RAM Change - Weird Errors

Framework Laptop 16
1

Hi,

I recently purchased a 48GB RAM kit. The kit is Samsung M425R6GA3BB0-CWM, 48GB x 2 @ 5600MTs.

I am aware that it’s not ‘technically’ supported, however there were many other people who have had no issues ( 1 2 ), so I thought I would try myself. Installing the RAM makes my system completely unable to boot, and gives me nonsensical errors.

What I Tried

My old ram was 8GBx2, and I also have 32GBx2 from another laptop. Both of these work fine (one or two sticks), and boot succesfully. Any combination of these with the 48GB sticks (e.g. 32GB + 48GB, 8GB + 48GB, 48GB + 48GB) makes my system unable to boot.

Errors

Upon installing any of the new sticks, I get: ~30-60 seconds of no behaviour, and then the blinking LEDS indicating the system failed to POST. Video recordings are available here.

The LEDs blink in the following pattern: Device Checks: WGGGGGGRRGGGGG, Post Code: OBGBGGGBB. There is no guide for the FW16 for what these mean, but I have been looking at the docs for the FW13.

From those docs, it shows that I have errors at 7, 8, which means the audio and thermal sensors. I do not have errors in the 11th blink, which should mean that the RAM is fine. I have also tested with no ram at all, which fails (obviously), but gives me very different errors, including the RAM check failing.

The POST code is 0xC5 (or possibly 0xA3 if I have my bit order wrong); Looking at the list here this means it’s failing on “Enter S3” or “Restore system configuration stage 1”, neither is very informative.

At this point I have no idea what is going on, and I would love some support with this, because I would really like to be able to use that RAM.

2

Hi @Rowan1,

Read the threads cited above and the majority of cases found success with the Crucial memory kits. Again, this is not officially supported; so you are in a grey area with Framework on the support side.

They have tested some kits but not all of them work and 48GB is an oddball size from a memory standpoint. There is a really long thread Framework themselves started asking what people were putting in their AMD machines.

Personally I would not want to be a test case and would go with what others have found worked without issues; especially going with technically more memory than what is officially supported. If there are issues later, the first flag to support will be using an unsupported memory size. The cost of the kit purchased is meaningless if it will not work properly compared to kits from other manufacturers with a larger sample size of success.

1 Like