AB350 Pro4 - No POST - SOLVED - ASRock Forums

TL;DR: Original RAM kit was DOA. RMA RAM was good but couldn't get it to run at the rated 3200Hz. Settled for 3133Hz.

So I guess an update is in order. I contacted Newegg for a replacement RAM kit and they sent it FedEx Next Day. Sure enough, FedEx didn't fail to disappoint a second time around, delivering the RAM almost 48 hours after they received it, traveling less than 100 miles. I digress.

The new RAM kit arrived Friday and after I got home from work, I wasted little time popping in the 2 new sticks into the priority slots (A2 + B2) and removing the old stick (from A1). Cleared CMOS and booted up the system and was able to get it to post with factory settings. Great! I enabled the XMP profile for the RAM and BIOS automatically changed the voltage for DRAM to 1.35V like the RAM is rated for. Saved and restarted. Not only did it POST, but it booted into Windows 10 without a BSoD. Great!

Pulled up some monitoring software to watch for any issues and began running some benchmarks and running the system lightly, even went as far as running Ark: Survival Evolved. No issues. Still great! I have been playing Path of Exile with a friend lately so I needed to get on there anyways and do some daily quests. First thing I noticed is that my average FPS went from ~30 to ~60 from putting the new RAM in. That's ~100% improvement just by having dual channel and twice the RAM. So far everything has been working flawlessly.

Then it happened.

After about 5-10 minutes in combat, the game crashed. First time it ever happened, figured it was just a coincidence. Loaded it back up and continued playing for about another 5-10 minutes. BSoD.

I'm beginning to get worried. I check BIOS for all of the settings, reset them, and make sure I only touch the XMP profile and verify voltage.

Same scenario as above.

I decide that since the AB350 is only rated for 1.2V at the DIMM slots, maybe the voltage just isn't that reliable at anything over it so I nudge it up to 1.37V. Begin playing again and the game crashed again. I open up the Windows Event Viewer and locate the crash details:

Faulting application name: PathOfExile_x64Steam.exe, version: 0.0.0.0, time stamp: 0x5bac3be8
Faulting module name: atidxx64.dll, version: 24.20.13019.1008, time stamp: 0x5baafb30
Exception code: 0xc0000005
Fault offset: 0x00000000000a2e68
Faulting process id: 0x1d80
Faulting application start time: 0x01d457bfb4f3694a
Faulting application path: C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\Path of Exile\PathOfExile_x64Steam.exe
Faulting module path: C:\Windows\System32\DriverStore\FileRepository\c0333764.inf_amd64_239226e8c322a98d\B333740\atidxx64.dll
Report Id: 7dbaa744-370c-4d9c-aab1-fbf05b5e8592
Faulting package full name:
Faulting package-relative application ID:

After doing some research, it's a DirectX DLL and that the most common issues is with Anti-Aliasing. They typically said that games weren't stable when using better AA and that you would need to turn it down or off to prevent crashing. AA was already off in PoE (!) but I said let's try it and enabled 2x MSAA. No more crashes but frame rates were all over the place, constantly dropping down to 30 FPS in simple areas with no combat. This was unusual but acceptable for me as it didn't crash.

Moving forward, my friend suggested that using AA to combat the crashing isn't the correct issue and recommended lowering the clock speed. After considering what I felt was an acceptable speed of 3000Hz @ 1.35V, we decided to put it through it's paces. We gamed heavily all day Saturday without a single crash. He was definitely on to something. I wasn't quite happy with that by itself and wanted to see what other settings might need to be changed to get 3200Hz to work. We discussed a bunch of different possibilities and looked at all of the XMP values. They can be found here (Abbreviation: Value w/o XMP -> Value w/ XMP -> Value of Auto @ 3200Hz (optional)):

DRAM Timing Configuration
Primary Timing
tCL: 15 -> 16
tRCDRD: 15 -> 18
tRCDWR: 15 -> 18
tRP: 15 -> 18
tRAS: 36 -> 36

