# msi gaming 7 z97 dram overclocking help



## SroryDiver (Dec 4, 2011)

Hello i have a problem overclocking my DRAM on my msi gaming 7 z97 mobo
i have 16 gb corsair vengence pro 1866 cl9 with has inbuilt xmp 1866 but when i enable xmp trough click 4 bios it says on boot up overclocking failure valus reset and it resets DRAM frequency do default 1333Mhz i was able to set the frequency manually to 1600 Mhz with xmp enabled ( without xmp enabled cpu-z show that it clocks back to default 1333Mhz) but not over that ( the same boot up failur occurs over 1600mhz as with the xmp enabled and frequency set to auto) my mobo supports up to 3300 Mhz overclock and my cpu is i7 4790k ( running on default clock) so that shouldn't be a problem , i havent messed around with volts because the xmp should take care of it on its own . i am trying to get the default xmp of 1866 Mhz to work but ultimately i would like to overclock my ram to 2400-2133 Mhz which should be doable .
Thanks to anyone who responds .

my build is:
CPU: i7 4790k
CPU cooler: corsair h80i
mobo: msi gaming 7 z97
DRAM: 16 gb corsair vengence pro 1866 cl9 
GPU: msi gaming gtx 970
PSU: corsair hx850i
SDD: samsung pro 50 256 gb
HDD: seagate barracuda 7200 1tb
HDD: toshiba 7200 3tb
OS: windows 7 home premium sp1


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## Tyree (May 10, 2009)

Is the RAM 2x8 or 4x4GB? If it will run at 1600, I'd leave it alone. No advantage will be seen set at over 1600MHz.


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## SroryDiver (Dec 4, 2011)

2x8gb
yes the difference between 1600 and 1866 mite be minor but my goal here is do get my dram working at the at its indicated default rate of 1866 Mhz if i cant do that then there is clearly a problem somewhere because all my compounds should allow it


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## greenbrucelee (Apr 24, 2007)

you should be able to select 1866 manually without using xmp but enabling manual overclocking in the BIOS.

If not you need to enable manual overclocking and xmp.


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## SroryDiver (Dec 4, 2011)

An update : i took the sticks out and tested them individually and with one stick at the time they had no problem enabling xmp 1866 or overclock to 2133 Mhz for both but with 2 stick in it doesn't go past 1600 Mhz no matter what manually or otherwise i get the boot up error every time for good measure i tested a set of 2x4gb crucial ballistix sport 1600 Mhz cl 9 dram and got the same error 2 sticks wont let me go past 1600 Mhz


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## greenbrucelee (Apr 24, 2007)

are you using them in the correct slots? they should be in the same coloured slots on the mobo.


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## SroryDiver (Dec 4, 2011)

i have tried both 1 ,3 and 2,4 configuration makes no difference doe


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## greenbrucelee (Apr 24, 2007)

Are the dimms on the motherboards QVL list?


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## SroryDiver (Dec 4, 2011)

yes they are


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## greenbrucelee (Apr 24, 2007)

To me this sounds like you have an xmp profile which is also overclocking your cpu and its actually the cpu that is causing the OC to fail and the system resetting to defaults.

What you should try is disable xmp fully.
select overclocking manual option
select the dram frequency manually
then save and exit the BIOS

See what happens.


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## greenbrucelee (Apr 24, 2007)

to add xmp can cause your BCLK to increase which is what you dont want.

I always overclock manually never use any auto adjustments especially xmp.


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## SroryDiver (Dec 4, 2011)

sorry no go 
even manually it dosent let me get above 1600 mhz with 2 stick in


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## T_Rex (Oct 21, 2012)

Strange I'm running my 1600 Mhz mem @ 2100 with a budget mATX MSI Z87. CPU @ 4.4 (4670k)


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## SroryDiver (Dec 4, 2011)

strange indeed especially because with one dram stick everything is fine and it lets me overclock with no problem but not with two


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## greenbrucelee (Apr 24, 2007)

can you see if the BCLK is being raised or if any voltages are increasing when you use the xmp profile?

also you may have to be running the latest BIOS revision as I read on Toms Hardware with someone with a similar issue and an msi board that updated the BIOS and it worked.


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## T_Rex (Oct 21, 2012)

The slots used matters sometimes. What slots are you using for the two sticks? and what specific slot did you use for the 1 when it worked ok?

FWIW I use 2&4. And I also agree with BruceLee, many times a bios update does address the memory (be it Samsung or Hynix) on specific sticks of a brand you may want to check on that as well.


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## SroryDiver (Dec 4, 2011)

ok the issue appears to be slots 3 and 4 when i slot my sticks to 1 and 2 they overclock fine but not in 3 and 4 which means that i can enable xmp and overclock but not in dual channel mode .
what might be causing slot 3 and 4 not accept overclocking over 1600 Mhz ?
( i updated bios it did not seem to help)


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## greenbrucelee (Apr 24, 2007)

are you sure that slots 1 and 2 are not the dual channel ones (check your manual)

download cpu-z and post a screenshot of the memory tab part please.


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## SroryDiver (Dec 4, 2011)

definitely not cpuz says that same thing as the bios board explore that right now slots 1 and 2 are in use and that i am in single channel mode and xmp is enabled


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## SroryDiver (Dec 4, 2011)

on a another note when xmp is enabled and i have a stick mounted in either 3 or 4 on boot up the system boots up for 5 sec then close and starts again then giving me the failure message before even the enter bios screen appears( when i have 2 stick mounted in either 1 and 3 or 2 and 4 the 5 sec restart doesnt happen but i still get the failure message )


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## T_Rex (Oct 21, 2012)

The MSI gaming series does work best with slots 1-3. I did read that elsewhere but I don't remember where I saw it, whereas most of the regular series intel motherboards with 4 slots seem to work best with slots 2-4.


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## SroryDiver (Dec 4, 2011)

ok at this point i am basically throwing the problem under the carpet , i got my xmp to work in single channel mode ( at this point i have no glue why slots 3 and 4 wont accept overclock ) but as i built this rig for primarily for gaming and wont be doing video rendering it doesnt make much difference if it is dual or single channel . Doe i am still open to suggestions if anyones got a good idea whats happening in my system 
thanks for all the help


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## T_Rex (Oct 21, 2012)

At this point I think you best ask that question to MSI tech support, or in the MSI forums. You have a warranty with MSI and around here there is no respect for MSI no matter what it's Asus or Gigabyte and nothing else.

MSI forums is where you want to go.


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## greenbrucelee (Apr 24, 2007)

I agree with T Rex you should contact MSI support and post on the forums. Please keep in touch and let us know any outcome so we know for the future.

Did you manage to confirm if the BCLK is being raised when you have the sticks in dual channel when using xmp. When you select xmp you should be able to see if any other values are being changed.


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