57 minutes ago, Christopher Low said:

The memory is at 2133 Mhz at the moment, and I would prefer to leave it there until I get my problems sorted out (if I ever do) I have just tested the new PC with the integrated graphics on the motherboard, and the results are basically the same as when I had the GTX 980 Ti installed. I got into a bit of bother removing that card from the PCIe x16 slot. It only half came out, and I had a word not allowed of a time getting it back in so that I could "flick the switch" to get it out easily. My own fault for not being careful enough, but I was scared that I was going to damage the motherboard! That thing is a battleship

This entire episode is making me depressed. I just want a working PC without all of this stress

EDIT: Does the fact that I was getting similar Q counter numbers with the white (VGA) LED light on (with both the GTX 980 Ti and the integrated graphics) shed any light on the source of the problem?

understand, think its no issiue with the gpu if i were you a should enable xmp , you get the timings from xmp settings and lower the memfrq to 2133mhz you get looser timings probaly you run jedec with cl15 and 1.35v dram voltage.

run the mem at 1.4v dram , if its not work the mems ar not the problem. think its worth a test you only lose up the strain on memcontroller.

And take it easy , dont stress , understand your frustration.

Edited December 30, 20196 yr by westman

You will need to explain step by step what I need to do, because I am not quite sure. I need to enable XMP? Do I then need to set the frequency (considering that my motherboard may not be compatible with 4266 Mhz? I did notice when I was checking out the XMP settings that the DRAM voltage would have been set to 1.400v at that high frequency.

2 hours ago, Christopher Low said:

You will need to explain step by step what I need to do, because I am not quite sure. I need to enable XMP? Do I then need to set the frequency (considering that my motherboard may not be compatible with 4266 Mhz? I did notice when I was checking out the XMP settings that the DRAM voltage would have been set to 1.400v at that high frequency.

When you ar ready no stress.

1. set xmp

2. check dram voltage 1.4v

3 . turn down the memfrq from 4266 to 2133

4. save and booth check if the problem dissipear.

if all is ok, then turn up the memfrq to 3000mhz if thats ok 3200mhz until you think its ok for you if unstable go back to last good or 

or take 2133,2400,3000,3200, take longer time when you find a rockstable frq that you feel confortable with turn down the dramvoitage to 1.35v

if this not work its probaly not the mems, 

note. the dramvoltage of 1.4v is no problem for b-die you can run them up to 2v but memcontroller on cpu handle 1.5v dramvoltage without any problem 

Memtest: you can get errors without any fault on the sticks , can be memcontroller on cpu bad bios incompatible mems , this kit have G-Skill tested at 42666 1.4v xmp timings.

On a good cpu mobo combo they sure pass Memtest at 4266 but not all MoBos or CPU.s can do 4266mhz they can show errors in Memtest at 3600-3800mhz 

Edited December 30, 20196 yr by westman

Thanks for the help, Westman.

Rob Ainscough also suggested that I switch to XMP mode, and then let it go through the test process. However, the only XMP profile stated was DDR4-4273 @ 103.25 Mhz BCLK frequency. This resulted in a "49 - CPU (Red) LED light on" Q counter code, and then an endless cycle between "03 - CPU (Red) LED light on" and "01 - RAM (yellow) LED light on".

So, I set XMP mode (with the DRAM voltage @ 1.400v), manually set the BCLK frequency back to the default 100 Mhz, and set about doing the tests that you suggested. I started with 2133 Mhz and moved up through several others to 3866 Mhz. All of these modes booted OK and took me back to the BIOS page. However, when I tried 4000 Mhz, I encountered the same "49" code and endless repeating "03/01" codes that I mentioned above.

Presumably, this means that 3866 Mhz is the highest stable frequency that I can set @ 1.400v? The voltage at this frequency is actually displayed as 1.408v.

Do I now reset the voltage to 1.35v as you suggested above, and test the 3866 Mhz setting again?

Edited December 31, 20196 yr by Christopher Low

18 minutes ago, Christopher Low said:

Thanks for the help, Westman.

Rob Ainscough also suggested that I switch to XMP mode, and then let it go through the test process. However, the only XMP profile stated was DDR4-4273 @ 103.25 Mhz BCLK frequency. This resulted in a "49 - CPU (Red) LED light on" Q counter code, and then an endless cycle between "03 - CPU (Red) LED light on" and "01 - RAM (yellow) LED light on".

So, I set XMP mode (with the DRAM voltage @ 1.400v), manually set the BCLK frequency back to the default 100 Mhz, and set about doing the tests that you suggested. I started with 2133 Mhz and moved up through several others to 3866 Mhz. All of these modes booted OK and took me back to the BIOS page. However, when I tried 4000 Mhz, I encountered the same "49" code and endless repeating "03/01" codes that I mentioned above.

Presumably, this means that 3866 Mhz is the highest stable frequency that I can set @ 1.400v? The voltage at this frequency is actually displayed as 1.408v.