Secondary Timing
Fail Count: 3
tRC: 51 -> 54
tRRD_S: 4 -> 6
tRRD_L: 6 -> 9
tFAW: 23 -> 36
tWTR_S: 3 -> Auto -> 4
tWTR_L: 8 -> Auto -> 12
tWR: 16 -> Auto -> 24
tMAW, MAC: 0 -> Auto
TrdrdScL: 3 -> Auto -> 5
TwrwrScL: 3 -> Auto -> 5
tRFC: 312 -> 559
tRFC2: 192 -> 415
tRFC4: 132 -> 255
tCWL: 11 -> Auto -> 16
tRTP: 8 -> Auto -> 12
Trdwr: 10 -> Auto -> 7
Twrrd: 0 -> Auto -> 4
TwrwrSc: 1 -> Auto
TwrwrSd: 5 -> Auto -> 6
TwrwrDd: 5 -> Auto -> 6
TrdrdSc: 1 -> Auto
TrdrdSd: 3 -> Auto -> 4
TrdrdDd: 3 -> Auto -> 4
tCKE: 6 -> Auto -> 8
ProcODT: Auto

Data Bus Configuration
RttNom: Auto
RttWr: Auto
RttPark:

CR: 1 -> Auto
Gear Down Mode: Auto
Power Down Enable: Disabled

CAD Bus Configuration
CAD Bus Timing User Controls: Auto
CAD Bus Drive Strength User Controls: Auto

Voltage Configuration
DRAM Voltage: 1.210 -> 1.350

Unfortunately, we couldn't really make any determination about the before and after values as there is little to no information about this RAM aside from JEDEC and XMP timings, speeds, and voltages. We both settled that the MoBo was doing it's job properly and likely made no mistakes here as we had no way to check.

I ended up setting the BIOS back to factory, yet again, enabling the XMP profile, but changed the DRAM voltage to 1.380. It was worth a shot. Loaded up BaseMark GPU benchmark and ran a 4K OpenGL w/ High settings to stress the GPU (I had just downloaded it to do some other testing previously and was curious to see the difference between 3000Hz and 3200Hz). No issues during the benchmark and my score actually improved slightly from 737 (3000HZ) to 770 (3200). We both agreed that wasn't enough to give the RAM settings all clear and decided to run memtest86 overnight to make sure the RAM settings were good.

Almost 7 hours later, 3 tests had completed with absolutely 0 errors. Awesome! Maybe we found the key to this whole thing afterall. Started playing a couple of games slowly at first, not really enjoying the crashing from last time. After about 30 minutes I requested that we really push the systems and try to force a crash. Sure enough, about 10 minutes after that BSoD (didn't crash first like the other times). Lovely.

Verified speed and voltage in BIOS before booting up again and requested we try another game to possibly eliminate PoE as being the issue. We just downloaded Crossout from Steam Friday so we gave it a whirl. About 5 minutes in, BSoD again. Well, now what?

Decided we will just have to slowly throttle back the RAM speed to see what the MoBo can run safely without causing issues. Set RAM clock speed to 3133Hz @ 1.35V. Booted it back up. We queued up for a race together and made it through. Good news! We did a couple more and before we realized it, it was about 8 hours later with no crashes. Success!

The AB350 is only rated for 1.2V at the DIMM slots. Obviously, you can push the envelope on anything, but it appears this board just can't quite handle the RAM speeds at that voltage when the APU needs to use the RAM. I believe all hope isn't loss as I will set the RAM back to 3200 after I get a GPU in the future as this RAM is on the QVL and rated for 3200Hz @ 1.35V. I think it just wasn't tested for use with an APU at those settings.

Sorry for the long winded update/response, but overall this has been a rather frustrating experience for my first build. I would do it all over again in a heartbeat, maybe choosing a different MoBo (preferably one with a buzzer or LEDs for POST codes). It's also not deterring me from continuing to upgrade this rig in the future or doing a new build from scratch either. DOA components are troublesome but hopefully you can diagnose them as bad sooner rather than later.

Author	Message Topic Search Topic Options Post Reply Create New Topic Printable Version Translate Topic
xhue Members Profile Send Private Message Find Members Posts Add to Buddy List Groupie Joined: 17 Aug 2018 Status: Offline Points: 634	Post Options Post Reply Quote xhue Report Post Thanks(0) Quote Reply Posted: 27 Sep 2018 at 3:26am
	Newegg got a bit soft after the recent hack, so that's to be expected. Ryzens on the other hand were quirky only with their first generation. Next one has really improved memory controller and are definitely not that picky when it comes to RAM. What' you're seeing as a quirk with Ryzen can easily be an issue with the mobo itself. Just do a quick search for ABx50 in this forum, sit back and enjoy. If your new Corsairs run fine at their advertised speed I guess a pair of Flare X would not warrant its price. Besides, I doubt you're running that much of performance-critical apps.

