Experience an unsuccessful attempt at overclocking and refrain from posting.
Experience an unsuccessful attempt at overclocking and refrain from posting.
I took out the battery and power supply overnight and reset the CMOS several times. To be honest, this was my first time overclocking RAM, but I did some research beforehand and made changes gradually. Thaiphoon Burner provided the specs, though the numbers in the Ryzen DRAM calculator seemed inaccurate. I adjusted the values step by step, keeping voltages within recommended ranges except for DRAM, which should not exceed 1.39v. Reading forums showed DDR4 can handle up to 1.45v, so I went up to 1.42. I spent the day tweaking and resetting until it stabilized. After a few failed boots, I reduced settings back to what worked. I saved all BIOS settings and kept a USB with many backups. It wouldn’t boot after disconnecting the battery and power supply, which was the last step. Today I replaced every part—thankfully my unRAID unit has compatible hardware so I had spares. I changed the CPU, graphics card, power supply, and RAM all to the same results. The same failed components appeared on the unRAID board, confirming the issue is with the motherboard. I thought overclocking wouldn’t damage it, especially if voltages stayed safe. Can anyone confirm what might have caused this or suggest further steps? I opened an RMA with MSI (the board is only 40 days old! It almost missed the retailer window).
I haven’t tried yet, but I can attempt it. If you can’t reach the BIOS, there are ways to boot from USB without accessing it directly. Also, the BIOS update files in the driver section aren’t automatically bootable—they must be installed through the BIOS setup.
Thank you for the clarification. I should have checked your board instead of just focusing on the MSI. I’ve been searching and found that inserting a USB Fat32 stick into a top USB port will trigger the board to recognize it and install automatically. I’m not sure if your specific board is compatible.
Yes, the motherboard may emit a beep when the RAM is fully removed, indicating proper installation or signaling a need for further action.
I didn't fully understand your original message. You mentioned removing the battery and considering shunting CMOS pins, but also wondered if the BIOS might be damaged. You asked for advice on whether someone else might know more and suggested checking for a different BIOS battery.
Consider other RAM sticks instead of the ones you tried to overclock. Check if you have another size DDR4 stick that works reliably, or ask a friend for one and see if it boots. Also, confirm the CMOS reset was done properly and there was no power loss during critical operations.
I'm trying to understand the process of booting from a USB drive—this hasn't been resolved yet. With batteries, it will be challenging. These compact devices often hide components tightly inside their protective casings and attach them to specific ports, making swapping difficult. It's just as tricky to change the battery as it is to replace the hardware.