My motherboard is the Asus Z170-A. For over a year I was using BIOS 2202 with no problems. I could run my RAM at 3000MHz without issue, perfectly stable. I used the XMP profile which set the DRAM voltage to 1.35v. I also overclock my CPU but that has no part in this story.
When I updated to 3703 because of the recent Spectre flaw, I noticed several issues right away. If I set my RAM to 3000MHz I get static in my audio. That's weird right? It's 100% reproducible. If I lower my voltage to 1.2v from 1.35v at 3000MHz, I can't even POST. (I confirmed this had no relation to the CPU by running that at stock speed and voltage)
The 2nd (related) issue is even weirder. So I played around a bit with various frequencies and voltages. I found I could run with perfect stability at 2666MHz at 1.2v. I did a Prime95 blend test and a full Windows Memory Diagnostic to confirm stability.
HOWEVER, if I play VR (Oculus, so I have 4 devices plugged in which use a lot of bandwidth and probably also a fair amount of power) within sometimes as short as 5 minutes, I'll get SEVERE interruptions on the USB devices, leading to major gameplay issues or even crashes. I can't confirm if it's power or bandwidth related, but it's almost certainly one of the two because the system is otherwise perfectly stable.
If I set my RAM down to 2100MHz it is perfectly stable in VR. I can play for hours, no problems at all.
Note, this all happened IMMEDIATELY after updating to the newest BIOS, so I know it's not the fault of anything else but Asus's BIOS. I also have eliminated all other factors because the issues are perfectly reproducible by setting my RAM to a higher frequency and changing no other factors. If it was DRAM voltage related, I'd understand, but I can have my DRAM at 1.2v and 2666 and it breaks and 1.2v at 2100 and it's perfect.
I'd love to hear if anyone has any idea why this is happening. If anyone knows a workaround for this issue, too, that'd be great. Thanks!
When I updated to 3703 because of the recent Spectre flaw, I noticed several issues right away. If I set my RAM to 3000MHz I get static in my audio. That's weird right? It's 100% reproducible. If I lower my voltage to 1.2v from 1.35v at 3000MHz, I can't even POST. (I confirmed this had no relation to the CPU by running that at stock speed and voltage)
The 2nd (related) issue is even weirder. So I played around a bit with various frequencies and voltages. I found I could run with perfect stability at 2666MHz at 1.2v. I did a Prime95 blend test and a full Windows Memory Diagnostic to confirm stability.
HOWEVER, if I play VR (Oculus, so I have 4 devices plugged in which use a lot of bandwidth and probably also a fair amount of power) within sometimes as short as 5 minutes, I'll get SEVERE interruptions on the USB devices, leading to major gameplay issues or even crashes. I can't confirm if it's power or bandwidth related, but it's almost certainly one of the two because the system is otherwise perfectly stable.
If I set my RAM down to 2100MHz it is perfectly stable in VR. I can play for hours, no problems at all.
Note, this all happened IMMEDIATELY after updating to the newest BIOS, so I know it's not the fault of anything else but Asus's BIOS. I also have eliminated all other factors because the issues are perfectly reproducible by setting my RAM to a higher frequency and changing no other factors. If it was DRAM voltage related, I'd understand, but I can have my DRAM at 1.2v and 2666 and it breaks and 1.2v at 2100 and it's perfect.
I'd love to hear if anyone has any idea why this is happening. If anyone knows a workaround for this issue, too, that'd be great. Thanks!