People should be made aware that there are major issues with the G.Skill RGB memory modules and both Aura and G.Skill software. The SPD's on the memory can and frequently do become corrupted. The bios plays hell trying to deal with the corrupted SPD's, and major booting / stability problems result.
This is well documented, and at this point, has no fix by either G.Skill or Asus. The only alternatives are to RMA / return the memory sticks, or use Thaiphoon Burner to re-write your SPD's.
I had this occur, and it was thanks to the great help from the authors of HWiNFO64 and Thaiphoon Burner that the problem was diagnosed. Voodoo Jungle summated the issue this way over at the
"G.SKILL DDR4 RGB Lighting with Trident Z Series Thread" on overclock.net:
"The RGB series is a big fail for G.SKILL. The idea to control LED lightning via writes to SPD EEPROM is poor itself. Besides, it is extremely dangerous! The only purpose of SPD EEPROM is to store SPD data (timings, frequencies, technical module parameters, etc). Even the final version of G.SKILL software will cannot help resolve issues with SPD corrupting."
red-ray - the author of SIV64X in the "
ROG Crosshair VI overclocking thread" at the same forum, points out that the issue is exacerbated by Asus / G.Skill 's failure to use the Global\Access_SMBUS.HTP.Method named mutex to interlock SMBus access in their software.
"I can confirm the issues are all down to ASUS not using the locks. In my testing of SIV as soon as ASUS Aura is started SMBus retries are reported and this never happens when such as AIDA64 or HWiNFO are also active."
So there is a fundamental hardware design problem, compounded by poorly coded software. I like both Asus and G.Skill in general, but this is a big problem that has borked many users.
Asus staff has said they are working on it, but no solution is firm yet. In the mean time, the use of either manufacturer's software with G.Skill RGB memory is putting your modules at risk.
Personally, I returned the RGB modules, for sticks with the same Samsung B-die chips, and rating in a no RGB kit. It solved the problems I was having.
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