Inspiron 5680, XMP, bad technical support

I thought I knew alot about PC's but I had to look up XMP.

I don't find your experience "unbelievable". I wouldn't expect tech support to know what XMP is either. 

If you don't find it in the BIOS, it isn't there!

I appreciate your response. 

First of all its a desktop, and the fact that they hung up on me twice because they didn't know the answer is kind of crazy. You'd at least expect them to say they didn't know. 

Are you familiar with this version of dell bios? (1.3.2) is there no way to get into dev settings or anything? I know some older versions of bios I've had in custom built pcs had hidden voltage and timing settings under a "secret" menu. 

Thanks

No, I am not familiar with the Dell BIOS.

Dev settings?  It certainly wouldn't be on official Dell documentation for the consumer.

Your Inspiron desktop is for the ordinary consumer.

If you had wanted XMP memory, you should have invested in a PC that had it, or built one of your own.

.

guess I could replace the mobo :smileyfrustrated:

or manually overclock it.

I should have just built this one like my last two. Didn't realize Dell was in the habit of selling pcs with locked mobos. I just read up on it, apparently a lot of 'consumer' pcs are sold with locked mobos to prevent the average joe from overclocking and melting their cpus. 

That's disappointing, either way thanks for your input

I've never seen an Inspiron that supported Over-Clocking or XMP.

If you had an Alienware, and DIMMs (with XMP burned into them) you could play with OC.

Both of my Alienwares can be OC-ed, but I hardly ever do it. Machines are already way-fast at just their designed-for stock clocks.

And for the record, this is a user-to-user forum, not Dell Tech Support. So we have no access to your account or personal info...

If you're within 30 days from invoice date, not delivery date, you can probably return it if it doesn't fit your needs, but you might have to pay a restocking fee since the PC isn't "broken".

You only have 1x8 GB RAM module, so RAM is running in single channel mode, and can't take advantage of the faster speeds offered by dual channel mode. But dual channel requires identical modules in each slot in the same memory bank. So installing a second matching 1x8 GB module should improve performance.  Probably easiest way to obtain an exactly matching module would be to order it from Dell Spare Parts.

You should have explained what XMP was, there are tons of abbreviations out there and it is overwhelming for everyone including me. Did you have the tmg or the btc with you when you called?...…...lol

Hopefully you spot this. What did you end up doing about the XMP and BIOS lock issue? I'm facing the same problem was hoping you found a solution.

Hey magic, i spotted it. Turns out alot of big name brand manufacturers like Dell, HP, Asus, etc. Put locked mobos in their pre-built systems; such as the Inspiron and Omen. If you, like me, have any PC from these brands you CANNOT enable XMP. You also cannot install a new or updated BIOS version without being able to code it yourself. (Risky) I also had NO success manually overclocking the ram. I have done a stupid amount of research into this, and have tried every possible way to do it. Feel free to message on here if you have any questions. The bottom line is, you’re stuck at 2400mhz.

magicjohnson95,

This is not a problem. You are trying to use the Inspiron 5680 in a way that was never designed or sold.

The Inspiron 5680 was never designed to use XMP memory or to allow users to customize the BIOS.

The Inspiron 5680 sales site never mentions XMP memory. It shows DDR4 2666MHz and DDR4 2400MHz. Nor does it mention overclocking.

The online Inspiron Gaming Desktop Setup and Specifications PDF clearly shows on page 20 =

Configurations supported =
8GB Single Channel DDR4 2400MHz/2666MHz (1x8GB)
* 16GB Single Channel DDR4 2666MHz (1x16GB) (Not tested by Dell but Forum customers say it works)
16GB Dual Channel DDR4 2400MHz/2666MHz (2x8GB)
* 32GB Dual Channel DDR4 2400MHz/2666MHz (4x8GB) (Not tested by Dell but Forum customers say it works)
32GB Dual Channel DDR4 2666MHz (2x16GB)
64GB Dual Channel DDR4 2666MHz (4x16GB)

Dell OEM memory sticks =
TP9W1 16GB,2666MHz,2RX8,DDR4,1Gx72,8K,288pin,2Rx8,Dual Rank,Unbuffered,1.2v,Non-ECC
Y7N41 8GB,2666MHz,1RX8,DDR4,1Gx64,8K,288pin,1Rx8,Single Rank,Unbuffered,1.2v,Non-ECC
M0VW4 8GB,2400MHz,1RX8,DDR4,1Gx64,8K,288pin,1GBx8,Single Rank,Unbuffered,1.2v,Non-ECC

That's a bummer. I was hoping to work around it by buying ram that runs at 2666mhz at JEDEC (SPD), eliminating the problem of unusable xmp specs. This was for a 5676 which only states supported speeds of 2400 in dells documentation but according to dells own forums here it does still support 2666 speeds. sounds like that may not be possible though. I'm also happy with my dell but being unable to alter the bios simply to increase ram speed for a specifically stated gaming PC is pretty darn frustrating. Just gotta hope it doesn't downclock it to 2133mhz once it arrives. Thank you for the reply though! 

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@RoHe wrote:
"Dell speaks, 2666mhz is unachievable. "

Where does Dell say that? Dell-Chris M's post says (in green) that Dell tested and validated Dual Channel DDR4 at 2400MHz/2666MHz.

That means the RAM they tested will work at those speeds. Obviously, Dell can't test every manufacturer's RAM in every PC model and RAM is not all made to the same specs. So when you throw in some brand of RAM that Dell didn't test, it may -or not- work at the desired speed.

So who's fault is that? If you wanted RAM that was validated to work at 2666 MHZ in this PC, you should have purchased it from Dell, or gotten a warranty from whichever brand you bought that it would run at 2666 MHz in this specific PC model or they'd take it back.

Besides, I doubt you'd even notice any difference in performance with 2400 vs 2666 MHz RAM.

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I agree, they wouldn't notice any difference