ASRock z75 pro3 boot power cycling issue

[vtchill]

My setup is:
i5 3750K
G.SKILL Ripjaws X Series 16GB (2 x 8GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1333
ASRock z75 pro3
Antec Earthwatts 430D (430W) power supply

I am having an issue where it continually power cycles on and off every 4-5 seconds if I have RAM in slots B1 or B2.

Howerver if I put either memory stick in slots A1 or A2 (or both slots at the same time) my rig POSTs and boots fine and I can successfully get into the BIOS.

I have my rig breadboarded right now on my desk and here are my observations:

1) Computer will boot/post fine if either stick is put into memory slot A1 or A2 (only 1 stick being used, non-dual channel mode).
2) Computer will boost/post fine if both sticks are put into memory slots A1 and A2 at the same time (2 sticks in use, non-dual channel mode)
3) Power cycling issue is seen if either stick is put in B1 or B2 (regardless if the other stick is being used or not)

I am starting to think that memory slots B1 and B2 on the mobo are defective and causing the power cycle every few seconds. I have verified that with the combinations that boot the BIOS is detecting everything properly.

I found a link here: New Mobo/RAM/PSU/GPU won't boot!! - asrock - Motherboards-Memory
that describes the exact same problem (I posted second on that thread)

Has anyone seen this issue or heard other that have seen this exact same problem? Any help or recommendations would be greatly appreciated!

[wazza300]

are you using the latest bios? with one stick installed can you enable xmp in the bios if ram supports it and then add in the second stick of memory

[vtchill]

I am running UEFI version 1.40 which appears to be the latest based on ASRock website here: ASRock > Products > Z75 Pro3

When I boot with a single stick I do not see an option for Load XMP setting. I looked online a bit to figure out where this was in the BIOS, but mine is not showing the option.

The problem I am seeing sounds fairly similar to this guys: ASRock Z77 Extreme6 and G.SKILL Ripjaws X Series 16GB (4 x 4GB) F3-12800CL9Q-16GBXL [Archive] - GSKILL TECH FORUM

except mine would be on the memory controller for B slots and not A slots.

Thanks for the reply, any other thoughts?

[Babdi]

Can you try with earlier BIOS version, just a thought

[vtchill]

Believe it or not after banging my head against the desk for hours I took a last ditch effort and re-seated the CPU (for a 3rd time) and everything booted up and the memory now works in dual channel mode in either slots 1-3 or 2-4.

I have no idea why the first 2 attempts to seat the CPU didn't yield a working system but the 3rd time was the charm.

So my advice to anyone reading this later is to basically triple check everything because the smallest thing like a CPU not quite touching 1 or 2 contacts properly can cause non-booting and power cycling in what appears to be a completely unrelated part of the system.

[t3kn33k]

get a 750 psu as sooon as you put a gcard in it and maybe some overclock it wont last

[Jorge Fuentes]

Im having the same issue with my board, its a z68 pro3 gen3 but it will only boot If the memory stick is on B1 any other combination will make it cycle, cant wait to go home and try re-seating the cpu see if it will fix it, let you know later :)

jorge

[Jorge Fuentes]

re-seating didnt work, did it 3 times :(

I have the latest bios for that board, I will try enabling xmp, see if the option comes up and then add the 2nd memory stick.

[Jorge Fuentes]

Didnt work, I was able to enable xmp, but, same power-cycle problem, guess I'll return the memory sticks, instead of 2x4gb I'll get 4x2gb see if it will solve the problem.