No POST on Asrock X470D4U with 1700X

So, I may already know what the issue is but wanted to ask to be 100% certain.

I just built a system with a Ryzen 1700X, X470D4U and two 16GB sticks of Nemix ECC UDIMMs. The system won’t post but after a while I was able to get access to the BMC via DHCP.

Under system information nothing is present except for fan rpms. After I gave it a few minutes the dashboard was eventually populated with the BIOS version which is P4.20.

Screenshot from 2022-11-26 14-50-54

When I check the BIOS version it is the latest with the message : if you are using a Ryzen 2000 series CPU, please keep the BIOS at version P3.50.

So the BIOS version probably doesn’t support 1st Gen anymore which is unfortunate for me but not really a big issue as I was reusing a CPU I already had. I just wanted to make sure as I do recall seeing success stories on certain asrock boards where Ryzen 1st gen worked even after the bridge BIOS update. What is more unfortunate is to find this out just after the black friday sales where I could have snagged a 5000 series CPU.

So is there anyone who miraculously has 1st Gen Ryzen working with P4.20 BIOS or should I just go ahead and get a new CPU.

I am using this motherboard but with a newer processor so I can’t comment on whether or not it is possible to get a first gen Ryzen working with this BIOS version, however you can still download the 3.50 BIOS from ASRock’s website and flash the BIOS to that version right from within the IPMI.

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I don’t see any information with respect to the downgrade on the Asrock site. On my other system with a X370 taichi I know this wasn’t a simple process especially once the bridge BIOS was applied for the 5000 series support.

BIOS 3.50 is the last version with Ryzen 1000 series support. I happen to have the exact same board with almost the exact same CPU (R7 1700, non-X!) and BIOS 3.50, works a treat! So, downgrade your BIOS to v3.50 and you’re done.

HTH!

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Are you able to flash bios with ipmi, if so 3.50

If not, first gen is long in the tooth

I decided to go for broke and try the downgrade. Downloaded the 3.50 Instant flash and performed the update from the BMC. It went through the process, uploading then flashing but after the reset it still came back as P4.20. I tried removing the power to restart the SP but it remains as P4.20 so it looks like It can’t downgrade or at least not from the BMC.

Did you try booting it again anyway? Maybe the IPMI is just showing the BIOS version that was there from the last time you tried to boot it.

Try the local “upgrade” option: keyboard, monitor, USB-drive with BIOS v3.50.

So I actually just tried powering on this once more from the IPMI and saw that the no signal via KVM went away and it actually booted!

So the hardware is being reflected on the BIOS but was not on the IPMI. After a bit I then went back into the IPMI and the information was now changed where it reflects that the BIOS was downgraded:

image

System Information via IPMI is still not populated but I am glad that it boots! I am guessing that it takes quite some time for the information to be reflected to the IPMI.

Kudos to everyone who suggested the downgrade. Based on my past experience with the x370 taichi I did not even bother to consider downgrading.

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Well, mine sure didn’t update. At all :roll_eyes: I have this board for a fair while now, running occasionally as and when needed, but the BMC never updated its system info. My BMC version is still 2.20.00, you have a later version I see. I may or may not update my system and see if that changes its behaviour, but based on your experiences, I’m doubtful. Hopefully YMMV!

So I seem to have a new problem now. While the machine can POST, it is unable to load into an OS. When I try Ubuntu or Win10 they both report errors, blue screen for Win10 and system halted on Ubuntu 20.04.

After spending half the morning troubleshooting by shifting DIMM sticks around, testing one at a time on each slot I eventually found that the system is able to boot into OS once the two DIMM sticks I have are installed in A2 & B2 (white slots) only.

I tried resetting the BIOS to defaults and booting without the CMOS battery but the system refuses to boot into an OS once the DIMMs are in A1 & B1 (Blue) either single or in pairs. From what I can tell from the manual is that two stick population should be A1 & B1 which unfortunately does not work. This will be a problem in the near future as I wanted to get two more sticks for a 64GB total.

image

How much sticks of RAM do you have and what population?

If it works better in A2 and B2, you should use those. Ryzen is very finicky with RAM.
I’d even recommend going for newer ICs if you can, as they have better Ryzen compatibility. 2x Jedec 3200 32Gb dimms worked on my 2600, while nothing I tried with 16GB XMP/2666 Jedec did.
That was with X570, though. My X470 Asrock seems fine with 2x16 no-XMP super budget G.Skill 2666mhz sticks with the same CPU.

I have it working on A2 and B2 at the moment but the plan was to add two additional ECC sticks. I may test with regular Gskill ram from my pc on A1 and B1 just to confirm it is not an issue with the ports itself.

I tried using regular Gskill DDR4 that I had in my PC on the A1 & B1 slot and it booted into Ubuntu without issues. I even tried mixing and matching both the Gskill and Nemix ECC ram together and it booted successfully.

What is strange is that when I removed that Gskill and tried the ECC back in slot A1 and B1 the machine now boots into the OS but unfortunately it seems to randomly reboot. Here is a quick snapshot of memory errors that pop up via journalctl before a reboot:

I am considering to call it a loss on the Nemix ram and just purchase regular Gskill DDR4 as I know it works.

With the current sale prices, I noticed that 64GB in 32GB stick pairs seem to be the better value. Does anyone know if it would be an issue using the a pair of 32GB sticks with the 1700X or should I just play it safe with 16GB x4?

That’s really disappointing. Have you considered getting some cheap Samsung ECC? I see sets on ebay for surprisingly low prices lately. 32GB 3200mhz dimms, even.

2x32 is actually easier on 1700x than 4x16. I’d highly recommend trying that route before giving up, especially since 32GB dimms are almost guaranteed to have ICs made post-ryzen, and properly tested against AMD’s IMC, compared to lower capacity dimms that will be using ICs designed exclusively on and for Intel DDR4 IMCs.
It might not even be that the nemixram modules are faulty, but simply that they’re not very ryzen friendly.

I was actually looking at regular corsair LPX 32GB sticks as they have some decent prices at the moment. I may consider returning the Nemix RAM but I want to test it back on slot A2 and B2 and check if any memory errors or restarts happens as I did not encounter this when they were on those slots initially. It may just be comparability issue with my 1700X as others seem to have these working with no issues on this board but with newer Ryzen processors.

I did have a look at the Samsung ECC on ebay but the majority of the deals I saw for used ones were RDIMMs unfortunately.

What about this?
I think the 2G x 8 is a mistake here, as it should be 2R x 8.
I see quite a few other similar deals, for kingston or crucial ecc as well. It seems like just over the last few weeks, there’s been a lot of ECC UDIMMs hitting the market.

Shucks, I wish I had seen these before the purchasing the Nemix.

yeah your zen1 memory controller leaves much to be desired, you might have to run them at 1866 or 2133
newer chips (zen 3 5000) should have no problem running 3200 on all slots filled with dual rank

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