HP OMEN 880-050 (Microcenter version)

[Markc76]

I am looking to upgrade my RAM. I see I have the TAMPA2 motherboard and the specifications for it say that it can do 2400Mhz and 2666 Mhz RAM up to 64GB total. I currently have 2 sticks of 8GB (16GB) Samsung 2400MHZ stock. But have purchased on the way a set of Corsair Vengence LPX 32GB Kit (2 x16Gb sticks). Do you forsee any issue upgrading this? Do my BIOs have an XPS settings I need to set to go to 2666Mhz or should it be recognized? I did the research, I just wanted to double-check with the experts before I plug it in. Its on its way. This has been a great computer, but I am doing more with graphics and couple use a little more RAM. Also, that RAM is now starting to get older and just want to take care of it.

This PC is running Processor Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-7700K CPU @ 4.20GHz, 4201 Mhz, 4 Core(s), 8 Logical Processor(s), with TAMPA2 motherboard, GTX 1080Ti graphics card, and 600W power supply. Liquid-cooled version. Any professional opinion would be great. I dont expect faster frames or anything like that. Just the ability to open more, do more on CAD, Video, etc.

Thank you for your help,

MarkC76

[NonSequitur777]

@Markc76,

Welcome to our HP User Forum!

Your OMEN by HP 880-050 Desktop PC (Z5M97AA) according to: https://support.hp.com/us-en/document/c05506518, is fitted with the Tampa motherboard (SSID: 8307).

And Crucial: https://www.crucial.com/compatible-upgrade-for/hp---compaq/omen-880-050#memory, confirms that you can fit your desktop with up to 4 x 16GB of DDR4 PC4-21300, 2666 MHz, Non-EEC, unbuffered, UDIMM, 288-pin RAM sticks.

Interestingly, when I peaked at HP OMEN 880-0xx Users in UserBenchMark, most of these desktop's RAM was clocked @ 2400 MHz.  With only one exception -at least that I could find: https://www.userbenchmark.com/UserRun/48728896.

Here we can see that this RAM: BLS16G4D26BFSE.16FD (Crucial Ballistix Sport LT White 16GB PC4-21300 DDR4-2666MHz non-ECC Unbuffered CL16 (16-18-18-38) 288-Pin DIMM) is actually clocked -running- at 2667 MHz!

If you didn't know it already, HP computers are finnicky when it comes to RAM and especially achieving max RAM speeds.

Personally, I can point to very few occasions in this Forum when/where Corsair Vengeance RAM has shown to run at their advertised RAM speeds on HP computers.  Seriously.  Take my word for it.

My strong recommendation is to try Crucial Ballistix RAM, specifically this RAM (p/n: BL8G26C16U4W): Crucial Ballistix DDR4-2666 8GB/1G x 64 CL16 Desktop Gaming Memory (White) at Amazon.com, or here: Crucial Ballistix 2666 MHz DDR4 DRAM Desktop Gaming Memory 8GB CL16 BL8G26C16U4W (WHITE) - Newegg.co....

No guarantees obviously, but that's what I would try if I had your rig.

Hope this was helpful.

Kind Regards,

NonSequitur777

[Markc76]

Thank you very much for your help. I actually went to Crucial first, but their new system couldn't tell me what RAM to use. It kept coming up as unknown when i would scan. I know what is currently in my PC. It has the original Samsung 2400Mhz 16GB RAM (2 x8). Thank you, i will go back to crucial and try the RAM upgrade you recommend. I had heard Crucial makes very good RAM but when doing research online for gaming and high graphics, Crucial was showing at the bottom of the list doing google searches. This was suspect because Crucial has always been the best I had heard of in the past. But it's been a couple of years since looking into it. This has been a great computer. I've had it for a couple of years and still runs great, i would just like it to not use more than half my RAM when really doing strenuous graphic activities. Which is why I thought about 32GB. I will order the crucial right now, and send the Corsair back. Thank you again for your professional help. I sincerely appreciate it! Have a happy holiday season!

[NonSequitur777]

@Markc76,

You are most welcome -happy I could be of help.

Likewise, best wishes for the Holidays!

If you could, please follow up once you tried my recommended RAM, as feedback goes both ways.

