Can't get RAM running at correct speed and Crossfire is disabled - Please Help

Muddyfunk

Commendable
Nov 14, 2016
16
0
1,510
Hi all, I could really do with some help here.

I have an Asus A68HM Plus motherboard with an AMD A8 CPU.
When I bought the motherboard I added a R7 360 Graphics card and to start off with Crossfire worked as it should. I then updated Radeon Settings and it disbaled Crossfire. I looked into this and found out that possibly my RAM was to blame so I checked the Qualified Vendor List and bought 2 sticks of 8Gb Corsair Vengeance Pro which should run on this motherboard at 2400Mhz.

However, with all the timing settings done right in BIOS, if I change to DOCP mode (there is no XMP) and change the voltage to 1.65, the system won't boot and I keep getting a Windows error screen. The timings I've tried are 10-12-12-31 at 1.65v.

I built the PC about a month ago (on a tight budget) and saved up for the newer RAM and I've been pulling my hair out trying to figure out why Crossfire is disabled when it was first enabled and why Windows won't boot when I attempt to run the RAM at it's correct speed.

If anyone could help me with this I would very much appreciate it. Thanks.

My system specs are as follows:

Operating System
Windows 10 Pro 64-bit
CPU
AMD A8-7650K 43 °C
Kaveri 28nm Technology
RAM
16.0GB Dual-Channel DDR3 @ 664MHz (9-9-9-24)
Motherboard
ASUSTeK COMPUTER INC. A68HM-PLUS (FM2+ ) 28 °C
Graphics
HDMI (1920x1080@59Hz)
1024MB ATI AMD Radeon R7 Graphics (ASUStek Computer Inc) 5 °C
2048MB ATI AMD Radeon R7 360 Series (XFX Pine Group) 28 °C
CrossFire Disabled
Storage
931GB Seagate ST1000VM002-1CT162 (SATA) 23 °C
1863GB Western Digital WDC WD20EACS-11BHUB0 (SATA) 23 °C
1863GB Seagate ST2000DM001-1E6164 (SATA) 24 °C
Optical Drives
TSSTcorp CDDVDW SH-224GB
Audio
Realtek High Definition Audio

RAM
Memory slots
Total memory slots 2
Used memory slots 2
Free memory slots 0
Memory
Type DDR3
Size 16384 MBytes
Channels # Dual
DRAM Frequency 664.8 MHz
CAS# Latency (CL) 9 clocks
RAS# to CAS# Delay (tRCD) 9 clocks
RAS# Precharge (tRP) 9 clocks
Cycle Time (tRAS) 24 clocks
Bank Cycle Time (tRC) 33 clocks
Physical Memory
Memory Usage 13 %
Total Physical 15 GB
Available Physical 13 GB
Total Virtual 18 GB
Available Virtual 16 GB
SPD
Number Of SPD Modules 2
Slot #1
Type DDR3
Size 8192 MBytes
Manufacturer Corsair
Max Bandwidth PC3-10700 (667 MHz)
Part Number CMY16GX3M2A2400C11
Week/year 38 / 16
SPD Ext. XMP
Timing table
JEDEC #1
Frequency 381.0 MHz
CAS# Latency 5.0
RAS# To CAS# 5
RAS# Precharge 5
tRAS 14
tRC 19
Voltage 1.500 V
JEDEC #2
Frequency 457.1 MHz
CAS# Latency 6.0
RAS# To CAS# 6
RAS# Precharge 6
tRAS 17
tRC 23
Voltage 1.500 V
JEDEC #3
Frequency 609.5 MHz
CAS# Latency 8.0
RAS# To CAS# 8
RAS# Precharge 8
tRAS 22
tRC 30
Voltage 1.500 V
JEDEC #4
Frequency 666.7 MHz
CAS# Latency 9.0
RAS# To CAS# 9
RAS# Precharge 9
tRAS 24
tRC 33
Voltage 1.500 V
XMP-2400
Frequency 1200 MHz
Voltage 1.650 V
Slot #2
Type DDR3
Size 8192 MBytes
Manufacturer Corsair
Max Bandwidth PC3-10700 (667 MHz)
Part Number CMY16GX3M2A2400C11
Week/year 38 / 16
SPD Ext. XMP
Timing table
JEDEC #1
Frequency 381.0 MHz
CAS# Latency 5.0
RAS# To CAS# 5
RAS# Precharge 5
tRAS 14
tRC 19
Voltage 1.500 V
JEDEC #2
Frequency 457.1 MHz
CAS# Latency 6.0
RAS# To CAS# 6
RAS# Precharge 6
tRAS 17
tRC 23
Voltage 1.500 V
JEDEC #3
Frequency 609.5 MHz
CAS# Latency 8.0
RAS# To CAS# 8
RAS# Precharge 8
tRAS 22
tRC 30
Voltage 1.500 V
JEDEC #4
Frequency 666.7 MHz
CAS# Latency 9.0
RAS# To CAS# 9
RAS# Precharge 9
tRAS 24
tRC 33
Voltage 1.500 V
XMP-2400
Frequency 1200 MHz
Voltage 1.650 V
Motherboard
Manufacturer ASUSTeK COMPUTER INC.
Model A68HM-PLUS (FM2+ )
Version Rev X.0x
Chipset Vendor AMD
Chipset Model K15 IMC
Chipset Revision 00
Southbridge Vendor AMD
Southbridge Model A68H FCH
Southbridge Revision 2.6
System Temperature 28 °C
BIOS
Brand American Megatrends Inc.
Version 1701
Date 25/05/2016
Voltage
CPU CORE 1.140 V
MEMORY CONTROLLER 1.608 V
+3.3V 2.088 V
+5V 3.427 V
+12V 4.224 V
-12V -8.928 V
-5V -8.928 V
+5V HIGH THRESHOLD 2.822 V
CMOS BATTERY 1.596 V
 
