Z170 and NVMe stability issues

[stumpinator]

Hello AT. Long time lurker here for some advice.

My ASRock Z170 Extreme7+ becomes unstable (Intel Burn Test / Prime95 / Handbrake errors) when I have my 2x Intel 600ps installed. I don't blue screen, I'm just getting "Zero Errors" in IBT/p95 the results return 0 when they should be something else, or crashes (handbrake). I've been troubleshooting for a few days and am at a loss as to the exact culprit. Before I start to RMA stuff, I'd like to hear what you think. I'm not overclocking and I'm monitoring temps every stress test (top out around 70c).

Things I've tried:

• Unplugged everything except whats necessary to get windows up and testing. Everything becomes stable when I remove the NVMe drives.
• Tried latest and previous motherboard bios (7.3 / 7.1)
• Fresh windows install
• Memtest86+. Only testing with one stick right now, normally 2x16GB DDR4. Also tried different sockets.
• Different, known good power supply.

I'm currently trying different M2 ports (there are 3). Then I'll try 1 NVMe at a time to see if a specific one is causing problems.

Some peculiarities that are making me think it's my mobo:

• strange readings in cpu-z when using default "auto" settings (strange ram speeds and bus clock reads 99.8 - 99.9, reported cpu voltage does not match what i enter manually)
• Video card was doing some really funky stuff. It made me think I had a dying video card or power supply.

Any settings I could try tweaking to help get this thing to work right? I'd appreciate the help.

 

[VirtualLarry]

I know that the 600p SSDs aren't the most power-efficient SSDs on the market, but ... they should be powered by your PSU.

 

[stumpinator]

I've tried 2 different PSU so far: 650W and 750W. No difference.

 

[UsandThem]

Maybe send an email to Asrock's tech support. If they can replicate the problem, in the past they have sent out custom BIOS updates to people.

I can't imagine too many people use multiple Intel 600p drives, so it could be a compatibility issue/bug.

 

[stumpinator]

After much more troubleshooting it looks more and more like a RAM related issue. Specifically, timings and specs from the XMP profiles. I'll try ASRock tech support next. Thanks.