Please help. Memory issue and I don't know what to do!

[alexvincent92]

Hey guys, I'm having an issue with my memory.

 

I have an Asrock 970 extreme 3 2.0 motherboard and Kingston Hyperx beast 1600Mhz DDR3 RAM.

 

My issue is, that my PC will lock up when I have 2x4GB sticks installed in my system.

 

However, when I pull them out and test them individually, my PC works flawlessly and both sticks pass memtest with 0 errors.

 

I even RMA'd my RAM and tried a new kit and it's exactly the same story. I don't want to have to live on just a single 4 gig stick

 

Any help would be appreciated more than you can know!

 

Cheers, 

-Alex

[Sadistic_Potato]

Maybe try putting them in in different slots? Or maybe they don't work together for whatever reason. I haven't really heard of an issue like this, so I hope somebody that knows better than I do can help you.

[alexvincent92]

I've tried them in different slots. I've changed the latency, voltage, CPU northbridge voltage, ran it at a lower frequency you name it,

 

It's not like a BSOD either, the whole PC locks up and I have to restart. A single dim works fine. But as soon as you add a second

 

lock ups will start to happen. I appreciate your concern, Sadistic_Potato.  

[TheRunningOtaku]

I've tried them in different slots. I've changed the latency, voltage, CPU northbridge voltage, ran it at a lower frequency you name it,

 

It's not like a BSOD either, the whole PC locks up and I have to restart. A single dim works fine. But as soon as you add a second

 

lock ups will start to happen. I appreciate your concern, Sadistic_Potato.  

It might be a motherboard problem, since you tested two different sticks of RAM and memtest works fine. Try contacting your motherboard manufacturer and see how it goes?

[Keystone Nyan Cat]

It would be quite helpful to know what you are doing/ the tasks that are running when your computer freezes.

 

As the other member has mentioned, it appears to be a motherboard issue. To check this, run each stick individually for 24 hours using Memtest 86+ and check if any errors pop up. If not on both sticks, check your motherboard manual/ website to see if those sticks are certified to work with your motherboard, and then proceed to call your motherboard manufacturer since you have eliminated the RAM as being the culprit.

 

I hope this helps and best of luck!

[alexvincent92]

I've contacted them and I'm waiting to hear back.

 

I'm usually gaming when it happens, however if I'm generally browsing and have a lot of chrome tabs open it can happen

It seems to occur once I go over 4ish gigs of usage. Ironically it doesn't lock up during 3Dmark firestrike/ vantage. I've tested 4 different sticks of RAM

and had 0 errors on any. I've tried a single RAM stick in every slot on my board and it always works fine.

 

My motherboard just doesn't like running dual channel or something. It's really winding me up.

Thanks for your advice everyone. I really don't know what to do.

[RossMadness]

I also have an ASRock mobo that had some strange issues with RAM. Slots A1 and A2 would recognize RAM, but B1 and B2 wouldn't. My solution wound up being a BIOS flash. The out of box revision was two revisions behind. Once I flashed the BIOS from a flash drive all slots worked normally. Also, check ASRock's website for recommended setups. For my board, ASRock recommended slots A2 and B2 for dual channel. Just food for thought.

[alexvincent92]

Thank you for your insight. All the slots recognize the RAM and I've testing it in an A1 B1 configuration as well as A2 and B2. 

The issue sadly persists. My bios is always the latest one taken from their website. Strangely I had this issue before

and after the bios update. 

 

Thank you all for your ideas so far

[RossMadness]

Double check and make sure that the RAM you have is on this compatibility list.

 

http://www.asrock.com/mb/AMD/970%20Extreme3%20R2.0/index.asp?cat=Memory

 

Also, be sure to note the legend at the top. ASRock actually says which modules of RAM will work and how MANY modules will work.

[BuntzenB]

What OS version are you running? Because 32bit doesn't support 8 gigs...

[alexvincent92]

It doesn't list it as directly compatible on the website, however many other websites and anecdotes have turned up that it works just fine. 

I haven't found any saying the contrary. 

 

I'm running windows 7 64 bit. 

It seems to lock up when it goes over 7.1GB of usage with what I've witnessed with memtest.

 

I'm going to reinstall windows and hope it's some driver bug or something because I really don't have a clue.

Thank you all for your help anyway. I may have to just live with 4GB like a peasant :'( (only joking) 

[BuntzenB]

I'm going to reinstall windows and hope it's some driver bug or something because I really don't have a clue.

Thank you all for your help anyway. I may have to just live with 4GB like a peasant :'( (only joking) 

Half joking lol