VolatilePulse Members Profile Send Private Message Find Members Posts Add to Buddy List Newbie Joined: 26 Sep 2018 Location: USA Status: Offline Points: 8	Post Options Post Reply Quote VolatilePulse Report Post Thanks(0) Quote Reply Posted: 01 Oct 2018 at 11:14am
	TL;DR: Original RAM kit was DOA. RMA RAM was good but couldn't get it to run at the rated 3200Hz. Settled for 3133Hz. So I guess an update is in order. I contacted Newegg for a replacement RAM kit and they sent it FedEx Next Day. Sure enough, FedEx didn't fail to disappoint a second time around, delivering the RAM almost 48 hours after they received it, traveling less than 100 miles. I digress. The new RAM kit arrived Friday and after I got home from work, I wasted little time popping in the 2 new sticks into the priority slots (A2 + B2) and removing the old stick (from A1). Cleared CMOS and booted up the system and was able to get it to post with factory settings. Great! I enabled the XMP profile for the RAM and BIOS automatically changed the voltage for DRAM to 1.35V like the RAM is rated for. Saved and restarted. Not only did it POST, but it booted into Windows 10 without a BSoD. Great! Pulled up some monitoring software to watch for any issues and began running some benchmarks and running the system lightly, even went as far as running Ark: Survival Evolved. No issues. Still great! I have been playing Path of Exile with a friend lately so I needed to get on there anyways and do some daily quests. First thing I noticed is that my average FPS went from ~30 to ~60 from putting the new RAM in. That's ~100% improvement just by having dual channel and twice the RAM. So far everything has been working flawlessly. Then it happened. After about 5-10 minutes in combat, the game crashed. First time it ever happened, figured it was just a coincidence. Loaded it back up and continued playing for about another 5-10 minutes. BSoD. I'm beginning to get worried. I check BIOS for all of the settings, reset them, and make sure I only touch the XMP profile and verify voltage. Same scenario as above. I decide that since the AB350 is only rated for 1.2V at the DIMM slots, maybe the voltage just isn't that reliable at anything over it so I nudge it up to 1.37V. Begin playing again and the game crashed again. I open up the Windows Event Viewer and locate the crash details: Faulting application name: PathOfExile_x64Steam.exe, version: 0.0.0.0, time stamp: 0x5bac3be8 Faulting module name: atidxx64.dll, version: 24.20.13019.1008, time stamp: 0x5baafb30 Exception code: 0xc0000005 Fault offset: 0x00000000000a2e68 Faulting process id: 0x1d80 Faulting application start time: 0x01d457bfb4f3694a Faulting application path: C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\Path of Exile\PathOfExile_x64Steam.exe Faulting module path: C:\Windows\System32\DriverStore\FileRepository\c0333764.inf_amd64_239226e8c322a98d\B333740\atidxx64.dll Report Id: 7dbaa744-370c-4d9c-aab1-fbf05b5e8592 Faulting package full name: Faulting package-relative application ID: After doing some research, it's a DirectX DLL and that the most common issues is with Anti-Aliasing. They typically said that games weren't stable when using better AA and that you would need to turn it down or off to prevent crashing. AA was already off in PoE (!) but I said let's try it and enabled 2x MSAA. No more crashes but frame rates were all over the place, constantly dropping down to 30 FPS in simple areas with no combat. This was unusual but acceptable for me as it didn't crash. Moving forward, my friend suggested that using AA to combat the crashing isn't the correct issue and recommended lowering the clock speed. After considering what I felt was an acceptable speed of 3000Hz @ 1.35V, we decided to put it through it's paces. We gamed heavily all day Saturday without a single crash. He was definitely on to something. I wasn't quite happy with that by itself and wanted to see what other settings might need to be changed to get 3200Hz