[Guide] How to overclock and change timings for any RAM on most laptops

!!! This guide will work on most laptops starting from (2nd gen Intel i Core) Sandy Bridge and higher. Applicability to the older platforms not guaranteed !!!​

Greetings!

In this thread I'll tell how you can overclock your RAM and change it's timings. Usually, DDR3 RAM SPD flash have 256 bytes of data. First 128 bytes used to store basic RAM settings and info (JEDEC speeds, ranks, die size and etc). On most memory modules this region is locked, but if it's unlocked, there is no problem to flash to higher JEDEC speeds. But modifying first 128 bytes is risky, have write access problems (Haswell and higher) and in worst case recovery process would not be that easy. Use this region if only you have an official SPD dump from the same memory module lineup.

Also, there is a 2nd 128 bytes region where additional info (serial number, manuf date and etc) and profiles (XMP, AMP, Nvidia EPP and etc) are stored. This region is 100% unlocked for write operations on 100% of memory modules. The good thing is, I have not been met a laptop that have problems writing to this region. In this guide we will use XMP profiles to change speeds and timings of our memory.

XMP profiles should work on most laptops with Sandy Bridge and higher. There are some cases, when XMP come handy:

• your RAM have locked first 128 byte region and have lower speeds that you CPU supports
• your RAM have high speed bins and your CPU supports them, but your laptop manufacturer don't allow you to use high speeds (say hello to HP)
• your RAM and CPU have max speeds and you want to change timings to make it run as fast as possible

Part I: How to flash prepared XMP profiles
​

​

Luckily, I've created a tool that simplifies the process a lot. At that moment, the tb2bin XMP processing utility is the version 1.2 and do the following:

• Create an XMP profile in ready-to-flash binary format (.bin) from Thaiphoon Burner XMP profile (.emp)
• Create an RWEverything file format (.rw) from binary (.bin)
• Dump, flash and erase SPD or XMP on your RAM modules

*Note: there is no support for SPD 2.0 (used in DDR4) and only one XMP profile is supported at the moment. The tool might still have some bugs and have not the best UI (my first powershell experience btw), but feedbacks are super welcome


Okay, let's imagine that we have 1x 1333Mhz CL9 stick, 1x 1600Mhz CL11 stick and our CPU max supported speed is 1600Mhz. We want them run both at 1600Mhz and CL9 timings. Things we need before we start:

• RWEverything utility
• tb2bin XMP processing utility (the link in download section)
• Prepaired XMP profiles (could be found in the Download section at the end of this post)
• One RAM stick for recovery process (in case you RAM won't boot with current timings)
• Attention

Let's do the magic:

1. Download RWEvrything
2. Open it, go to Access >> DIMM SPD and check you DIMMs information and remember their addresses. You should see 0xA0, 0xA2, 0xA4 and 0xA6 devices - it's your RAM modules (if you have 4 slots occupied). Or something like that. After, close this application.
3. Now, let's make backups of current SPDs. Open tb2bin utility, go to the SPD dump section and enter the address you want to dump (or addresses separated by space). Enter them without "0x" prefix, so it would look like "A0" or "A0 A2 A4" if using multiple addresses.
4. Next thing we do is writing XMP to the SPD. Place your XMP binary (or SPD binary with XMP region) at the same folder with "run.bat". Go to the XMP flashing section, point the file name you want to flash and enter the address you want to be flashed with our XMP (or addresses separated by space).
5. If you have done all the steps correctly and weather is sunny - congrats, flashing is done!

As a result, we should get something like this:

​

As you can see, now our RAM sticks have the same XMP 1600Mhz CL9 profile. Next thing we need is to make our system use XMP profiles instead of JEDEC. XMP will only work if its the same between all memory DIMMs. Try to reboot you laptop first to see, if it apply XMP automatically (most Sandy Bridge laptops do that). If not, you need to look into your BIOS for the XMP options. Still, if you can't find XMP settings in the BIOS you have two solutions: flash BIOS mod with advanced menu OR extract IFR values from the BIOS and apply them with NVRAM editing (google for it, there are plenty guides on that right now).

If you applied timings was wrong an system don't want to boot you have several ways to recover: reset BIOS settings or swap in a memory module without XMP along with those you've soft bricked. Then, clean XMP profile or apply a new one.

