I've encountered a peculiar issue after upgrading my RAM. I initially had a 2x16GB Corsair Vengeance DDR5 setup that was working perfectly fine for months. Recently, I added another identical 2x16GB kit. The only difference I found was in CPU-Z, where it showed one kit was made by Samsung and the other by Micron.
The first boot works well—both the BIOS and Windows recognize all four sticks, and the timings and frequencies match up perfectly. However, when I try to restart, my BIOS gets stuck on the RAM check, and my motherboard's DRAM LED lights up, preventing any further progress. I've attempted shutting down and restarting multiple times, but the issue persists.
I've also tested each RAM kit separately in the same slots without any problems, updated my firmware, and ran Memtest, which all came back fine. It's only when I combine all four sticks that I encounter this boot issue upon restart. Any insights would be appreciated! Thanks for taking the time to read this!
2 Answers
It sounds like you might be facing a memory training issue due to the different manufacturers of the RAM. Check your BIOS settings for "memory context restore"—this option affects how your memory is trained at boot time. Sometimes, different brands can cause issues during restarts since the memory may not re-train properly. Go ahead and toggle that setting, power down completely, and see how it works on cold boot.
What model numbers did you have for both the original and the new RAM? Sometimes even identical-looking RAM can have compatibility quirks. If they differ in any way, it might cause issues on subsequent boots. It’s great that you’ve managed to boot them up together, but consistent restarts are a different ballgame.
Great point! I figured it out; it was indeed the memory context restore. For your info, the model numbers are identical, so I guess it was just a BIOS setting causing the issue. Thanks for your input!
This was it! Thank you so much for your help. I disabled that setting, and everything works perfectly now. I just hope there aren’t any long-term issues from keeping it disabled.