ASRock z68 extreme3 gen3

[lewissh]

Hi there,

My computer building knowledge rates at about 0.2 out of 10 so please bear with me. I built my computer about 3 weeks ago. I'm using the z68 extreme3 gen 3 with i5 2500k. My RAM is 2x4GB Corsair Vengeance DDR3 and video card is radeon 6850 1gb.
Up until yesterday, everything was running smoothly. When I was browsing some holiday destinations, it just froze. It was quite late at night so I thought nothing of it and just held the power button to shut it down. Today morning, I turned it on and... Dr. Debug code was showing 45. I googled what that was and it is RAM related? After coming back from work, I opened my case and tried the ram sticks in different slots, but still the same code. Then, after trying just 1 stick in each slot, I came to the conclusion one of my sticks is faulty. When I try.. say stick A on each slot, it shows error code 45, when i try stick B, it shows error code A3. So, I'm assuming stick A is the faulty one.
A3 code is IDE enable.. which I have no idea what it means.. so please help!
Either way, the motherboard does not beep.

My question is this..well, questions, actually..
Is stick A definitely the faulty one? If so, if I buy another pair of ram sticks, will it work?
Is the problem with RAM or with the motherboard? (please say RAM)
How do I go about fixing this?
Why did my pc work like a dream until yesterday and all of a sudden.. this happened?
How do I fix code a3?

I look forward to your responses.

[onemoar]

Re: ASRock z68 extreme3 gen3

try using 2 known good sticks in slots A2/B2

or A1/B1
if that fails install ONE stick into A1 and see what happens

[lewissh]

Re: ASRock z68 extreme3 gen3

Ok, I've bought 8 GB G.Skill F3-12800CL9D-8GBXL. It's in the list of compatible ram kits that should work with this mobo. Just tried it and it's showing code A3 with all combinations. How do I go past that?

[onemoar]

Re: ASRock z68 extreme3 gen3

disconect all your sata devices and set them to ACHI mode in the bios

[lewissh]

Re: ASRock z68 extreme3 gen3

Ok, I disconnected my hdd and my dvd drive and turned it on.. and I still get the same goddamned code. The mobo doesn't beep so I can't go into the bios anyway.
Forgive me if I'm making you facepalm

[onemoar]

Re: ASRock z68 extreme3 gen3

clear the cmos and try again ?

[lewissh]

Re: ASRock z68 extreme3 gen3

Apologies. I connected the mobo to the monitor via vga cable and the bios was up. I set it to default and everything is good now.
Phew.
Thanks for the help anyway.

[heerrink]

Re: ASRock z68 extreme3 gen3

Hello people,

I searched into many topics and posts on other forums but couldnt find a suitable way to fix the same problem as listed above.

Error Code 45.. for some reason it aint fixable for me.
I'm now also using the computer to make the post but it is now on Single Channel
and i wanted to be Dual Channel which is supposed to be!

What can i do to fix the problem?

I have updated the BIOS on the main website of ASRock
ASRock > Products > Motherboard Series Extreme3 Gen3&o=BIOS
(U have to copy+paste the link before it works)

[kick]

Re: ASRock z68 extreme3 gen3

A lot of debug codes seem to stem from gx/card/monitor/connections.
Not all but allways worth another go.