Respectfully,

NonSequitur777

[Markc76]

You got it! I'll let you know the results once it's installed and benchmarked. Thanks again! Talk to you soon hopefully...depending on shipping time. 🙂

[Markc76]

Good mroning NonSequitur777,

So i ended up buying 4 sticks of the crucial Ballistix RAM from Amazon you recommended. I was pretty excited to get it in and working. But for some reason, it will only accept DIMMs in the exact same two ports. I cant add the other two without it giving me a 3 long 2 short beep message. It is the TAMPA motherboard. There is no doubt. Do you know if I have to tell it to turn these on? I did check the timings, to be sure they sent 4 exact same 8GB Sticks. They are exact. It also recognizes that its 2666Mhz in BIOS. Any thoughts? 

The PC was using slot 2 and 4 originally. Its only seeing slot 2 & 4 that I can tell. Or, it will only boot if I have RAM in slots 2 & 4. If I try any other combo it beeps and wont boot. Im not a PC tech to know. Im guessing its a setting, but I'm not sure. I was hoping it would be as easy as plug and play as the spec says. Thanks for any help!

[NonSequitur777]

Good morning @Markc76,

You are correct: it really should be as easy as plug-and-play, I am sorry that isn't the case.

So, if I understand the situation correctly, each of the four RAM sticks will boot your PC and runs at 2666 MHz, but only when fitted in RAM slots 2 and 4?  At least the fact that your new RAM registered running at 2666 MHz, is a really good sign. I am inclined to believe that your issue is not necessarily related to the RAM itself.

What I would like you to do (that is, if you haven't tried this already), is to try to boot your PC with one RAM stick and try to do the same into each individual RAM slot.  If this works, do the same with the next RAM stick, until you tried them all.

Other reasons for your issue could be dust buildup (blow out the RAM slots with compressed ('canned') air) or BOOT error(s).  Please fetch a magnifying glass and carefully look for bent RAM socket pins.  Other reasons which may cause your issue are motherboard malfunction and faulty RAM slots, though that is less likely.

Having dealt with something similar a while back, I cleaned, inspected and reseated my processor and cleared CMOS on top of that, which surprisingly to me, actually made all four RAM slots work again.  Not saying that will work for you -or me the next time I try this, but I just wanted to mention it.

Kind Regards,

NonSequitur777

[Markc76]

THANK YOU FOR THE QUICK REPLY! I sure appreciate the support. 

To clarify, the RAM sticks will work in slot 1 & 3. Or 2 & 4. But not all 4 at the same time. Ive tried different sticks, to see if possibly a stick is bad. But can't find one that doesn't work when only using two sticks. Again, I can use them in either dual channel. Which my motherboard channels are 1 & 3 (black) and 2 & 4 (red). I was watching a video just now on youtube that said to pull the CMOS battery to clear it. I may try that. I dont see a CMOS button like the motherboard they were working with, it says there is a CMOS jumper but I'm not sure if id pull it off and put it on or how that works and dont want to mess something up.

When I open task manager. It shows 16GB with 2 slots open still available. So its very strange its not working. Im hoping its not a bad motherboard port. i will do as you mentioned and get a flashlight with my canned air to see if cleaning the slots will help and reseat them one at a time. I haven't tried that.Ill also check the pins carefully and let you know. 

Crucial software was finally able to scan my operating system and give me real options. They show using 2 sticks of 16GB will work with this board. And that may be how I have to do it. I can't find any settings, but it feels like an operating settings issue. Like its locked at 16GB max. Even though it can do 32 max per the manufacturer. 

 Im going to try one stick at a time as you mention. I did check every stick and every stick is identical in Mhz and timing. The only thing making me a little sceptical about these sticks is I bought these from amazon from crucial store, sold by Vaya. They do not show up as Crucial anywhere in the software. They do show the correct 8GB 2666Mhz DDR4 but no name brand unlike my original samsungs, so it made me think maybe these aren't real Crucial sticks and have had Ballistix covers put over them. But that's the skeptical me,  I'm guessing they are fine. Ill try that one at time and clean, and let you know shortly. If not, ill send these back and buy the crucial package from crucial they recommend. That are  two of these 16GB DDR4-2400 UDIMM 1.2V CL17  which they say can be added to the existing. I had no idea HP was so finicky with RAM until starting to research. This is a huge issue across the board with HP it seems on all different laptops/PCs.

Thanks again! Ill be in touch! 

