ROG STRIX Z690-E Gaming Wifi with DDR5 stability issues

[ElectronSpin]

Hi All,

I am having a bit of a nightmare with my shiney new 12700K and DDR5 build as I just can't find any stability. My components are listed in my profile, but I am pretty sure my issues centers around stability of my DDR5.

Reading this forum has helped a lot, but I'm not able to run any games yet.

I got my RAM last week and after assembling everything on the weekend I proceeded to upgrade to the latest BIOS (v803) first thing and then install Windows 11. Windows install was a mess of crashes and instability which I initially put down to immature OS and lack of drivers. After updating all the drivers I was still seeing horrible instability so ran Memtest from the BIOS and found it constantly crashed after a few seconds and reporting errors. No matter what RAM config I used (XMP1, XMP2, Auto defaults or manually setting Ram frequency Memtest would crash. I tried with 4800Mhz, 4000Mhz and the 6000Mhz my RAM is rated for by GSkill.

After reading up on here I realised lots of people were having issues with memory stability and the latest BIOS was a factor for some people. I decided to downgrade the BIOS to v 702 and found Memtest passes consistently on XMP1 6000Mhz and other settings (4800Mhz etc). I have also reinstalled Windows 11 completely as I didn't trust the install given the really unstable DDR5 I seemed to have with v803 BIOS. I am however still suffering instability when in the new Windows install. I'm using 3DMark Timespy as a basic measure of stability but finding the PC rebooting, or the GPU tests randomly failing. Note, I'm using my old 1080Ti for this testing while keeping my 3090 in my old machine so I can still play games etc.

Best success I've had is with the XMP1 setting for 6000Mhz and manually increasing the VDD and VDDQ to 1.325 volts, where Timespy completed successfully a couple of times but also getting nvidia driver crashes other times. I've read Peter Tan's overclocking guide from the forum sticky thread and used it to guide me in trying to tweek some of the memory voltage settings with no real joy as yet. If I try 1.35 volts for both VDD and VDDQ it seems more unstable. If I try adding a little Volts to System Agent it is also more unstable. I've tried running 4800Mhz with auto settings in the BIOS and manually setting 1.125 volts on VDD and VDDQ but again it is more unstable, although Memtest is passing.

I'm considering swapping over my GPU to see if I get the same instability with the XMP1 6000Mhz and 1.325 volts on VDD and VDDQ but I'm pretty confident my 1080Ti is still good and not the cause. Also considering trying the v803 BIOS again but with manually setting the 1.325 volts on VQQ and VDDQ, but not convinced that will be any good given the terrible Memtest results I was getting with that BIOS version.

Any suggestion to help get this sorted would be greatly appreciated.

I'm also wondering what setting in the BIOS the TXVDDQ setting mentioned on page 10 of the overclocking guide relates to in the STRIX 690-E Gaming Wifi BIOS setting as I could find a match for it anywhere?

Thanks

[darth_meh]

ElectronSpin wrote:
Hi All,
I am having a bit of a nightmare with my shiney new 12700K and DDR5 build as I just can't find any stability. My components are listed in my profile, but I am pretty sure my issues centers around stability of my DDR5.
Thanks

Have you tried clearing your CMOS? That may reset any residual memory training/configuration that may be causing stability.
Being able to run XMP seems hit or miss right now. I'm running with Auto because I get BSODs with XMP enabled. I'm hoping future BIOS updates will fix this.

[ElectronSpin]

I didn't try clearing the CMOS, but have fully powered down the motherboard and had it do a longer bootup, which I assume is it rerunning its memory training.

I am also waiting on a new BIOS version and have my fingers crossed. This forum has been really helpful cause initially, when I was getting Memtest errors and it crashing all the time I was starting to consider RMA'ing my DDR5 cause I assumed the latest BIOS (v803) would be the most stable.

With hindsight I should of realised early adopting a new memory technology would lead to a reasonable period of BIOS issues and instability. I'm hoping over the next couple of BIOS releases things will improve significantly.

I'm still tempted to give the newer BIOS (v803) another go and manually set the voltages I've been closest to some stability with.

[darth_meh]

ElectronSpin wrote:
I didn't try clearing the CMOS, but have fully powered down the motherboard and had it do a longer bootup, which I assume is it rerunning its memory training.

I am also waiting on a new BIOS version and have my fingers crossed. This forum has been really helpful cause initially, when I was getting Memtest errors and it crashing all the time I was starting to consider RMA'ing my DDR5 cause I assumed the latest BIOS (v803) would be the most stable.

