Check your XMP's folks...

[M1Combat]

Most of the memory sticks any of us will be running have what's called an XMP profile.

It's kinda like plug and play for memory timing for lack of a better way of explaining.

 

BUT...

If you make changes to your BIOS that aren't bootable most modern motherboards will load a set of safe defaults after a few failed attempts.

The safe defaults set memory timings to low speed "safe" settings.

You generally then need to go back into your BIOS and tell it to load the XMP profile timings.

 

It's 100% a noob mistake.  I'm not a noob.  But I've made this mistake and I've been running in DDR4-2400 mem timings for quite some time.  Running the basic 3600 timings from my XMP profiles now...  Ugh.  There's some more performance to be had if you want to tweak beyond XMP profile timings...  but at LEAST make sure you've loaded those timings if you can :).

Check your XMP's folks :).

 

 

[Furiz]

Well for Extreme Memory Profiles you should know in advance that you need higher wattage PSU, quality Motherboard etc... in other words you need components that can support the settings so stuff like boot failure or random restarts doesn't happen,

also you can check your Event Viewer and see what is causing crit errors etc, might be bad drivers,

I was having issues with sound device drivers, even tho they were updated constantly, after reinstall it was all ok.

 

 

[unlikely_spider]

10 minutes ago, Furiz said:

...you need higher wattage PSU...

Well, if overclocking your ram is stressing your PSU, then you've got greater problems. A couple sticks of RAM only draws a few watts, overclocked or not.

[M1Combat]

31 minutes ago, Furiz said:

Well for Extreme Memory Profiles you should know in advance that you need higher wattage PSU, quality Motherboard etc... in other words you need components that can support the settings so stuff like boot failure or random restarts doesn't happen,

also you can check your Event Viewer and see what is causing crit errors etc, might be bad drivers,

I was having issues with sound device drivers, even tho they were updated constantly, after reinstall it was all ok.

 

 

Yeah I suppose if you drop XMP memory in like a Dell workstation that's meant for business with one of those 140W PSUs I suppose that could be a problem :).  The difference in V between regular DDR4 and what mine likes at it's XMP settings is 1.2 to 1.35V...  So...  Not gunna fry anything I don't think :).

I don't have any crit errors to check at all.  System hasn't crashed even once since I built it.

Sorry about your sound stuff...  Glad you got it resolved...

[unlikely_spider]

But yes, I agree with the OP and this is good advice overall. Things like BIOS updates or failed boots can reset your settings and make your ram clock at far below advertised speeds. It's very easy now to look at memory speed now - you can do it in the task manager! Or use something like CPU-z to get more detailed info.

[draconus]

XMP use can also be limited by your CPU and mobo/bios, esp. for Intel.

[silverdevil]

i had ran my computer for months without XMP. this rig was built for it and right out the box i had 1 BSOD. really did not think much about it. i finally noticed that i too was running at 2400. i had a chat session with dell and they told me that i needed to install a BIOS update to allow the XMP. no problems and running a tad faster since. the BSOD was caused by the old BIOS.

[BitMaster]

It pays to check the gear you are using from time to time. Be it Oil Level or XMP settings...