DDR5 Dominator Titanium 6400 - Z690 / i9-12000k issues

[PistonHonda]

Hi All, 

First - thanks for taking the time to help me with this. Lately I've been feeling entirely cheated by the hardware manufacturers. Building a PC used to be a fun endeavor for me, but, I guess, as I'm aging with kids, etc. these not-so-straightforward issues are really starting to grind on me. I did search the forum and found some close-but-no-cigar solutions. I have spent weeks of ordering and swapping parts to get to this point.

Setup

• PSU - EVGA 750w
• Mobo - Asus ROG z-690-e Gaming WIFI (upgraded to latest BIOS ver 3302)
• CPU - Intel i9-12900k
• RAM - 32GB (16x2) Corsair Dominator Titanium 6400 (32-40-40-84) 1.4V ver 5.43.01
• GPU - RTX 3080Ti
• HDD - M.2 Samsung 990 PRO

Background

• It took me forever to get this machine to post. With both sticks of RAM in (in the recommended A2 and B2 slots) I would get a 5-round boot loop and then PostCode 55 (no memory found).
• Finally, after reading a bit online, I tried it with 1 stick of RAM in A2. Voila. I could get the damn thing to boot to BIOS, but it automatically downclocked the RAM to something like 3400Mhz.
• After playing with the XMP profiles and upgrading the BIOS, I was able to get the board to boot with 1 RAM stick in A2, at the RAMs rated 6400Mhz. I think I used the XMP II profile with a slight upwards voltage adjustment that I saw on a YouTube video. However, I've not yet been able to get it to boot with both sticks installed in A2 and B2. Swapping the sticks does nothing, and it will boot with 1 stick in the A2 slot.
• On a whim, and with a little bit of oldschool knowledge, I popped both sticks in A1 and A2 and the sucker booted. And it was stable... for a day.
• Then all hell broke loose. I corrupted my video drivers and then Windows completely took a crap. Now I'm back to a fresh install of Windows and 1 RAM stick. 

I'm feeling pretty defeated in what used to be a fun hobby of mine. I've never been into overclocking - I just want to play video games and have a stable machine for work.

I don't believe I have any hardware failures at this point, I just need the settings that will work. Any ideas?

thanks,

 

[c-attack]

Put in one stick only so you can boot up to the BIOS.  Make sure XMP is off and set the DRAM frequency to "Auto", which will manually put it at the JEDEC default 4800.  If you have changed any of the primary or lower sub-timings, set them back to auto (a).  Save and exit, then shut down when you get to the desktop.  Put in module 2 to the normal B2 slot and see if it will boot with both sticks in A2/B2 at 4800.  

 

If it does not, then the RAM needs to go back as defective.  It's possible there is an issue with the B2 slot on the MB, but changing that is far more difficult.  Better to make that the last option.  If you've bought from any of the usual vendors, try to return to them directly.  If you've bought from Corsair directly and try to report the kit as defective, they'll re-route you through Corsair Support and eat up a week of your time trying to send it back.  Best in this instance to simply return it as unwanted so you can move forward.