Framework 13, Ryzen AI 300 upgrade, Black screen, wont boot. Is it my ram?

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I have an Intel Framework 13, that I am replacing the mainboard in, upgrading to the Ryzen AI 300 board available for the 13. When memory prices started rising, i decided to pull the trigger, and get the components I needed. I bought:

Ryzen AI board for the 13 (AI5 340) and the recommended wifi adapter.

Framework’s shop was already out of memory, so i bought two sticks of 16gb DDR5 5600 laptop memory from Newegg (Kingston Fury). Oh, and some gen 2 hinges, because those factory hinges were terrible.

Yesterday I decided to do the install, and I carefully did so. I am not new to getting inside of small electronics, and have been building and maintaining PC’s and laptops for about 30 years. I took the usual precautions.

Install went well, aside from the T5 bit on my framework provided screwdriver/tool losing its points and stripping out two screws before I realized the dang thing was the problem, and switched to my other screwdriver set.

Problem is, the machine wont boot. I powered it on after getting everything connected, and it just gives me a black screen, power light is on solid white, the indicator lights by the expansion slots isnt giving me anything odd (just the charging/charged light when i have the external power connected). No flashing lights indicating an issue. Just.. Nothing, black screen, and no indication that the system is attempting to boot.

I realize that these boards do a memory check/diag on first boot, but im told that takes as little as 2 minutes. 32gb of memroy, i decided to give it the benefit of the doubt and let it sit for about an HOUR, and nothing.

My gut says its the memory. Ive seen PC’s give you a flat nothing in the past and its always come down to memory, or CPU, and considering this is a band new board, i’m hoping its not the CPU.

Ive tried checking and re-seating all of the connections I had to touch while doing the mainboard replacement, all seem solid, and I cant see any damage.

The memory, ive tried the usual troubleshooting of taking the memory out, re-seating it, swapping sticks to the opposite slots, and one at a time in slot 1, nothing.

I even tried turning it on with NO memory to see if i got a different result, nothing. Same deal with my storage, i pulled that out to rule out OS weirdness. Nothing.

I also tried an external display, to try to rule out a connection problem with the onboard display, not sure if that would have worked or not anyway, but it did the exact same thing.

Any other suggestions? I do have a case with Framework open as well, but I thought I’d give this a shot while waiting for a response.

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As the Intel Framework also uses DDR5 SO DIMMs you could either try:

Plugging the old DDR5 modules from the Intel board into the DDR5 slots of the AMD board and check if it boots, and/or:

Replace the AMD mainboard for the Intel board, plug in your new DDR5 modules and see if it boots.

If the AMD main board boots up with the old DDR5 modules: new DDR5 modules are likely dead.

If the Intel main board boots up with the new DDR5 modules: AMD main board is likely dead.

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I think there have been reports of kingston fury ram not working on the AMD AI cpus.
I would contact FW support to be sure.

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I have 64Gb of RAM on my FW13 Ryzen AI 7 and it boots quickly, under a minute. This doesn’t smell like a memory issue to me, but I’m just a dude.

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I forget what generation it is, but my Intel mainboard ran ddr4. Which is why I had to buy memory.

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The mainboard installation instructions, the last step says that the FIRST boot will take some time, because it does some memory diagnostics. after that i expect it will would boot normally. That first boot could take a few minutes, but their own description says 2-3 minutes. I let it sit much longer just to make sure. No dice.

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Do you have a shop with a tech support dpt nearby which could do a quick look on your mainboard and DDR RAM if they are not too busy? Would save a lot of hassle…

A friend of mine just completed a Ryzen desktop build with Kingston Fury memory so that would be a mighty weird compatibility issue. But you never know these days.

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Here are the details about the Kingston Fury problems:

Although saying that, the Kingston Fury appears in the compatible list now.
But the Kingston Fury has been removed from this list:

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More than likely it is something with Kingston Fury memory laptop DIMM and the Rysen AI main board from Framework. Lots of people have had issues with this brand/model, just stay away from it. Even if it is on the compatibility list there is enough issues I would still avoid it and just not risk the hassle.

The AMD AI CPUs are much more finicky when it comes to ram sub timings. That is going to be an expensive fix now that memory is probably much more expensive than when the OP first bought the memory if it was more than a few months ago.

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Thanks for the info.

I bought it last week. doesn’t seem to have changed much since. but i do want to get this solved before it hikes again. I’ll see if i can return this memory and get a different brand.

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OK Folks! I requested a refund on the Kingston Fury memory, and im sending it back. Ordered some Crucial that they still had in stock It turned out to be about $40 more than the Kingston. We’ll see if that works any better.

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Crucial shoild work. These are the same sticks Framework is using (Micron)

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That is fantastic news! (That the memory was recently purchased!) I personally have used G.Skill and Crucial in both my Framework Laptops. Crucial has traditionally always been really compatible though maybe not always the bleeding edge fastest. The difference is very small these days in laptops vs. desktops since the latter are typically the only ones able to be overclocked.

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That was my thought as well.

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I have used almost exclusively Crucial memory for 25 years in my desktops and laptops when I had the choice. I only strayed this time because of the recent news from Crucial about their consumer lineup going away, and demand jumping (and price jumping with it). I was having trouble even finding a place with crucial in stock.

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Micron aka Crucial has always been a really reliable source of memory components for so long. I read their announcement and it was definitely a business choice because the enterprise segment is so much more profitable. It really is better suited to their business model. Even when they started Crucial so many years ago it was really just this offshoot of their core business.

I will miss having their consumer products as a reliable source in the future. They have done a great job with their products and it just makes much more sense to stick with what is going to generate the revenue that allows them to keep reinvesting into future developments.

I did see a number of online places sell out of lots of Crucial product as many of us are getting the good stuff before it is no longer available.

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UPDATE!

It was the memory! The crucial memory arrived today, and I installed it, came right up, Linux didnt even bat an eye either at the hardware changes. I love having a solid operating system. :smiley:

Anyway, if there was any question, i’m going to call it, dont use Kingston Fury DDR5 memory with the Ryzen AI.

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