Do I now reset the voltage to 1.35v as you suggested above, and test the 3866 Mhz setting again?

we ar here to help, forget to say bclk value its a "bug" in bios not all cpus do over 105 normaly max for 7700k is 103-105 , i do all settings with 100.3 

you can test with 1.35 v start with 3600 then up to 3866 , i normally set -100 on last stable memclock in your case i shuld set 3800 1.4 and probaly 3600 1.35v.

 

Edited December 31, 20196 yr by westman

The highest stable frequency @ 1.35v appears to be 3600 Mhz. When I selected 3733 Mhz, the boot up stalled with the Q code counter at "55 - memory not installed"!! The displayed voltage @ 3600 Mhz flicks between 1.344v and 1.360v.

EDIT: I will now be out for a couple of hours, so I will check back in later 

Edited December 31, 20196 yr by Christopher Low

7 minutes ago, Christopher Low said:

The highest stable frequency @ 1.35v appears to be 3600 Mhz. When I selected 3733 Mhz, the boot up stalled with the Q code counter at "55 - memory not installed"!! The displayed voltage @ 3600 Mhz flicks between 1.344v and 1.360v.

EDIT: I will now be out for a couple of hours, so I will check back in later 

Sounds like you're managing to pin it down Chris, thats good! I have to say I never realised mems were so fickle...  I'm remotely learning as I follow this. Good luck!

19 minutes ago, Christopher Low said:

The highest stable frequency @ 1.35v appears to be 3600 Mhz. When I selected 3733 Mhz, the boot up stalled with the Q code counter at "55 - memory not installed"!! The displayed voltage @ 3600 Mhz flicks between 1.344v and 1.360v.

EDIT: I will now be out for a couple of hours, so I will check back in later 

When you feel ready i can guide you to a stable safe OC , 4.8 to +4.9 but that we take next year , lot of hidden performance there with your memspeed

Its safe to run the mems up to 1.45v i run that 24/ 7, i should run 1.4v if a were you the B-die scale on dram voltage, the cpu memcontroller not degrade with 1.4v (max is 1.5v with air aio colling) that the preferd voltage.

Edited December 31, 20196 yr by westman

13 minutes ago, westman said:

lot of hidden performance there with your memspeed

How much do you reckon mem speed impacts performance @westman

18 minutes ago, kevinfirth said:

How much do you reckon mem speed impacts performance @westman

Tumb of rule , in P3D approx 0.8% 100mhz from 3200 to 4000 ca 6% ( if you can run same timings)  4-5% is realistic with higher timings, XP not as much 2-3% , it scale very nice with cpu OC 

ii have done tests in P3D v4.5 hf2 that clerly show that, but as always is lot of guys following Youtubers that state mems do nothing the thing that not test any flightsim.

I run my mems with 1.45v and C15 at 4000mhz ( 2x8 ) 2 x16 dual rank is tricky 3600 c15 1.45v 

Edited December 31, 20196 yr by westman

5 minutes ago, westman said:

Tumb of rule , in P3D approx 0.8% 100mhz from 3200 to 4000 ca 6% ( if you can run same timings)  4-5% is realistic, XP not as much 2-3% , it scale very nice with cpu OC 

ii have done tests in P3D v4.5 hf2 that clerly show that, but as always is lot of guys following Youtubers that state mems do nothing the thing that not test any flightsim.

Could you point to any reliable but easy to understand mem o/c info? I'm running 3200 cas14 on its XMP profile...maybe I could get more out of it?

7 minutes ago, kevinfirth said:

Could you point to any reliable but easy to understand mem o/c info? I'm running 3200 cas14 on its XMP profile...maybe I could get more out of it?

we did a guide for X299 a couple of years back , its explain it how it work dosent matter if its Z390 or other the basics is the same. translate with google its on SWE.

https://www.sweclockers.com/forum/trad/1488623-guide-for-ddr4-overklockning-med-asus-rog-rampage-vi-apex-x299

 

So, you think that I should stick with 3866 Mhz @ 1.400v? I look forward to the CPU overclock tutorial, but first I need to be able to get through to that Windows 10 install screen. I have not tried this yet after setting the XMP profile....

No difference with respect to booting from the USB drive. The PC still reboots after maybe ten seconds of disk access, and then repeats. It never gets to the initial Windows 10 setup screen 

Do I need a hard disk to be installed to enable the initial Windows 10 setup screen to be displayed during the loading sequence from the bootable USB drive?

Edited December 31, 20196 yr by Christopher Low

I disconnected the SATA and power cables to the DVD drive and hard disk. I am still not getting to the initial Windows 10 setup screen.....but this time the monitor remained ON with the Windows 10 logo screen after that roughly ten seconds of disk access from the bootable USB drive. In other words, the PC did not reboot. It just stopped. Does that suggest anything?

EDIT: The Q code displayed after the above is AE.

Edited December 31, 20196 yr by Christopher Low