Strange boot kernel error after activating 1866 megahertz RAM in BIOS

zoldos · 29 Nov 2019

I recently installed 16GB DDR3 RAM (2x8GB) and it's 1866 megahertz speed. In my Gigabyte AMD motherboard BIOS, I selected an 1866 RAM "Profile". It usually is 1600, which was the speed of the old RAM. Upon booting, I got a very strange Windows 10 64 bit Pro error, something about a "Kernel problem". I've never seen it before. I rebooted, and switched it back to 1600, and then it worked. I was using the RAM in channels 3 and 4. I plan to install two more 8GB sticks for a full 32GB.

Does anyone know what this error was? And is it safe to try the 1866 profile again once all four sticks are in?

lmaneke · 05 Dec 2019

1866 is not recommended having all 4 dimm slots populated. I had an ASUS M5A99FX Pro R2.0 with a FX 6300, and I was able to run at 1866 with 2 sticks with DOCP enabled, but 990FX boards were more designed to run 1866 in dual channel. 1600 is the max you want to go with 4 dimms. If you had a board like the Crosshair V Formula Z board you could run 4 sticks at 1866, or even 2133 but it was hard to find the sweet spot on power to get them stable.

If you have a 970 chipset, I wouldn't exceed 1600 MHz memory. What's your gigabyte motherboard model?

zoldos · 05 Dec 2019

It's the GA-970A-DS3P. I recieved the new RAM and put it in and didn't touch the BIOS this time. It works great. Task manager reports it as "800 megahertz". 4x8GB sticks.

lmaneke · 05 Dec 2019

So 800×2= 1600 MHz so that's good. Yeah that board 1600 MHz is the max you'd wanna go. Hopefully you have good luck with it.

zoldos · 05 Dec 2019

I do have 4 sticks, is it still okay? Is it 1600 mhz per channel?

lmaneke · 05 Dec 2019

Yes you're running in Dual channel mode so 1600 MHz is fine. I wouldn't not try to clock it any higher than that. Good luck

zoldos · 05 Dec 2019

lmaneke said:

Yes you're running in Dual channel mode so 1600 MHz is fine. I wouldn't not try to clock it any higher than that. Good luck

Okay, great! Thanks for the reply!