Good Luck and have fun​

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Downloads:

• XMP profiles: https://1drv.ms/f/s!AooKL5SiajFyiqIon_zLTSJURHCjCg
• tb2bin utility: https://1drv.ms/f/s!AooKL5SiajFyiqI3xu2BwPVfd7t9BA

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P.S. If the owner of Thaiphoon Burner reads it, your personal license terms and conditions are REALLY bad. It's like buying a toothpick, but for $16

 

Part II: how to create your own XMPs​

K, let's go to the action. What tools do we need:

• Thaiphoon Burner free version
• tb2bin XMP processing utility (the link in download section)

Step 1: Thaiphoon Burner
​

First thing we need to do is to open Thaiphoon Burner. If you have some experience in timings adjustments: just read you RAM SPD or any SPD dump and go to the XMP Enhancer.

If you are a novice, google for timings and look through built-in SPD browser for XMP enabled DDR3 dumps. Perfectly, you need to find memory stick with the same memory chips or at lest the same memory chip manufacturer. Then open these dumps and use XMP Enhancer to adjust the values.
There are two things you need to remember: always set memory controller voltage level to 0v and use either 1.35v or 1.5v module voltage levels. Doing opposite may result in bad XMP or memory module increased heating.

Also, try to compare timings with those you have in JEDEC. It will help quite well. Usually, memory modules can use the same latency for 1 bin higher speed (for example, from 1333 to 1600, from 1600 to 1866 and etc.).

After finishing the latency and frequency adjustments, we need to save our work to a file. Don't leave the XMP Enhancer windows, go to "Profile >> Save to file..." and save it with any name you like. You should get something like " your_xmp_name.emp". If this option don't work in your version of the program follow this: "Templates >> XMP Templates >> Add to Templates" and name it like you wish. Your .emp profile should be found in "XMPTemplates" folder at the same location of Thaiphoon.exe. Now, there is no need in Thaiphoon Burner and you can close the window if you want. Let's go to the next step.

Step 2: Thaiphoon Burner XMP profile to binary converter​

As you might know, .emp format is not designed to be flashed - it's just store you XMP settings from Thaiphoon Burner XMP Enhancer. Here is where my tool come in handy. Open it up, and select "Convert .emp XMP profile to .bin". Be sure, that you've placed your .emp profile at the same folder with "run.bat". If everything done right, you should get a binary file at the same place

 

Right now, my XMP repo is not that big and have profiles I've generated for my needs. If you need another profile or change something in it (for ex., voltage) just let me know

 

Thanks for this, I look at mr.fox posts about typhoonBurner but I've never buyed a license because its limitation(so I will made a small donation if this work).

Looking at your work with interest and later I'll try to edit my xmp profiles with your method, I run succesfull with these timings/speeds from about 3 years ago

 

@aaronne
Soon, I'll post a 2nd part of the tutorial where I'll describe how to create and adjust your own XMP files with free tools. Yeah, it's not going to be that easy as paid version of Thaiphoon, but it's gonna be free lol

And one more thing to mention, different RAM modules have different RFC value. So, it's important to match it to your RAM. For example, you're going to apply my 1866 XMP that have RFC value set to 280. Your memory modules use much smaller values (currently, you have set them at 132T). They bytes you need to edit manually is C7 and C8. Currently, my value is "68 10". Converted from hex to decimal it would be "1068 hex = 4200". 4200 multiplied by MTB Tbase = 280T. To simplify the life we can use free version of Thaiphoon to calculate our new RFC value, then convert it to hex and modify these bytes in RWEverything.

If you want, I can make XMP based on your current settings

 

K comrades, nothing can be better than creating a tool which allows to use Thaiphoon Burner XMP editor for.... free?? Yep, here it's. One day of work and many happy users

 

New version of tb2bin utility is available now! Here is the changelog:

Code:

Version 1.1 (06-06-2017)
- New user friendly design
- .bin to .rw convertor

Currently planning to add dump/flash/erase feature, so you could all the job within the tool.

 

New version 1.2 of tb2bin utility is available now! Here is the changelog:

Code:

Version 1.2 (08-06-2017)
- [NEW] Dump, flash and erase SPD or XMP on your RAM modules
- [NEW] Added elevation check prior running the tool

It's really cool tool now I'll update the guide asap.