to work. We discussed a bunch of different possibilities and looked at all of the XMP values. They can be found here (Abbreviation: Value w/o XMP -> Value w/ XMP -> Value of Auto @ 3200Hz (optional)): DRAM Timing Configuration Primary Timing tCL: 15 -> 16 tRCDRD: 15 -> 18 tRCDWR: 15 -> 18 tRP: 15 -> 18 tRAS: 36 -> 36 Secondary Timing Fail Count: 3 tRC: 51 -> 54 tRRD_S: 4 -> 6 tRRD_L: 6 -> 9 tFAW: 23 -> 36 tWTR_S: 3 -> Auto -> 4 tWTR_L: 8 -> Auto -> 12 tWR: 16 -> Auto -> 24 tMAW, MAC: 0 -> Auto TrdrdScL: 3 -> Auto -> 5 TwrwrScL: 3 -> Auto -> 5 tRFC: 312 -> 559 tRFC2: 192 -> 415 tRFC4: 132 -> 255 tCWL: 11 -> Auto -> 16 tRTP: 8 -> Auto -> 12 Trdwr: 10 -> Auto -> 7 Twrrd: 0 -> Auto -> 4 TwrwrSc: 1 -> Auto TwrwrSd: 5 -> Auto -> 6 TwrwrDd: 5 -> Auto -> 6 TrdrdSc: 1 -> Auto TrdrdSd: 3 -> Auto -> 4 TrdrdDd: 3 -> Auto -> 4 tCKE: 6 -> Auto -> 8 ProcODT: Auto Data Bus Configuration RttNom: Auto RttWr: Auto RttPark: CR: 1 -> Auto Gear Down Mode: Auto Power Down Enable: Disabled CAD Bus Configuration CAD Bus Timing User Controls: Auto CAD Bus Drive Strength User Controls: Auto Voltage Configuration DRAM Voltage: 1.210 -> 1.350 Unfortunately, we couldn't really make any determination about the before and after values as there is little to no information about this RAM aside from JEDEC and XMP timings, speeds, and voltages. We both settled that the MoBo was doing it's job properly and likely made no mistakes here as we had no way to check. I ended up setting the BIOS back to factory, yet again, enabling the XMP profile, but changed the DRAM voltage to 1.380. It was worth a shot. Loaded up BaseMark GPU benchmark and ran a 4K OpenGL w/ High settings to stress the GPU (I had just downloaded it to do some other testing previously and was curious to see the difference between 3000Hz and 3200Hz). No issues during the benchmark and my score actually improved slightly from 737 (3000HZ) to 770 (3200). We both agreed that wasn't enough to give the RAM settings all clear and decided to run memtest86 overnight to make sure the RAM settings were good. Almost 7 hours later, 3 tests had completed with absolutely 0 errors. Awesome! Maybe we found the key to this whole thing afterall. Started playing a couple of games slowly at first, not really enjoying the crashing from last time. After about 30 minutes I requested that we really push the systems and try to force a crash. Sure enough, about 10 minutes after that BSoD (didn't crash first like the other times). Lovely. Verified speed and voltage in BIOS before booting up again and requested we try another game to possibly eliminate PoE as being the issue. We just downloaded Crossout from Steam Friday so we gave it a whirl. About 5 minutes in, BSoD again. Well, now what? Decided we will just have to slowly throttle back the RAM speed to see what the MoBo can run safely without causing issues. Set RAM clock speed to 3133Hz @ 1.35V. Booted it back up. We queued up for a race together and made it through. Good news! We did a couple more and before we realized it, it was about 8 hours later with no crashes. Success! The AB350 is only rated for 1.2V at the DIMM slots. Obviously, you can push the envelope on anything, but it appears this board just can't quite handle the RAM speeds at that voltage when the APU needs to use the RAM. I believe all hope isn't loss as I will set the RAM back to 3200 after I get a GPU in the future as this RAM is on the QVL and rated for 3200Hz @ 1.35V. I think it just wasn't tested for use with an APU at those settings. Sorry for the long winded update/response, but overall this has been a rather frustrating experience for my first build. I would do it all over again in a heartbeat, maybe choosing a different MoBo (preferably one with a buzzer or LEDs for POST codes). It's also not deterring me from continuing to upgrade this rig in the future or doing a new build from scratch either. DOA components are troublesome but hopefully you can diagnose them as bad sooner rather than later.