SOLVED ASRock z68 extreme 3 gen 3 random reboots! please help!

[matter2003]

I just can't deal with this anymore. I have read and tried just about everything to alleviate this issue but it keeps popping up. I have had runs of 14 hours and 6 hours with no issues but now it is reboting virtually everytime I get into windows 7.

Here is what I have done so far:
Disabled IGP.
Updated all drivers
Change vcore voltage to 1.19 fixed
Change vcore voltage to +.07 offset
Use xmp profile 1 for ram
Set all bios settings to default
Ran windows mem diagnostic and mem test with no errors
Raised and lowered mem voltage from the standrard 1.529 volts
clear cmos
Boot into safe mode
Unplugged all usb cables

I probably have done some more things that I am forgetting about...basically every suggestion I found in this and other forums, I have tried and it hasn't solved the problem.

What happens is you will be doing something in windows and all of a sudden the screen goes black and a few seconds later the computer restarts. Sometimes it gets stuck at the splash screen and restarts 2 or 3 times before booting into windows. No event log from windows, no BSOD, no warning. Sometimes it happens while watching something, sometimes while surfing the net, sometimes while not doing anything. CPU is not overheating, temps never above 44c, GPU not overheating, temps not above 50, I am at a total loss as to how to fix this problem. Also at first bios splash screen was showing A2 in lower right corner but now it shows A3, not sure what that means if anything, since it doesn't affect the booting up usually.

Just built this cmp and have been running it about 5 days now. I7-2600k cpu, 12 gb Gskill Ripjawz DDR3 1600 RAM, Sapphire Radeon 6850 HD video card, Windows 7 ultimate, asrock extreme 3 gen 3 mobo, Enermax 500W PSU...

In hindsight I should have stuck with Gigabyte, my previous mobo in my last rig...never had 1 problem out of that board in over 5 years. Imho, there is something seriously wrong with these mobo's to keep having the same issues over and over. I will update bios to 1.10 as soon as I can get in and it stops rebooting but it doesn't appear like it will do much, since the big thing is supposedly improved mouse function. Not a happy camper right now...have never had this many issues with a mobo and I have built many, many computers in my day...

Here is the axtu screen showing PSU should not be the problem as voltages all look good and are stable...

(Will post when I get home...all voltages are stable and look normal..no bouncing around or anything like that...)

Here is info from Event Viewer saying computer unexpectedly shut down:

- System

- Provider

[ Name] EventLog

- EventID 6008

[ Qualifiers] 32768

Level 2

Task 0

Keywords 0x80000000000000

- TimeCreated

[ SystemTime] 2011-10-17T04:14:24.000000000Z

EventRecordID 7320

Channel System

Computer MNasty-PC

Security


- EventData

12:12:08 AM
‎10/‎17/‎2011


2109


DB070A000100110000000C0008004302DB070A000100110004000C0008004302600900003C000000010000006009000000000000B00400000100000000000000


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Binary data:


In Words

0000: 000A07DB 00110001 000C0000 02430008
0008: 000A07DB 00110001 000C0004 02430008
0010: 00000960 0000003C 00000001 00000960
0018: 00000000 000004B0 00000001 00000000


In Bytes

0000: DB 07 0A 00 01 00 11 00 Û.......
0008: 00 00 0C 00 08 00 43 02 ......C.
0010: DB 07 0A 00 01 00 11 00 Û.......
0018: 04 00 0C 00 08 00 43 02 ......C.
0020: 60 09 00 00 3C 00 00 00 `...<...
0028: 01 00 00 00 60 09 00 00 ....`...
0030: 00 00 00 00 B0 04 00 00 ....°...
0038: 01 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 ........

and here is another one saying system has rebooted without cleanly shutting down first:

- System

- Provider

[ Name] Microsoft-Windows-Kernel-Power
[ Guid] {331C3B3A-2005-44C2-AC5E-77220C37D6B4}

