Help with Ares F3-1600C8D-8GAB in ASRock extreme 6

[wax0pal]

Hey guys, looking for a bit of assistance on this one. Put simply, I cant get my motherboard to recognize what appears to be good RAM.

Here's my situation:

I have 4 sticks of the above mentioned memory (complete system specs below). All the exact same model/timing. The system is brand new, all components. No OS installed, everything at default. Upon installing all 4 memory modules I get error 55 ("MEMORY NOT INSTALLED") from the motherboard. After much experimentation, I am able to get the MB to recognize 1 stick while inserted into mem slot B2 or two 2 sticks (8GB) when in slots B! and B2. I have tried each stick of ram in B2 and each one posts correctly. I have also tried every combination of 2 in B1 and B2, same result, each posts correctly. My thought at this point is to flash the rom to the current version. Although I am comfortable doing this, I wanted to reach out for things to try before risking a corrupt rom chip.

Any help you could provide would be appreciated.

~Tony.

FULL SPECS:

1 x ZALMAN CNPS12X 120mm Long Life Bearing High Performance Triple Fan CPU Cooler

1 x LITE-ON DVD Burner - Bulk Black SATA Model iHAS124-04 - OEM

1 x ASRock Z77 Extreme6 LGA 1155 Intel Z77 HDMI SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX Intel Motherboard

2 x G.SKILL Ares Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) Desktop Memory Model F3-1600C8D-8GAB

1 x Antec Nine Hundred Black Steel ATX Mid Tower Computer Case with Upgraded USB 3.0

1 x ASUS GTX680-DC2T-2GD5 GeForce GTX 680 2GB 256-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 3.0 x16 HDCP Ready SLI Support Video Card

1 x Intel Core i7-3770K Ivy Bridge 3.5GHz (3.9GHz Turbo) LGA 1155 77W Quad-Core Desktop Processor Intel HD Graphics ...

1 x SeaSonic X-SERIES X-1050 1050W ATX12V / EPS12V SLI Certified CrossFire Ready 80 PLUS GOLD Certified Full Modular ...

1 x Seagate Barracuda Green ST2000DL003 2TB 5900 RPM SATA 6.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive -Bare Drive

1 x Mushkin Enhanced Chronos Deluxe MX MKNSSDCR120GB-MX 2.5" 120GB SATA III MLC Internal Solid State Drive (SSD)

[Tradesman]

First you definitely want to flash the BIOS to the latest version....Next is this 2 packages of two sticks (that's the way I read it anyway)? If so XMP won't work, so start with two, go into BIOS turn XMP off and to manual or Auto, set the base timings to spec on packages, except for the DRAM voltage, set it + 0.06 above the spec voltage, save, power off, install the second pair and give it a try. If no joy, will want to go back to 2 sticks and into BIOS and then raise the MC (memory controller) voltage, believe it's CPUVTT on your mobo, up to 1.14- 1.15 or so

[wax0pal]

Stil No GO

Hey Tradesman, thanks a ton for the ideas but I'm still out of luck.

BIOS (UEFI) is up to date at 1.90 Regarding the memory sticks you are exactly right. they were 2 packages of 2 sticks. That being the case I went to turn OFF the XMP but there was no option to disable it. I left in auto (timings were detected correctly) - no change. When I created a profile with the correct base timings - same result. Both DRAM and the VTT voltages have been set at the levels you suggested.

ZERO luck changing anything about my situation though.


Any further ideas?

~Tony.

One note: I made an error in my original post. The slots that I can get the ram to work in are B1 and B2 (so I cant even get into dual channel mode). I have corrected the original post to indicate this.

[Tradesman]

In that case sounds like a bad mobo or CPU, can try pulling the CPU and check that no thermal compound on bottom of CPU or in socket, also check for bent/broken pins in socket