With hindsight I should of realised early adopting a new memory technology would lead to a reasonable period of BIOS issues and instability. I'm hoping over the next couple of BIOS releases things will improve significantly.

I'm still tempted to give the newer BIOS (v803) another go and manually set the voltages I've been closest to some stability with.

I would still trying clearing your CMOS.

[techanalyst]

Mine wasnt 100% stable out of box
1.) Put it all together
2.) got a base windows install
3.) installed firmware updates, installed bios update
4.) Powered off, removed from wall for an hour
5.) started up, loaded bios optimal defaults, saved and rebooted

I also disabled a lot of onboard stuff I don't use (intel 2.5Gbit as I use the 10Gbit, killed wireless, bluetooth, onboard sata controller, onboard audio etc)

Mines been rocking at 6400MHZ mem XMP1 😛 30 hours into Halo Infinite zero crashes, benchmarks etc, I'm just chasing voltages

[ElectronSpin]

So I think I have some reasonable stability now...

I realised that despite downloading and running the setup for the latest Intel Management Engine from the ROG support site, that hadn't actually updated my system.

That lead me to running through all the Firmware and Driver posts from MoKiChU on this forum which has enabled me to get the ME sorted and everything else updated. That seems to have stabilised things a fair bit. Lesson for anyone having issues with stability is double check all the updates have applied and use the latest versions of everything off this forum not the ROG support site.

I must confess to being a bit surprised the updates from the ROG support site are so far behind and in some cases, such as the Intel ME, don't appear to actually install. Anyone not using this forum to keep things up to date must be having a very tough time, which seems a bit wrong. MoKiChu is doing a great job and if he's not already being looked after by ASUS for his work, then he really should be cause he's a one man driver and firmware support service of the highest order! Thank you @MokiChu.

I am still running version v702 of the BIOS at the moment as I'm nervous to try 803 again given how poorly my memory was when running that.

I have now installed my 3090 into the new system after getting 3DMark Timespy passing consistently with the DDR5 set for a little extra VDD and VDDQ volts of 1.325 vs the 1.3 XMP1 settings configures for them. Unfortunately I still have some games crashing randomly and seeing the odd WHEA error in Windows Event Log, but not able to pin down the cause of those unfortunately. That said some games run for hours very nicely and seem totally stable, so I'm in a bit of a mixed position currently and having to live with some restrictions on what I can play.

I'm hoping for a new BIOS version soon which stabilises things further and doesn't have the issues I experienced with v803. Anyone know the release cadence for BIOS updates? I was hoping for a new version this side of new year, but half expecting it will be in January 2022. Overall I'm guess it is going to be a few more months of two steps forward and then one step back on the updates for BIOS and drivers side of things.

Cheers

[phatmonkey]

The only way I managed to get a stable XMP 1 was to reduce my ram frequency to 4266mhz, the RAM is Corsair DDR5 4800 (64GB), 4400 works fine until u load a game, anything over 4400 is an instant BSOD, also tried XMP2 which is worse and also tried the ram timings mode 1 and 2, same result. This is a head scratcher, using bios 803 but I did try a BETA bios 811 I think it was but that made the system even more unstable so I cleared CMOS and went back.
Best game so far to trigger errors quickly is Watch Dogs Legion, other games take a while longer before u know anything is wrong.

Windows 11 | Rog Maximus Z690 Hero | i9-12900K | Corsair Vengeance DDR5 4800mhz 64GB | MSI 3090 SUPRIM X | Quantum 2626 | Focusrite 18i20 GEN3 | Acer Predator Z35 | H150i RGB Pro XT | AX1200i | Dark Core Pro SE | K100 RGB

[ElectronSpin]

So I updated to the new BIOS version 811 after noticing it was released on the ROG support site this morning.

I manually set System Agent voltage to 1.25, after noticing on "Auto" it was only at 0.8 volts. I also set my VDD and VDDQ to 1.325 volts for my 6000Mhz GSkill (Samsung IC) RAM and selected XMP1.

These settings passed a run of Memtest86 and a run of Timespy fine, so I've tried a few games and things seem pretty good. I've found it to have improved stability on my system a bit with a couple of games that were crashing now seeming to be stable.

I'll keep assessing stability and update on my findings.

[DecaAndersen]

the new bios 1003 fixed my F board crashing on XMP1 and 2. But now windows isn't detecting the new BIOS settings and runs them at DDR5-4800 at 2400mhz, with lots of BSDs