Gigabyte 990FXA-UD3 Ultra Durable 4 AM3+ v4.0 Bios F2 - Win 7 Pro 64 bit

[brades]

System hangs randomly.  RAM only allows half of what is installed. I have a 16 GB Kingston HyperX set.  Shows 16 GB (7.96 GB Available) already RMA's one set of RAM that was a different brand and had Windows Memory Diagnostic errors.  Hoped this would solve problem but RAM is still only half of what the kit is supposed to be and random crashes still occur.  Tried 2 different video cards, same result with both of them.  All monitoring shows CPU only getting into 50 degree Celsius ranges. 

System specs are:
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AMD FX-9590 Eight-Core Processor 4.7 GHz
AMD Radeon R9 200 Series Power Color
16 GB RAM Kingston HyperX
(Original Patriot Viper 3 16 GB (2x8GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM - Piece of junk threw errors on Windows Memory Diagnostic on each chip)
Win 7 Pro 64 Bit SP1 all latest updates
SSD 250G SAMSUNG MZ-75E250B/AM
WD 3 TB 7200 RPM Sata HDD
Cooler Master TPC 812 Vertical Vapor Chamber Heatsink
5 System fans
Thermaltake TR2 700W ATX Power Supply (original Senty 725 Watt power supply RMA'd - Piece of junk quit after 4 days)


The BIOS seems flaky, I have used F2 and F3i but both have the same issue with RAM not showing up with both brands I have tried.  Kingston is 1866 mhz, Patriot was 1600 mhz.  I've reloaded OS probably 10 times now wiping all partitions and reinstalling.  Gigabyte BIOS is flaky and difficult to work with UEFI partitions and Legacy drives.  Ubuntu or other linux USB sticks won't install if they are FAT 32, which is the default boot stick.  This is horrible, but there may be a fix using EXT4 partition and Unetbootin.  Not there yet.  Trying to resolve random crashes which I'm assuming are related to flaky BIOS.

System when running all diagnostics using either OpenHardwareMonitor or AMD EasyTune6 show all temperatures at 57 degrees at the highest, which is safe as these seem to be able to run up into the 80's without issues.  Tested each new stick of HyperX memory with Windows Memory Diagnostic and they have no errors.  Video card temperatures are also at low levels, so system is cooling perfectly as expected. 

I'm leaning towards a bad mother board here now after bad memory, and bad power supply, seems hardware isn't made to good specs.  After new memory and new power, it seems fine or hoped it was but random crashes still exist under pressure.  I've used Furmark and Memory86 and those test all seem to be fine as well even when run together. 

Everything seems to lean towards the motherboard just not performing to specs.  Anyone have any advice? 

I've been in IT for 25 years, so lots of system building experience here, so lets rule out newbie ideas.  Thanks in advance from anyone that may have an idea, suggestion, etc.

[rinkol]

Sometimes it is possible to have this sort of problem if a memory module is not fully seated.

Which pair of memory sockets are you using? Referring to the manual, Gigabyte recommends the DDR3_1 and DDR3_2 sockets. Note that these are not adjacent to each other. You could try the DDR3_3 and DDR4_4 sockets.

If you removed one memory module, were you able to correctly detect and test the other? The point here is to determine whether both memory sockets will work if only one memory module is used. 

What memory settings are you using?

If none of this helps, clearing the bios would be worth a try.

Robert

[AgentFXA]

you do not overclock anything?
flushed cmos?

use the XMP profile for ram - do not set manually

[dmdilks]

It only can be memory or the board. I have had a lot Gigabyte boards and some of them just don't like some memory. Have you tried 4 sticks of 4gb.

I know it says that the board will support 32gb of memory but it just might not like 8gb sticks.

[brades]

Still crashing at random.  I've replaced the power supply with a totally different brand than the junk I bought originally.  It died after 5 days, wouldn't turn on anything.  Replaced with Thermaltake Smart 750w ATX Power Supply 80 PLUS Bronze system had solid power now.  RMA'd or tried to anyway on the memory since I don't have original packaging, threw it away after 4 days it seemed to work. Windows memory diagnostics finally showed bad memory.  Removed wifi PCIe card as that seems to have bad drivers, tried all of them on their site.  Thought that solved it but it still seems to flake and crash once in a while now.  Re-did complete MemTest86+ test on the new memory and no issues.  Tried F2 and F3i BIOS, both are horrible at supporting UEFI and Legacy and neither really supports booting Linux Live CD's or Live USB's.  I've never had a problem on any computer.  I've been in IT for 26 years building computers, programming, network support, etc so obviously I've tried all the basic repetitive known issues to test, diagnose, etc.  Besides swapping every component I'm running out of ideas.  Reloaded OS 7-8 times almost had to after each BIOS change as the BIOS doesn't know how to handle booting after a BIOS update, never seen such a thing.  Usually putting in a Win CD will handle the repair if the UEFI or Legacy mode some how changes, which it didn't as the defaults are the same from version to version.  10 days later and I'm still battling this and have RMA'd 3 items now.  Nothing has changed yet.  Thinking its the flaky motherboard and week BIOS on these things.  Guess i should have gone with a more solid motherboard, my thoughts as of now anyway.  Booted to one memory stick at a time, tried all 4 slots, doesnt' matter.  Also when using 2 8 GB sticks it never reports 16 GB useable in Windows, leads me to believe this motherboard false reflects RAM capabilities.  Now using Kingston 16 GB set as the Patriot Viper set ended up being bad. 

[brades]

Now the sytem won't boot if I put 1 Kingston memory stick in slot 3 or 4 on the mother board only.  If I take either stick and put them in slot 1 or 2 the system boots just fine and reports it has that sticks amount of memory and test seem clean, granted they haven't run for 48 hours each test, but the initial for 4 hours on each stick in slot 1 and 2 are fine.  This has to be a bad motherboard.  It just won't boot with an 8 GB stick in slot 3 or 4.  As the specs say, it should, so regardless if it is flaky it is bad plain and simple.  All slots should work.  There is no way to get this board to recognize 16 GB having to use par 1, 3 or 2, 4 as that is how the motherboard memory slots must be used.  Bad board no other answer is acceptable.  RMA time. 

[absic]

Whilst I would tend to agree that the possible cause of the issue is motherboard/BIOS related I wouldn't rule out a faulty CPU. The memory controllers are actually part of the processor and I have encountered this kind of problem before where one channel works OK whilst the second channel doesn't.