How To Identify If Faulty Motherboard - ASRock 970m Pro3

[Paul_MCFC]

I'm having numerous and varied issues with what is effectively a new build. I switched a motherboard to a new new ASRock 970m Pro3, as I wanted support for sata3 for a SSD drive and here were limited options at a decent price that had 4 dimm slots as I already had a 4x4gb RAM. Now just getting a variety of issues, each time I think I may have identified the problem, some other issue arises. Some of the issues I've been having are:


- A number of various blue screen of death problems
- Monitors won't wake up after sleep or even after reboot (on a couple of occasions I removed all USB devices and rebooted the PC and the monitors came came on (I'm not sure if this is just a coincidence)
- SATA devices disappear, first one drive disappeared (doesn;t appear in BIOS), if its the main SSD with windows installed then obviously I get a no boot device error, then all the SATA devices disappear (SSD, HDD AND THE DVDR drive). If I unplug all SATA devices from the board then just plug back in the SSD then the BIOS might see it again and boot windows but it seems totally hit and miss.


I have updated the BIOS to latest version and tried setting BIOS back to default settings when issues started (which were more or less straight away). If anyone can suggest anything else to try to identify the problem I would rally appreciate help as tearing my hair out trying find a fix! Could it be a faulty motherboard, PSU or other issues ?

Here are the specs:

- ASRock 970m Pro3 Motherboard [BIOS updated to latest version]
- AMD FX8320 with stock heatsink [Running around 46-50 degrees]
- 4 x 4GB Corsair Vengeance Low Profile Ram 1600mhx [tested with Windows 10 Mem Diagnostic tool]
- Samsung 850 EVO 250 GB SSD
- 1TB TOSHIBA SATA HDD
- 1 X SATA DVDR+-
- 1 X MSI 710GT PCIE Graphics
- 600W Aerocool Integrator PSU

Would really appreciate any advice ...

 

[cin19]

I switched a motherboard to a new new ASRock 970m Pro3

Do you a clean reinstall the OS after you switched? If you don't, the problem maybe from the drivers, like the chipset driver, GPU driver, audio driver.etc. We recommend to do clean reinstall the OS when you switch the MB.

If I unplug all SATA devices from the board then just plug back in the SSD then the BIOS might see it again and boot windows but it seems totally hit and miss.

What are these USB devices? games mouse/keyboard? external hard drive ? because it maybe the same problem about the drivers too.

You may use the "BlueScreenView" to see what causes those BSOD.

You should use the minimum hardware to test your PC, like only one stick RAM, SSD with the OS, gt710, mouse/keyboard ( no other USB devices), boot the PC.
After that:
1) go into the BIOS hardware monitor section to check the +3.3V, +5V, and +12V to see the voltages are within +/-5% or not, because the Aerocool Integrator PSU is not that good. If one of those voltages is out off the +/-5% range, you should buy other PSU.
2) update the chipset driver http://support.amd.com/en-us/download/chipset?os=Windows%2010%20-%2064
3) try use the AMD Memory Profile Technology (AMP) in the BIOS, memory section, check the manual to see how to.
4) use DDU uninstall the nvidia or any GPU driver in safe mode, then reinstall the gt710 driver again. DDU http://www.guru3d.com/files-details/display-driver-uninstaller-download.html
5) Try uninstall any asrock utility software you had installed, and update all the drivers either from asrock or manufacturer site.
6) Recommend to use MemTest86 to test the RAM one by one again, even you get single error, replace or RMA the memory http://www.memtest86.com/download.htm

Then try those steps or do the clean reinstall the OS to see what happens, if you still have problem, post again.

 

[Calvin7]

4 x 4GB Corsair Vengeance Low Profile Ram 1600mhx

It is possible there could be nothing wrong with the RAM, however from your description I would not know. I see people have problems using random single modules and doubling up on kits frequently.

Do you know the part number or have a link to the memory?

 

[Paul_MCFC]

4 x 4GB Corsair Vengeance Low Profile Ram 1600mhx

It is possible there could be nothing wrong with the RAM, however from your description I would not know. I see people have problems using random single modules and doubling up on kits frequently.

Do you know the part number or have a link to the memory?

RAM was bought as two separate pairs, although its exactly the same make/model of ram.

However it seems to be the root of the problem. I put either one pair (2 x 4gb) in alternate dimm slots (i beliveve that what you're supposed sed to do) and it seems to be stable, as soon as I put all 4 x 4gb in problems start, many bsod errors. I thought two pairs would be ok.

Do you advise I sell the 4gb dimms and get 2x8gb instead??

 

[Calvin7]

Yes, using two DIMMs you can go to 1866MHz if you want.

This is what Corsair FAQs say:
6) Which Corsair Memory modules will work with my existing modules?

We strongly recommend matching the module part number as closely as possible in order to ensure the greatest chance of compatibility. Even if you match part numbers properly, we can?t make guarantees as to their performance as the modules weren?t tested together. Also be aware that when using two kits of memory together, you may need to reduce the speed of the memory due to motherboard chipset limitations.

 

[Paul_MCFC]

thanks ...