My PC has suddenly stopped POSTing when EXPO profile is active and the CPU and DRAM led lights on my mobo remain ON. I’ve been using expo profile without any issues since I built my PC in march this year. I’ve not done any changes recently which could have caused this. My last BIOS update was more than a month ago as far as I can recall. I tried updating to a newer BIOS but am still not able to boot using EXPO. PBO is on Auto. Below is my system config:
CPU - AMD Ryzen 9800X3D
RAM - gskill flareX 2x16GB CL36
Mobo - ASRock B650M HDV/M2
GPU - RTX 5070 Ti
PSU - Deepcool PM750D
Update: Was able to POST using EXPO by decreasing RAM frequency to 5800 from 6000 and got a BSOD but still cant understand why unable to POST at 6000.
Originally had BIOS v3.25 for a month → suddenly stopped working today → Updated to v3.40, no relief → downgraded to 3.20 and this worked.
Now I am confused whether to prefer expo profile on a older bios with asrock mobo and a 9800X3D or a newer recommended bios with no expo and lower ram frequencies.
Default XMP profile values were wrong; manually set values as per spec sheet
I also had a lot of patience to run memtest86 afterwards to ensure my memory sticks didn’t go faulty. Things are working smooth as butter now and no crashes mid game.
Good advice from fellow users here. One more thing I’d like to add is to try increasing CL (latency) by a few numbers. Like instead of CL36 try CL40. This will of course be worse performance wise but might able ease the load of memory controller in case that’s whats happening here.
Also looking at the BIOS updates for your motherboard I assume the latest version you are trying to update to is 3.40 right?? In its description it says “Enhance CPU operating stability.” which leads me to believe you should still update to it until there comes a newer version which solves the EXPO problem. (my fancy way of saying what @john1911 just said lmao)
So an update. I am currently at 5600 MT/s and the rest of RAM settings are at default. Have enabled PBO @ -30 and have completed multiple passes of memtest without any issues with the latest v3.40 of BIOS. As @PunkX_75 suggested I tried upping the voltage but that too didn’t help, so my question now is can we rule out RAM being at fault as I am able to use EXPO with an older version of BIOS.
Also if we can rule out RAM what may be the component at fault, the CPU or the Mobo and if there is any way to confirm this ?
Not easy to rule out if its the processor or the motherboard unless you have extra ones lying around to test each separately. It could also happen that both will work fine when testing separately but continue to show same problem when used together.
So you tried upping the voltage but have you tried the opposite? Lowering it instead. DDR5 is more voltage sensitive than DDR4 as far as I know so might as well give it a try. If nothing comes out of it you should just stick with 5600mhz manual OC on latest BIOS. 400mhz difference wouldn’t make a major difference.
Update: Got in touch with Asrock support, they told me to disable memory context restore and fast boot. I am able to use EXPO now with updated BIOS but had to up the voltage a bit due to random BSOD with default EXPO voltages.
Good thing this helped but you are telling me memory training results are not reset after BIOS updates? That’s crazy if true. I don’t know if this is just AsRock thing or an industry standard because a bios update should reset the setting which includes wiping the memory training data as well.
Also now that you have disabled memory context restore and fast boot your PC boot times must be abysmal. Have you re-enabled them or do AsRock suggest you use your PC like this? Last I heard boot times on fresh DDR5 sticks was minutes.
I too dont know if this is specific to asrock or others too, but all the guides I saw for tuning RAM frequency and timings basically just tell to disable these settings irrespective of the mobo.
Have not enabled them currently but boot time has increased, not by a lot but its considerably noticeable now. Earlier boot times were within 15 secs and now it has almost upto a minute.
Issue with keeping memory context restore off is that your PC will do memory training each time it boots. Not ideal at all especially if you are one of those who shuts off their PC when not in use, but if you aren’t able to achieve the stick speed otherwise then its not like you can do much anyway. You just have to wait and hope an update drops which fixes it for you. I remember when DDR5 and AM5 chipset were new the boot times were reportedly very high, like up to 10 minutes sometimes lol. Since then there’s been bios updates which brought them down to sub minute like in your case. One minute isn’t that bad to be honest.
Yup I understand. The initial boot when I built my system took around 5-10 mins. Also I shutdown my system when I am not working or playing and 1 min boot is not an issue for me.