 

Nice job @valuxin - Not sure how many people with an interest in RAM tweaking have seen this thread. Hopefully, more will find it and post about their successes using your tools and technique. I just accidentally stumbled upon it today for the first time. Good work, friend.

 

Hi @valuxin - I have been researching how to do this exact thing for the past few days and came across taiphoon burner only to find it cost money to do anything and you cant even flash xmp in the $16 version ;p so thank god I found this thread ) I have some hyperX fury 1866 8gb ram which doesnt come with xmp and my motherboard wont clock memory any higher than 1333 without an xmp file
I have no idea about memory timings, where do I start if i want an XMP profile for my memory to run at 1866?
atm I only have the one 8gb stick...
thanks!

 

@G_nt
Just use SPD browser in Thaiphoon Burner and find spd with XMP for the same memory chips or at least for the same model lineup. This would be the easiest way for you to overclock your memory.

 

@valuxin if it's not too much trouble can i request a custom SPD profile for my laptop(Sandy Bridge).Trying to get from 1333 to 1600 if possible. I've tried to initiate dumb with tb2bin but it showed me "parameter error" but i managed to do it trough rweverything and Thaiphoon(i'll attach the files in case you decide to help me).Again,if it's too much trouble or you simply don't have time ,that's ok,i'll stick to what i have,and also great job man,keep it up.Thank you !!!!


https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B3QavDCqb15HNEtGOG1ZSl9wZWs (SPD DUMP)

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B3QavDCqb15HbC1nRzBzN25nb00/view?usp=sharing (CPU-Z screenshot)

 

hey @valuxin thanks so much for developing this, I had no trouble flashing the XMP profile onto my RAM. unfortunately the motherboard still didn't want to co-operate. Converting to Mini-ITX so asus motherboard which should be able to use XMP no trouble, will run at 1866 thanks to you

 

I just saw this now, I have got 16 GB DDR4 2133Mhz with mixed brands stock ones [Samsung] with Kingston ones [I buyed from amazon] and it works greatly together.

But... as I can see here you said there is no support for SPD 2.0 for DDR4 as you said so... I'm gonna wait then

I already edited the timing & speed to 2400Mhz but it was a big hassle for me really as I bricked my laptop too many times while trying to overclock it.. and reflashing the BIOS & removing CMOS ...etc... until I got the sweet spot... but now after I saw your thread... addiction of OC my laptop came back to me but I'm too lazzy or tired to go all over again.. like opening my laptop & disassembling ..etc... to OC more

It would be helpful for me to do it without all those things... just simply overclock it with simple clicks

I just want to OC to gain maawrrr maawwrrr paawwaaaaaa

 

Hello @ valuxin

Can you say what version of Thaiphoon Burner you use ? The newest freeware version dont have the option to save to thp file from XMP Enhancer

 

Hello,
can anybody reupload the files in download section? Thank you so much

 

@THEBOSS619, Don't have the hardware to test XMP for DDR4 as for now. Stupid HP do not allow to use XMP on their products (even on Omen gaming series lol).

@devhost97, Updated the guide with a new way to save the .emp. Can't find the version I've been working with lol

@oile, All links work. I think the problem is on your side.

 

No problem at all Thank you anyway.. I will still keep watching this thread (Hoping the day will come for DDR4)

Patience is the key

 

Thanks to valuxin I've been able to flash my 1600 Cl9 hyperx to 1866 c10 without problems!!
Unfortunately either my ram and /or IMC can't push 2000 or 2133mhz stable within stable latencies being limited to 1.35v on Haswell. But a good result nontheless! Thank you

 

This is a really neat idea and I have a spare kit to try with, but would be greatly appreciated if someone could answer these questions.

1.) Just for fun here is some .bat code that requests admin privilege automatically, I didn't write it.

