Little build questions

[Craig234]

ASRock support isn't helpful - when I asked them about diagnosing the RAM issue, they first said 'check the CPU socket for bent pins' and when I said that's not practical or what the problems point to, they said 'return the board to the seller'. Not really an option when I bought it over a year before using it and not clear it's needed yet.

 

[Craig234]

New build, ASRock Z97 Extreme6 MB, Corsair XMS3 RAM 4x4gb.

When I install 4 sticks, it boots with a MB error 55, which means 'RAM could not be detected'.

When I remove three sticks and leave one in the slot furthest from the CPU, it boots fine.

When I add a second stick in 'slot three' - the middle of the remaining three slots, because the MB manual says the pairings are 1/3 and 2/4 - it again gets error 55.

When I test the second RAM stick by taking it out of slot 3 and putting it alone in slot 1 - it boots fine again.

What this suggests to me is: either slot 1/3 is wrong but I still have a problem when all 4 used doesn't work; or the MB has a hardware problem; or I'm doing something wrong. Any ideas?

 

[ElFenix]

do all the sticks work in that slot? do sticks known to work in that slot work in each of the other slots?


edit: since you've got a lengthy thread in computer help where people have been helping track down these problems for you i'm going to merge this into that thread once i figure out the button press combination. up up down down...?

left right left right...

AT Moderator ElFenix

 

[Craig234]

I didn't want a thread merge - I'm giving up here instead of posting the latest test results. I asked a specific RAM question wanting to keep it simpler for everyone to read just that.

 

[mxnerd]

Different ASROCK motherboard, but according to the following post, it could be a bent CPU socket pin.

https://www.techpowerup.com/forums/threads/solved-55-error-asrock-z77-extreme-4.170736/

 

[Craig234]

mxnerd, thanks for helping. I saw that thread and am going to check the CPU socket, as frustrating as that is taking the heatsink and CPU off, hoping to see it, seems unlikely to be fixable if it is the issue short of a new MB meaning starting the whole build over after a possible new purchase of a MB.

But I'm giving up getting any help here on this build - I don't want to ask people to wade through an 80 post thread for a simple question as it comes up and it seems clear any question I ask will just become post number 80 something in this thread and I don't want to make people deal with that to help.

 

[ch33zw1z]

Are you at the latest bios?

Is the ram on the motherboard support list?

Did you buy the ram in pairs or as a set? If pairs, wanna keep the pairs together

You're on the right path with the RAM thing, take it apart and check for bent pins, thermal grease in socket on bottom of CPU.

If everything checks out, my next step would be taking board out, making sure there are no motherboard standoffs that are out of place, and that the HSF backplate is orientated correctly.

 

[Craig234]

ch33zw1z, thanks for checking.

I waited years to build this. After I finished getting the parts over a year ago, I still waited this long to start it. So I expected I'd run into things and looked forward to getting help here on the issues, which I did until the moderation decided that specific issues from 'how to make the Windows install USB' to 'diagnosing memory sockets not working' all belonged in the same one thread.

At that point it was clear any specific issue I had and made a thread thread for would be merged into this one long thread for the basic progress of build as post 80-something or higher, and that both was not
going to go to the forum for the area involved, be less likely for a response, and I'd be asking anyone to dig through the 80-odd posts to help.

I found that unworkable. And not only merged - I was PM'd with a dismissive insult about my position and an implied threat than any questions asked in any other thread that happened to be for this build would be against site rules and presumably punished.

So, I reluctantly had to abandon AT as the resource for help, despite still having issues preventing the PC from functioning.

I knew of one other site for help - tomshardware - and went there and luckily got help.

I won't try to list a lot of the topic since then - but they include that it did appear to be a CPU socket problem with pins causing the memory to hang the system with an error, and I almost couldn't find any help
with correcting that. I called the well-rated local shop that advertised they can fix systems other services can't and they said they didn't want to do it. Craigslit services didn't respond.

Finally I saw someone say jewelers might be able to help and I called a couple and one agreed. He said when he tried he really couldn't fix it much but could slightly improve it. That's the best I could do,I could see I had no way to do it myself.

After that, it's strange. The good news after finally getting the heatsink reinstalled but with pin issues not totally fixed was the memory worked. The bad news was I had hardware hangs on reboots - and oddly, two times after the OS installation (which I had to re-do twice). But it mostly ran stably - but leaves the worry what all isn't working right.

I finally got things pretty sorted out and it's mostly been running fine.

Though tonight after it's run for a few days, I found it had hung. I did a power cycle, it said 'updates didn't complete' and rolled them back and reinstalled them. It rebooted a couple times and hung again. Then I power cycled and seconds after booting it hung (remember that 'two hangs' thing).

I power cycled again, it's been running a half hour now no problem but had a new error - a window saying the program that's gog.com's frontend, 'galaaxyclient.exe', has an error, "C:windpws\system32\msvcp140.dll is rither not designed to run on Windows or it contains an error' and gives code 0xc000012f (This is Windows 10 64 bit).

Right now I'm considering how to try to fix it - I found a site that offers 10 versions of the file to put into the system directory (5 each of 32 bit and 64 bit), or I could try re-downloading the program in case it got the file re-written and corrected.

What I'm not doing is opening a thread in the WIndows software forum open to ask for advice, because the moderation is that every issue on this PC has to go in this one thread. So I have a thread on the other site.

Thanks again for asking and the early help here got me past the first issues!

I can't think of what else to do about the remaining MB issue. I can't seem to find any fix available, if I could I expect it would be quite expensive, and if I could do something like RMA the MB which is pretty iffy since I waited over a year to build this, it'd still mean a complete system re-install which does not sound like something I want to do. So I expect to just have the occasional hangs for years.

But it's run for maybe a week before tonight, so not bad!

 

[ch33zw1z]

Motherboards typically have a 3 year warranty, but you may be charged for the repair.

If I were you, I'd already be buying another board.

The mother board always gets a thorough inspection. It a lesson we all learn at some point 🙂