Hello! I also had *the entire and correct RAM capacity show up in the BIOS*, and, *it also showed up and passed all tests in Dell's pre-boot diagnostics*  With my Kingston HX426S16IB/32 1.2v memory kit, based on Micron memory. But the Windows 10 OS can't boot well. Well, today I'm totally disappointed with the Alienware hardware and looking for a new laptop from another manufacturer.

@jdb2 maybe I will try to reflash my memory kit to 2400 MHz soon, did you tried this?

It’s a firmware issue where the bios can read it correctly when it boots up but for some reason when it tried to load the OS it crashed.

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@fdobrotv wrote:

 

[snip]

@jdb2 maybe I will try to reflash my memory kit to 2400 MHz soon, did you tried this?q

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@fdobrotvActually, I have thought of reprogramming the SPD chip. The reason why I'm hesitant though is that the only up-to-date software I know of which can do this doesn't have my full trust. This means that I may have to buy specialized hardware which is big $$$. Furthermore, I really don't want to brick $200-$300 worth of RAM because of any mistakes I might make in reprogramming the SPD chip. Perhaps you could relate your experiences in doing this?

Regards,

jdb2

I think it might be reading the data of the SPD chip and saying hey this is above what we recommend for this motherboard.

"Actually, the SPD chip usually has several profiles on it from which the BIOS can select and also there's usually a 'fallback profile' which is usually at a much lower frequency which the BIOS can use if it decides that none of the other profiles are acceptable."

A slight correction : The above usually applies only to the XMP profiles on DDR3 and DDR4 RAM modules. DDR2 RAM modules had multiple profiles ( up to 3 I think? ) as part of the JEDEC standard, but, with the advent of DDR3 and then later DDR4, JEDEC changed the standard. The new standard was changed so that ( other than vendor specific extensions such as XMP ) the only "profile" available was an extension of the DDR2 default profile but which provided much more precise timing information with defaults that should work with all CPU IMCs that support said RAM modules. Usually the BIOS automatically calculates the "best" voltage, timing, frequency and other settings unless overridden by something like an XMP profile.

jdb2

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@Alienware Area-51 ALX 2006 wrote:

I think it might be reading the data of the SPD chip and saying hey this is above what we recommend for this motherboard.

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@Alienware Area-51 ALX 2006  Actually, the SPD chip usually has several profiles on it from which the BIOS can select and also there's usually a "fallback profile" which is usually at a much lower frequency which the BIOS can use if it decides that none of the other profiles are acceptable. Furthermore, more advanced BIOSs can automatically set up the RAM voltage, timings and frequency irregardless of what the "maximum performance" profile indicates. The fact that the same 64GiB SO-DIMMs which won't allow normal OSs to boot on my AW 17 R5 work *perfectly* at around 2400MHz on my Intel NUC suggests to me that it's either a Dell software lockout in the BIOS, or, more likely, just a buggy BIOS that can't seem to select the correct SPD profile.

jdb2

I’m having the issue on i9 model. Really disappointing because I paid for every option they had to be limited to 32gb ram! 

Weird?

that doesn’t make any sense unless it’s physically an electrical issue or something blocking it.