[NonSequitur777]

@Markc76,

No worries, I am a skeptic (cynic!) as well.

Mislabeled generic RAM does happen.  Let's check that.

Type in CMD in your Windows search bar.

Right-click on the Command Prompt App and right-click on: Run as administrator. Left-click on Yes.

Type or copy/paste/enter the following command to display selected details of your installed RAM:

wmic memorychip get devicelocator, manufacturer, partnumber, serialnumber, capacity, speed, memorytype, formfactor

You'll see something like this, using the PC I am working from at the moment:

Three things to look for: the manufacturer, the part number, and last but not least, the serial number(s).  Don't share your serial numbers, but the point is they should be different, NOT all the same.

And yes, 2 x 16GB RAM sticks -which will run in dual-mode, is quite sufficient for Gaming and almost all software applications.

Kind Regards,

NonSequitur777

[Markc76]

Good morning NonSequitur777, So i did try every stick individually. starting in port 1. They are all good. Then  I tried multiple combos. The dual channels are set up as slots 1& 3 and 2 & 4. It did not matter what sticks I used, as long as I only used a dual channel. Doing a single stick did work in slot 1 or 2. When I put a stick into slot 1 & 2 together it wouldn't work. Because this board the slots are 1 & 3 and (2&4). when I put them in slots 1, 2 and 3. Nothing. If I only put them in slots 1 & 3. It was great, even got a small jump in speed for 16GB compared to the originals. I could even put any stick in 2& 4 the second channel and it worked great. But no matter what, it's not the RAM and I can't see anything wrong with the slots themselves either. I took out a magnifying glass, and took pics close up with my phone on one end I thought had something in it. But it was nothing. Its clean. Used can air, everything seated well and I know each port works. And each stick works. Its just you have to have the right combo 1 &3 or 2&4. Im saddened I had to send these back and am unable to get 32GB out of what Crucial says tops out at 64GB. They were even reading at 2666 instead of 2400.

The real Crucial website using the Crucial scanner states my PC will do 2 x 16GB DRAM sticks. It also says it could go up to 64GB in total. Reading the motherboard online I am sceptical about that too. But it says on their website, "why does crucial recommend faster more powerful equipment than the manufacturer? Because Crucial knows what they are doing and will guarantee it works". Lol. So I'm crossing my fingers they do. 

If you scan sometime, you will notice this or a similar saying. So I hope they are right. I'd be fine using 2 slots of 16GB. But reading the Motherboard spec it says 4 & 8 GB sticks. So we will see what happens. I get the speeds will default or could drop to only as high as the motherboard can read. But can it actually handle the extra 8GB GB per slot load is my question? Or will it only read 8 GB out of each 16 GB stick? Soon to find out. It should be here by Monday. Thanks for all your help. If anything I have my son's brand new Omen 25L he is getting for Christmas I need to add a stick, and my other son has an Acer nitro 5 that needs an extra stick. I purchased new sets for each using Crucials scanner. They just haven't shown up (and its not Christmas time yet). I wasn't as worried about theirs because the scanner worked. I originally couldn't get mine to scan correctly. But it is recognizing it as a True HP Omen 880-050 now. Im wondering if because its a Microcenter version it has a different motherboard. But it looks like the TAMPA2 I think its called.

Oh also, these Ballistix sticks have XMP. Im now wondering if that is what the issue is. There is no way for me to do anything with XMP. HP has these so locked down you can barely change any settings. I can overclock my processor. But I have to use Omen Hub and I've never found it really necessary. But being able to tweak RAM settings would be nice. The BIOs have nothing but testing and basic functions in them. There is no area to turn on XMP like a lot of motherboards. 

As fas as my scepticism goes. I  didn't see your post before I posted these back this morning. But I had ran a benchmark  on two sticks to see if performance changed and screenshot it. It did slightly go up. These did not say crucial but Unknown with BL8G26C16U4W.8FD on them which is what matched the sticks. I was just being cynical due to it saying unknown. And nowadays, you really never do. So many parts coming over being relabelled. We see it a lot in my industry with Tele/data, and security parts. Same company, different sticker. LOl. Anyway, bless you for your help. I will let you know if the new Crucial setup will work as soon as they get here. Hopefully before Christmas, if not have a safe and wonderful Holiday Season with your friends and family! And thank you again for all your support.