Asus ROG Strix B650E-E instability

[Diocletian]

I got a brand new system a week ago

Current Specs:

7800X3D

Asus ROG Strix B650E-E

2x16GB Team Group DDR5-6000 38-38-38-78 using XMP auto profile

EVGA Geforce 3070

Corsair RM850x PSU

BIOS: 1616

I have run multiple OCCT tests on RAM and CPU with no issues. HWInfo is also not reporting voltages above 1.240v. Max temp on package during stability tests is 52C, GPU temps also hover around 65C-68C.

So everything should be good right? Well I have noticed 2 particular oddities:

Audio is crackling. This happens whether I'm in games or not. Seems to happen in surges and is inconsistent. No correlation on CPU/GPU usage and nothing is anywhere near overheating. Used audio device for the past 6 months in a previous system with no issues(Steelseries Arctis Nova Pro Wireless). All drivers are up to date

FPS 'hitching' in games. Sometimes it's more noticeable, other times it's not. Doesn't matter is I'm playing Fortnite, OW2, WoW. I just get an odd stutter in FPS at random times, for like a micro second. Again, known good GPU that didnt have issues like this previously.

I also got 1 BSOD for CLOCK_WATCHDOG_TIMEOUT, but I think that may have had something to do with my changing processor priority to High for my game in an attempt to alleviate performance issues. This has not happened since. The PC has also rebooted on it's own on 2 other occasions before this with no BSOD, both while in WoW.

I feel like I'm chasing ghosts here, but I am sure it 100% is something to do with this new Mobo/CPU setup. The problem is the only consistent problem I have is audio crackling, which is killing me. I'm debating downgrading, but everything else seems relatively stable.

Today I received a 2x16GB of G.Skill Trident Z5 Neo(AMD EXPO) CL30.  This was to sanity check it wasn't the RAM.  BIOS recognized it and EXPO 1 had the correct timings so I booted with those.  Benchmarks and some stability tests went well so I decided to try gaming.  I tried to open a game and I got another BSOD for CLOCK_WATCHDOG_TIMEOUT and it rebooted.  upon reboot I got ANOTHER BSOD for MEMORY_MANAGEMENT.  I tried other EXPO settings but would either lock up in POST or in BIOS.

Out of frustration I cleared CMOS and just set EXPO 1 with no other settings changes.  Everything is running ok at the moment but I am pulling my hair out over this, it's either this motherboard or CPU, I am leaning more towards the motherboard at this point as the freezes in BIOS I was having.  Thoughts? Anyone tried backing down their BIOS to an older version?

[DanDanda69CZ]

Hi, have you installed the new firmware for the sound? It's the Audio ALC4080/ALC4082 FW update tool and you can find it on the page where you download the bios for your motherboard > HERE 

Otherwise, as for the RAM stability issue, if the VSOC is on AUTO, it causes problems even with the new bios, at least on my board. It helped me to manually set VSOC and VDDI to 1.25volt. It's been stable ever since. I would also disable fast boot in the bios. Try it and see if it helps.

[Diocletian]

Thats only for the SPDIF, but I went ahead and applied it anyway.  Also, as of yesterday I backed my BIOS down to 1409 and manually set the VSOC to 1.255 with EXPO1, ran hours of CPU/Memory benchmarks with the VSOC never going above 1.245. It hasn't become unstable yet but I haven't been gaming on it so I hope it's better now

[Diocletian]

Nope it's just as unstable as it was before.  At this point I suspect, with a high degree of accuracy form all my troubleshooting, that this motherboard and CPU are fried.  Just my luck.  Starting the RMA process

[Diocletian · Accepted solution]

Updating this to say it was a combination of my motherboard having a bad DIMM slot and my CPU having a faulty memory controller. I first replaced the motherboard, which allowed me to use the DIMM slots but did not get rid of the memory latency, occasional BSODs and I was unable to boot/be stable in windows with EXPO enabled.  Once I replaced my CPU with another new 7800X3D EVERYTHING went away.  I can use any EXPO settings I want, memory latency has been cut down by around 65%, audio crackling is gone, the new CPU runs 3C cooler on average and it performing at least as expected, if not BETTER, in all benchmarks.