG strix z490i gaming memory problem, the relevant units have already improved methods, but you need your assistance in sending the equipment to the repair center for inspection and repair. If it is sent to the repair center, please help provide the repair order number for your benefit. The editor will assist you in confirming the repair progress, thank you.

[adrteo]

TL;DR - no joy with the latest 0901 BIOS.

I'm using ADATA DDR4-3600 (16GB x 2).

I tried to enable XMP 1 using a conservative DDR4-3200 (ASUS assigned 18-20-20 timings) with the 0901 bios. No changes made to the default voltages. It was running fine for a couple of hours but the inevitable happened. I have now disabled XMP (reverted to "auto").

If it helps, the system was stable until I put it to sleep. I even managed to run a couple of 3dmark Time Spy iterations successfully. After waking it from sleep, it was fine for several minutes before it rebooted (ironically, when I was just about to post that XMP 1 appeared to be stable). 🙂

Now back to 2666Mhz.

[morello1n]

MecherKane wrote:
Asus seem finally know the memory issue and have a solution.:cool:

Forum link

https://zentalk.asus.com/zh/discussion/35907/rog-strix-z490i-gaming-%E4%B8%BB%E6%A9%9F%E6%9D%BF%E8%A...

Posted on 11/25 AL_Asus reply
Google Translate
Regarding your ROG strix z490i gaming memory problem, the relevant units have already improved methods, but you need your assistance in sending the equipment to the repair center for inspection and repair. If it is sent to the repair center, please help provide the repair order number for your benefit. The editor will assist you in confirming the repair progress, thank you.

Reading that thread it sure sounds like the solution is "trust us and RMA", but I'd like to hear something from an ASUS rep on this forum as well, plus an offering of a cross-ship RMA as I am unwilling to wait for covid-timeline for a functional PC. This is my primary workstation as well as a gaming machine.