ASRock X58 Extreme & F3-12800CL9T-6GBNQ instability

[skloot]

Hi,
I'm having issues getting my system stable using ASRock X58 Extreme with F3-12800CL9T-6GBNQ (3 x 2gb). The CPU is an i7 920 @ default settings (3.06 ghz).

The system is unstable. memtest86+ will freeze (no errors though) after 2-10 minutes, and prime95 will lock it up faster than that generally. I have tried: all settings to auto; XMP profile 1 (ddr3 1600 9-9-9-24 1.5v); dram voltage 1.609v + ioh voltage 1.129v; setting it as ddr3 1333;
I tried it out with some borrowed F3-16000CL9D-4GBTD and had the same issue, even after trying config after config. I also tried swapping video cards just in case. Considering the possibility of a bad motherboard.

Thanks for your help.

[GSKILL TECH]

Make sure you have the latest BIOS. Many of the older versions had quite a bit of bugs that caused all kinds of problems.

Thank you
GSKILL SUPPORT

[skloot]

I updated the board to 1.70 (current) when I got it, so that's not an issue.

[GSKILL TECH]

May need to have the motherboard replaced then. With the proper settings, you should not have the same issue with both memory packages. What slots do you have them installed in?

Thank you
GSKILL SUPPORT

[skloot]

The 3 DIMMs are installed in the white slots (A1, B1, C1). When I tried 2 DIMMs, they were in A1 and B1 as stated in the motherboard's manual.

If you think it's the board (seems very likely), I'll RMA it.

[skloot]

Turns out this was a power issue. Plugging in a second PSU to power the motherboard, with the primary PSU powering everything else, made the system completely stable. Just not enough amps apparently.

Thanks for your advice.