Spoiler

:: Elevate (BatchGotAdmin)
:: Launch UAC Request
::
@echo off

:: BatchGotAdmin
:-------------------------------------
REM --> Check for permissions
>nul 2>&1 "%SYSTEMROOT%\system32\cacls.exe" "%SYSTEMROOT%\system32\config\system"

REM --> If error flag set, we do not have admin.
if '%errorlevel%' NEQ '0' (
echo Requesting administrative privileges...
goto UACPrompt
) else ( goto gotAdmin )

:UACPrompt
echo Set UAC = CreateObject^("Shell.Application"^) > "%temp%\getadmin.vbs"
echo UAC.ShellExecute "%~s0", "", "", "runas", 1 >> "%temp%\getadmin.vbs"

"%temp%\getadmin.vbs"
exit /B

:gotAdmin
if exist "%temp%\getadmin.vbs" ( del "%temp%\getadmin.vbs" )
pushd "%CD%"
CD /D "%~dp0"
:--------------------------------------

2.) the tb2bin tool has options to flash 'XMP only' or flash 'SPD'. To be clear, when you choose 'flash XMP only', you are only writing to the XMP portion of the eeprom and leaving the rest of the SPD alone, right?

3.) Your tutorial mentions to leave the memory controller voltage level to 0v in the XMP Enhancer window, but when I do [Tools -> XMP Enhancer -> Profile -> Read DRAM Controller -> channel 0] to pull up the programmed settings from my sodimm, the memory controller voltage reads 1V. Should I leave this at 1V or switch it to 0V?

Here are the defaults of my sodimm as read by thaiphoon:
Kit is Gskill F3-2133C11-8GRSL DDR3L, uses 4Gb K4B4G0846Q-HYK0 (Q-die)

Spoiler

EDIT:
So I tried writing a new XMP to an 8GB stick of crucial ddr3 1600 cl11 1.35V (XMP: 1866, same latencies). When generating the XMP profile from thaiphoon I set the memory controller voltage to 0v just to be safe. After flashing the XMP, tb2bin reported success so I rebooted but nothing changed. The stick still runs at 1600 cl 11.

I'm not even sure if the XMP profile was actually written to the SPD... When reading from the SPD, it seems the XMP area is still blank. Really not sure what's going on here lol



EDIT2:
I filled in the XMP SPD bytes manually in RWEverything based on the XMP profile I generated earlier using thaiphoon, tried writing, and I got "Writing memory module SPD data: no update."
Reading the SPD immediately after trying to write to it, RWEverything reports that nothing changed - the SPD write didn't work.

This is basically what happened earlier using tb2bin, except that tb2bin reported a successful flash when it should not have.
It seems that the dell 7559 (bios 1.1.3) wont write to SPD on this stick... Gonna try different RAM and report back.

EDIT3:
I tried writing a new SPD to a micron 8GB 1600CL11 stick using RWeverything and it failed. Got a different error this time but the same result - eeprom is not getting overwritten.


EDIT4:
Tried writing new SPD to the expensive Gskill 8GB 2133 CL11 stick and it failed with the same "SPD may be protected." error as above. Either all these sticks are write protected or the dell 7559 really cannot do this.

Anyone know what the deal is? I did use RWEverything for writing instead of tb2bin, but I think tb2bin is just acting as an interface for RWEverything so there should be no real difference there?
Kind of sad it didn't work, but I tried.

 

Hi, I know this thread is old, but anybody having an XMP profile for 2133MHz CL11? both 1.5v and 1.35v profile is fine, i could modify the voltage. The guide works great on mine with Dell E6330 and 9020M and I hope somebody can do it with DDR4 or XMP Profile 2...Cheers...

 

Hey @valuxin

Been a while! In a couple of months I would like to take 2133Mhz CL11 DDR3 ram and see how far it can be clocked.

I am hoping that it will work well with 2400Mhz clock but if I can attain 2666Mhz then I think this thread will garner a bit more attention for those that are holding on to their older DDR3 based laptops. This will be with my Ranger.

Hope all is well on your end man!

Either way I am glad you made this thread, I was combing through the m4600 thread as I remember we had dabbled a bit there with the m4600 RAM timings, I am hoping I can do this correctly when the time comes.

 

is there anything similar for DDR4?

 

I'm doing well Just have no time for laptop stuff, coz I've switched to Surface Book from HP Zbook Studio (both of them have nothing to upgrade or mod . Nice to see you have your memory up and running on 2133Mhz - is this a limit of haswell mobile platform or just the memory?

