MSI X570-A Pro: Windows is not booting if XMP profile (either 1 or 2) is enabled. I had to reset the CMOS battery to successfully boot again.

[.]

Hello,
I hope you are well and safe.
Setup:
◉ MSI X570-A Pro Motherboard (latest BIOS: 7C37vHG)
◉ AMD Ryzen 7 5700G​
◉ Corsair Vengeance LPX 8GB 3200MHz DDR4 RAM (CMK8GX4M1E3200C16)​
◉ Windows 11 Home

I have 4 RAM sticks and I get the default 2133 MHz frequency. The system does not boot if I enable XMP from BIOS or if I try to change DRAM frequency manually to 2933MHz, 2733MHz etc. I had to plug out and then plug in the CMOS battery to successfully boot again. It's really annoying not being able to run the DRAMs at expected frequency, it's negatively affecting gaming performance. Could you help me to run XMP without causing the boot issues?

Thank you in advance.

[Carlsberg]

Check for a bios update.

[_I_]

make sure the ram is in the same colored slots farthest from the cpu socket

[76561198343548661]

he has 4 sticks and there are 4 slots.

i d try auto for the RAM or manually set a higher value - 2400MHz at least . Also i d reset BIOS first

[Schrute_Farms_B&B]

Did this just happen out of the blue or did you change something ? Maybe an upgrade from 2x to 4x sticks ?
Your issue isnt uncommon. Happens quite often to people, when their boards use wrong resistances/voltages to fire up those XMP/DOCP profiles.

4x sticks also might need a little bite more juice.

[76561198343548661]

or need Windows 10

try 2 sticks only

[_I_]

4 dimms is more work for the cpus imc
most cannot run 4 dimms at their rated speeds without a cpu imc voltage bump

[plat]

Yes, I had a similar issue and it boiled down to a choice: running with xmp enabled and two dimms populated or running markedly slower at 2133mhz with four dimms populated. If I attempted to run xmp with all four dimms, the machine would blue-screen at boot time. I couldn't stand the way it ran with four dimms at 2133mhz, it was obnoxiously slower.

Now it's two dimms, each with a 16 GB module, slots B and D with xmp enabled, running at 1.35 volts. It's stable and reliable and wouldn't have it any other way. Doesn't the motherboard have to support quad channel also, or?

[Cathulhu]

No, quadchannel is not necessary. You can use dualchannel even with four sticks, as long as you have two pairs.

[_I_]

quad ch is only on hedt boards, a board having 4 dimm slots is still dual ch

[r.linder]

Your RAM modules (CMK8GX4M1E3200C16) are sold as single DIMM kits, that's the main source of your problem:

1. Additional DIMMs put greater stress on the IMC, making higher voltages and/or timings necessary, but even then, it can still fail. If it works fine with fewer DIMMs installed, problem solved. If you need 32GB, get a QVL validated kit: https://www.msi.com/Motherboard/X570-A-PRO/support#mem Opt for higher frequency RAM, at least 3600 CL16, because you can get some 2x16 GB 3600 CL16 kits for a decent price nowadays, and if you're using the Vega iGP, your iGP's memory performance will shoot up considerably with higher DRAM frequency and lower timings since it uses system RAM as VRAM.

2. Your RAM isn't on the X570-A PRO QVL in any configuration, so it hasn't been confirmed if the RAM will work correctly at all on that motherboard. Especially if it uses Micron ICs, which seem to be the most temperamental with Ryzen systems. That RAM is listed as optimised for Intel, and while that always isn't a problem, it can be a factor with 3+ DIMMs.

[Illusion of Progress]

These posts of issues with four modules has me worried haha. I've run with four modules on the vast majority of my systems in the last decade and a half without issue, and the only limitation I've considered with it would be if I was looking to push RAM, which I never did, so it was never a limitation that mattered for me. My current system also works happily with four modules thus far. But more people seem to be having issues with just getting XMP working on DDR4 systems, and while it's early in the days for it, DDR5 seems to have even more issues there too. Hopefully that improves and it's just early growing pains for DDR5, or else this this doesn't bode well for me when I eventually have to upgrade.

Anyway, at OP, you could try manually raising the voltage of it a bit to see if that helps. I couldn't give specific advise as to what to raise or by how much, but that is what you'd want to do if that is the issue. I think the 5700G is supposed to have a pretty good IMC too.