Solution
DDR3-2400MHz is an OC (overclocked) setting. The A8-7650K supports DDR3-2133MHZ without OC.

I suggest you don't use DOCP. I recommend setting the AI Overclock Tuner to [Manual] and the Memory Frequency from [Auto] to [2133MHz].

Memory is rated at:
Tested Latency 10-12-12-31
Tested Speed 2400MHz
Tested Voltage 1.65

You might try a little tighter timings at DDR3-2133 of 9-11-11-30.
DDR3-2400MHz is an OC (overclocked) setting. The A8-7650K supports DDR3-2133MHZ without OC.

I suggest you don't use DOCP. I recommend setting the AI Overclock Tuner to [Manual] and the Memory Frequency from [Auto] to [2133MHz].

Memory is rated at:
Tested Latency 10-12-12-31
Tested Speed 2400MHz
Tested Voltage 1.65

You might try a little tighter timings at DDR3-2133 of 9-11-11-30.
 
Solution

Muddyfunk

Commendable
Nov 14, 2016
16
0
1,510


Thanks Calvin, the PC boots into Windows now at 2133Mhz so thank you very much for that. I still have Crossfire disabled though. Any chance of being able to help with that? Many thanks again
 

Muddyfunk

Commendable
Nov 14, 2016
16
0
1,510
I do know that there is no Crossfire option whatsoever in the Radeon settings & Speccy tells me that Crossfire is disabled. Like I said, when I built the computer Crossfire was enabled & working. My son has just told me that there's a new optional update, 16.11 I think & I have 16.10 so I'll try that when I get home
 

Neur0nauT

Admirable


Yeah just check and make sure that the Crimson driver is actually detecting both cards......check this is also the case in Device Manager as well.

If you note that one of the cards appear to be missing, then it might be best to re-seat both the cards, to make sure they're correctly in the PCIe slots. Then if it is still an issue, use DDU to uninstall any driver traces and download the latest AMD Crimson driver.

 

Muddyfunk

Commendable
Nov 14, 2016
16
0
1,510
Crimson is definitely detecting both cards. I might add that one is onboard, that's the R7. Both are listed & enabled in Device Manager and multi-monitor is enabled in Bios (as advised by Asus & AMD).
 

Neur0nauT

Admirable
OK, well, I guess the best course of action would be to use DDU as I stated above, and then reinstall the latest drivers. See if it will detect the cards for Crossfire. I'm guessing you have used crossfire with these cards before?
 

Muddyfunk

Commendable
Nov 14, 2016
16
0
1,510
Thanks Calvin7. Yes, it's called Dual Graphics but when it's working it actually comes up in Radeon settings as Crossfire and there's an option to enable or disable it but I don't have that option. I built my sons PC and he has almost the same setup and he has the Crossfire option but for some reason I don't. Last night I changed the BIOS setting to use my onboard graphics first and plugged my HDMI into the onboard slot, reinstalled the chipset driver after using AMD Cleanup Utility, reinstalled the graphics driver etc but still no Dual Graphics or Crossfire option in Radeon Settings. I'm at a loss.
 

Muddyfunk

Commendable
Nov 14, 2016
16
0
1,510


Yeah, I've used Crossfire before with this setup. Just gonna run DDU as you suggested now and see if anything changes. Thanks for the help, both of you, I appreciate it

 

Muddyfunk

Commendable
Nov 14, 2016
16
0
1,510
Well I ran DDU in safe mode; strange thing is, before that I checked for any updates to Radeon Settings and there weren't any but after running DDU I got the newest update which is 16.11.3 so I updated to that and still no Crossfire option or Dual Graphics. I'm seriously thinking of returning this motherboard now. Something isn't right. As far as the 2400Mhz RAM (OC) goes, well, if it says it can be overclocked to run at 2400Mhz then it should do as it says because that's what I paid for.

Apparently a lot of people are finding that the Crossfire option has disappeared.

Seriously peed off now. This is about 7 installs of Windows 10 including complete formats and updating BIOS; nothing has changed except I got the 16.11.3 update.

I really appreciate your help guys.
 

Muddyfunk

Commendable
Nov 14, 2016
16
0
1,510
I've since found out that the reason Dual Graphics aren't enabled is because the onboard graphics are DDR3 and the R7 360 graphics card is DDR5 which means they're incompatible due to different architecture. So if anyone was wondering why Dual Graphics / Crossfire wasn't working then this could be why. Many thanks for all your help