Sadly, I don't have any hardware that will work with RWEverything and DDR4 at the same time. If I'll have a spare time, I can try to find another way and make the utility work on any HW.

 

Hey man, glad things are well on your side of things!

Yep running 2133Mhz just fine on my 4930mx, havent gotten around to pushing the memory higher as Ive been working on other parts of the laptop (for now, the cooling).

 

Hi Valuxin, just found this thread, some great work here!

I was wondering if you've tested XMP profiles with a ZBook or an Elitebook?

Also, is it possible to undervolt DDR3 RAM this way, from 1.5V to 1.35V for example?

Thank you!

 

Will DDR4 be supported in the future?

 

If anyone cares, XMP profiles and this kind of overclocking is not supported on Elitebook 8x60w and Zbook G1/G2. Sad, but that's HP for you.

 

It works on 8770W but you have to rewrite the ram’s SPD with Thaiphoon Burner

 

I only edit slot 1 on the laptop, the second one remains the same, I will be doing wrong use ddr3,

i use a hp g 4 2072la

the first memory is ddr3 samsung and the other a crucial ddr3l

 

Is someone interested by SPD of TeamGroup 2133MHz memory ? These have tighter timings than HyperX memory, I have both 4GB single rank stick and 8GB dual rank stick.

 

good evening, I have tried to create a 2133 xmp profile, but it doesn't seem to work .. i flashed your 1866 xmp profile and it worked perfectly .. could you create a 2133 profile for me please ??
or help me try to get one created?
Thanks in advance

 

good evening, i tried to create an xmp 2133 profile but it didn't work for me .. your xmp 1866 profile worked without problems ... could you help me create one or create one for me please? thanks in advance
H5TQ2G83CFR-PBC datasheet(3/33 Pages) HYNIX | 2Gb DDR3 SDRAM (alldatasheet.es)

 

Hello! I upgraded the RAM on my ASUS TUF F15 from 1x 16 Gb 3200 MHz CL22 to 2x 16 Gb 3200 MHz CL16 but the BIOS won't let me set the XMP 2.0 on it and I'm stuck with JEDEC 2667 MHz CL19.

Is there any way to flash the memory SPD 2.0 to use the XMP 2.0 speed and timings for DDR4 or am I stuck with the JEDEC profile forever?
Been googling around but no luck, might aswel ask here because this seems to be the only thread I could find about the subject!

 

@Mr. Fox just made a video showcasing Thaiphoon Burner method of making/flashing XMP profiles to your DDR EEPROM.

 

That was sitting in my Google Drive for about a year. I figured it might be of use to someone. I originally created it for zTecpc staff. This one was uploaded at the same time, for the same reason. So, now my Google Drive is about 10GB lighter.

 

Thanks for the replies but it seems there's no point for me to buy this software as it says the "Writes to SMBus addresses XX disabled by BIOS setting!" and I can't enable the writes from the BIOS and I don't know how to patch it.

My last resort seems to be request a modded BIOS on bios-mods.com... sucks.

 

Yes, it does suck. Real bad. This is, of course, 100% the fault of the imbeciles that manufactured the castrated junkbook you own. In a very sick and demented manner, they own you now.

It is because the laptop OEMs are like draconian Nazi control freaks that enjoy imprisoning people that buy their broken trash.

@Prema makes SPD write access available in his BIOS mods. Any desktop mobo that is worth a damn (meaning it is not an OEM pile of crap board) has a menu option to allow it. It is nice that there are still companies out there that understand that the people who purchase products have a legal and ethical right to choose how to manage their own affairs without interference.

 

YESSS I got an unlocked BIOS from https://www.bios-mods.com/forum/Thread-REQUEST-ASUS-FX506HM-full-unlock?page=2 and got the XMP 3200 MHz to work after enabling DRAM SPD Write and Real Time RAM OC (or something) in the new BIOS!

If anyone else with ASUS TUF F15 series laptop need an unlocked BIOS to enable their XMP I suggest asking in that thread and ask me for instructions if you're stuck, I needed to boot to Windows and then back to BIOS to be able to select the XMP profile and the other two options you need to enable can be a pain to find (atleast the "DRAM SPD Write Enable" was in somewhere completely different menu than Memory).