Strange issue with Ripjaws-X F3-12800CL7D-8GBXH on Asus P8Z68-V

[perino]

Hi, I have recently bought a new system and I am experiencing some issues.
My memory is Ripjaws-X F3-12800CL7D-8GBXH on an Asus P8Z68-V with a Core i7 2600k. My power supply is a Cooler Master GX 650W and I have an Asus GTX 560 Ti.
I have 2 concerns:
(1) - I can't use dual channel since the board won't even post if I put my ram modules on any slot other than B1-B2 (Asus suggests A2-B2).
With a single stick I can only use the B2 slot, while Asus suggests A2.
(2) - I am experiencing random freeze (no BSOD, nothing on event viewer, no trace at all and I have to hard reset) on Win7 x64, usually when the system is NOT under stress (browsing or even idle). I have never experienced this under heavy stress (Crysis 2 maxed out, burn test and so on)

I'm trying to figure out what to blame: the motherboard, the memory or myself.
I have done a memtest86+ from a liveCD and no errors were found, but the issue (1) still remains.
I have also set timings manually on my board (8-8-8 24 and 1.6V). Trying XMP will cause a boot fail.
Is there anything else I can try to narrow down the issue?
Sorry for my bad english and thank you in advance,
Francesco.

[Tradesman]

Sounds like a bad mobo, could try inserting the sticks a little more firmly, there have been issues with tight DIMM sockets, but would guess mobo is bad....one other possibility would be to check CPU and socket and make sure all is good and no thermanl compound seeped under the edges or into the socket...also ensure you have the latest BIOS

[perino]

Thank you Tradesman, I have tried every combination. The strange thing is that if I pull out the stick in B2 not touching the one in B1 it won't boot either...
Edit - disregard this section
I also noticed that leaving the dvd drive unplugged will practically get rid of the freezing issue (probably something off with sata controllers).
End
I'll test for a couple of days more playing with the RAM, cleaning and re-applying the thermal compound then I think I'm going to return the motherboard.
Thank you for your help,
Francesco.

[Tradesman]

Let us know how it goes

[perino]

Ok, halfway there.
Problem (1) is gone.
Turns out it was my fault. Reading in asus vip forum I found out that most of the time this kind of problems can be solved just by reseating the cpu and cooler.

I'm still trying to figure out issue (2), but I think I can safely assume that memories have nothing to do with it.

Hope this helps some lost soul
Thank you for your help and kindness, I'll post again if I find out something useful.

[Tradesman]

Have you tried raising the DRAM voltage...say .05

[GSKILL TECH]

If A2 B2 doesn't work, there is certainly some kind of problem with your motherboard, so no matter what, you will need to send in for RMA exchange. This kit should work with just the XMP enabled.

Thank you
GSKILL TECH

[perino]

Thanks, I have done a rearrangement of every piece of hardware I have, cleared the bios with the CLRTC jumper and now i am able to use A2-B2. Reseating the graphics board seems to have cleared the freezing problem, but I have to wait to say the last word...
Now I'm running my memories at mobo default speeds (9-9-9-28), I'll try to tweak them after a couple of days of uptime (XMP works fine, but I'm trying to test one step at a time).
I'll keep you posted if I have any news.

By the way, maybe this link might be useful for anyone with the same issues I had:
http://vip.asus.com/forum/view.aspx?...Language=en-us

[Tradesman]

Keep us updated and thanks for the link