ROG ASUS Z490-I Strix has issues!

[Legolas]

Here are my tips to fix the freeze issue:
(1) Flash latest bios
(2) increase DRAM voltage (1.35V to 1.36 or even 1.4V for better stability)
(3) Loosen timing: for example: if memory is 16-19-19-39, I will increase timing to 16-20-20-39 or 17-19-19-39 or 17-20-20-40.
(4) reduce frequency (example: DRAM frequency 3600Mhz to 3333Mhz or 3200Mhz)
(5) Run Memtest86 to make sure all memory pass without errors
(6) do not mix memory kits; 2 memory kits will cause instability

[R3VOLV]

I ended up returning the board and getting a different one from a different manufacturer. Worked first time.
ASUS support were great and immediately recommended RMAing the board via the vendor after I explained the issue and troubleshooting steps. I opted to purchase a different board as I didn't want to risk the same issue with a replacement given the number of people in this thread that share the same issue.

I'm hoping this info might help others:
I had the Z490-I , 2x32GB (3200mhz XMP, 16-20-20-39) (2400Mhz SDP, 17-17-17-39) RAM and an i7 10700KF.
Although some settings would increase stability, nothing completely fixed the issue and I would still get crashing every few hours under load.
I also had almost immediate crashing unless c-states were disabled. The testing below was performed with both c-states on and off. Nothing was ever stable with c-states on.

I tried:

• Updating BIOS to v707 - No change
• MCE off - No change
• Increasing the SA and VCCIO voltage - 1.1, 1.15, 1.2 - No change
• Increasing the DRAM voltage - 1.36, 1.4 - No change
• Relaxing the timings (17-20-20-42, 18-20-20-42, etc) - Increased stability
• Reducing the frequency (3000mhz XMP no change), (2400Mhz increased stability)

The only thing that removed the issue completely was populating only a single DIMM slot.

The most reliable way I found to reproduce the crash was prime95's benchmark function (not the stress test). Memtest86 always passed for me although I did limited runs as 64GB takes a long time to test!

[Mobfigurz]

Funny how ASUS deleted my last comment after a few weeks. So if you show discontent with their products and voice your frustrations, they remove your comments. Bravo ASUS, you scumbags!!

[Silent_Scone@ROG]

Funny how ASUS deleted my last comment after a few weeks. So if you show discontent with their products and voice your frustrations, they remove your comments. Bravo ASUS, you scumbags!!

Hello,

Your post was likely moved to service for their attention. Might want to tone down the insults, profanity is another reason why posts would be removed.

https://rog.asus.com/forum/showthrea...-memory-issues

[Mobfigurz]

Hello,

Your post was likely moved to service for their attention. Might want to tone down the insults, profanity is another reason why posts would be removed.

https://rog.asus.com/forum/showthrea...-memory-issues

In that case I take back what I said.

[umdogan]

I've been mailing Asus back and forth and after a lot of explaining to them, finnally two weeks ago they said they're investigating the issue. Now after all those "investigations" they're saying HQ R&D team can not duplicate the problem we have.

So, I don't know what to make of it. Does that mean people here are lying? It's been said multiple times that it's a "random" hard freeze. So it means you can get a hard freeze in 10 minutes or 20 hours but eventually you will get one. Saying that we couldn't replicate your problem and proposing nothing is the opposite meaning of job description of a Customer Service. What to do now...

[adrteo]

I've been mailing Asus back and forth and after a lot of explaining to them, finnally two weeks ago they said they're investigating the issue. Now after all those "investigations" they're saying HQ R&D team can not duplicate the problem we have.

So, I don't know what to make of it. Does that mean people here are lying? It's been said multiple times that it's a "random" hard freeze. So it means you can get a hard freeze in 10 minutes or 20 hours but eventually you will get one. Saying that we couldn't replicate your problem and proposing nothing is the opposite meaning of job description of a Customer Service. What to do now...

I wish I had seen this thread before purchasing this board last week. I'm experiencing random reboots and crashes as well when I enable XMP. They go away when I disable XMP and run my XPG (16GB x 2) DDR4-3600 at stock speeds, i.e. 2666MHz.

The fact that they are not able to duplicate the problem is just incredulous. I expected better from ASUS.

[Frost7]

Just wanted to say thank you to the folks who suggested 1.1v VCCIO and SA voltages. I am actually able to run my computer more or less stably now after fighting with this thing for over two months, RMAing two sets of RAM with G.Skill, RMAing a CPU with Intel, and buying a second motherboard.

Quality control on this board is an absolute cluster. I can't believe they shipped something with DRAM listed in the QVL that, if used, can't make it 10 seconds into an AVX2 stress test before exploding and having random hard lockups under even regular desktop use. I feel bad for wasting Intel's and G.Skill's time and costing them money returning perfectly good hardware.

ASUS needs to get on this issue and right now.

[adrteo]

So is ASUS going to fix this or continue to pretend that it doesn't exist?

[Tommas]

Just posting to say that i have the same exact problem. I would like to rma the board has anyone done that ? is asus gonna replace the board ?