EventID 41

Version 2

Level 1

Task 63

Opcode 0

Keywords 0x8000000000000002

- TimeCreated

[ SystemTime] 2011-10-17T01:15:22.605621300Z

EventRecordID 6161

Correlation

- Execution

[ ProcessID] 4
[ ThreadID] 8

Channel System

Computer MNasty-PC

- Security

[ UserID] S-1-5-18


- EventData

BugcheckCode 0
BugcheckParameter1 0x0
BugcheckParameter2 0x0
BugcheckParameter3 0x0
BugcheckParameter4 0x0
SleepInProgress false
PowerButtonTimestamp 0

 

[Bobnova]

First thing I could to is get your hands on a multimeter and check the voltages the power supply is putting out.

Find a molex connector and stuff the black DMM lead into one of the middle two pins.
Then carefully measure the voltage with the red DMM lead. The yellow wire should have 11.5 to 12.5 volts, ideally 11.9-12.1 volts.
The red wire should have 4.75-5.25 volts, and the orange wire (you'll have to look elsewhere for one, the molex won't have it) should have 3.15 to 3.45 volts.

 

[matter2003]

First thing I could to is get your hands on a multimeter and check the voltages the power supply is putting out.

Find a molex connector and stuff the black DMM lead into one of the middle two pins.
Then carefully measure the voltage with the red DMM lead. The yellow wire should have 11.5 to 12.5 volts, ideally 11.9-12.1 volts.
The red wire should have 4.75-5.25 volts, and the orange wire (you'll have to look elsewhere for one, the molex won't have it) should have 3.15 to 3.45 volts.

I ordered a ocz 700W ModXStream PSU to see if its the PSU buy all voltages look good in AXTU and they are pretty stable...that said u never know...
this seems to be a pretty common issue with windows 7 from what I am reading...
Going to try and reapply thermal paste and see if it helps, even tho cpu temps are never over 45C...

 

[ytpconquer]

I just got the same board, what level is your LLC at? Mine is currently set at 3, but I found if I raised it to 2 the PC reboot and turn off and turn back on several times before even making it to the BIOS splash screen. Not sure why it did but lowering LLC back to 3 seemed to fix it.

 

[matter2003]

Well I think I may have isolated the problem...I kept AXTU open while doing things last night to keep an eye on things and noticed the cpu temp skyrocketing from high 30s to almost 70 while under load(unzipping big files). After about 3 hours while working on a zip file the reboot happened and then kept happening leading me to believe it stems from improper cooling...gonna reapply some arctic silver and see how it goes...

EDIT:

Well, re-applied some Antec Silver 5(Arctic Silver 5) and am getting temps about 10C lower overall...idle temps sitting around 28-30C instead of 39-41C...so far so good...will see once its up and running for a while...

 

[wingman99]

If your temp is not going over 70c than that is not your problem. It sounds like something is wrong with your board.

 

[matter2003]

If your temp is not going over 70c than that is not your problem. It sounds like something is wrong with your board.

Still possible, but I have been up and running for over 6 hours now and no reboots so far(crossing my fingers). Temps are 10-15C lower than before, so either way, it had a good effect even if the reboot issues keep happening.

Also is it possible that there was some thermal compound over some of the cores but not all of them, causing perhaps 1 to overheat while the others showed normal? It appeared when I took the heatsink off, there wasn't as much coverage on the die as their should have been...

 

[matter2003]

Well, this problem has been solved! Computer has been running for 18 hours+ so far and not a single reboot. Turned out to be CPU overheating even tho the temperatures looked OK. Would recommend reapplying thermal paste to anyone having similar problems, as this has resolved my issues! Apologize for blaming ASRock for the issue, but I had assumed it was a problem with the mobo after reading all the issues on this...

I believe that one of the cores didn't have enough thermal paste on it and was overheating even though the others showed they were fine...just a theory but I have no other way to explain it..