MSI Z97-G45 Gaming MOBO DIMM issue

So, I have what seems to be a rather common issue I've heard as I continue to research more about the issue, and I'm hoping that it's not my board... but chances are it is my board. My (relevant) specs are as follows:
CPU: Intel I5-4690k
Heatsink: Cool Master Evo Hyper 212
GPU: Radeon HD 6970
Memory: 2 x 4GB DDR3-2133mhz G.Skill Ripjaws X
Storage: Samsung 840 EVO 500gb SSD
So, when I first cracked open my new MOBO box and got a look at this beauty a few days ago I was overjoyed, but quickly became dismayed. At first I thought the pins were bent where the processor mounts, but that isn't the issue here. The issue is that whenever I stick my RAM into the third and fourth socket it literally does not boot up. I can turn it on, the fans go, power turns on and lights flash... except there's no picture on my monitor, the light to my keyboard doesn't boot up, and then it restarts itself before turning back on and resuming... again without any sound, picture, or keyboard use. I stick 1 RAM stick into the third or fourth slot, just one and no others, and it won't boot to the bios or OS, but if it's in the first and second slot then it runs no problem. Except for the first time I received a windows error - my screen went blue and pixelated as I was playing Skyrim for a split second before it rebooted. The error it gave was ProblemEventName: BlueScreen LocaleID:1033...
A quick google search will show that it's listed under a ram issue. So, I was hoping that it was ONLY my ram and decided to switch it out for 2 x 4g 2000 kingston ram from another system in my home. First and second slot no problem, yet if it goes into the third or fourth slot then same as before; no boot to BIOS or OS. I can't believe that two sets of RAM are faulty as I have the kingston's dual channeled in another system that has been running quite well for over two years now. I'm hoping anyone else has had this issue and solved it, because I really, REALLY, don't want to RMA my motherboard, but as far as I can tell I received a defective board and am going to need a new one from MSI. Can anyone help me out or just confirm what I think I already know to be true? Thanks in advance for the help!

Yeah... sadly that's my conclusion as well, but I thought to get a second (and third) opinion just in case my own diagnostics were lacking. Part of me wants to just leave the problem, but I know it won't go away. Looks like I'll be RMA'ing my board - here's to hoping it doesn't take longer than two weeks to get another one back! I was really digging the BIOS interface and the better performance, too :( .

Similar Messages

  • MSI Z97-G45 Gaming can not POST or enter BIOS but has display

    Hi
    First post here and sadly a technical one. I just bought the following hardware:
    - MSI Z97-G45 GAMING MoBo (no idea on BIOS since I cannot enter it at all)
    - Intel Core i5 4690K s1150
    - 16GB (2x8GB) Patriot Viper 3 Black Mamba 1600MHz CL9 DDR3 Dual/Quad Channel Kit [PV316G160C9K]
    - Corsair CX750M PSU
    and installed the hardware with the following old hardware that I am carrying over:
    - 2 X Hitachi 1TB Sata HDD
    - 2 X GTX 275 SLI
    To begin with, my existing drives were setup as RAID 0 and has a installed Windows 7 64-bit on there already. I unregistered the Product key before taking it all apart with the idea of registering it again once the new hardware was all together.
    So basically, when I received all the new parts yesterday and put them all in. Upon powering on, I see the MSI Dragon logo fullscreen with the option to press DEL or F11. I let it continue without pressing any key to see how it goes. After the dergaon logo, all I get is "Missing Operating System" at the top which did not really worry me and I assumed it would be realted to the Raid not setup (right?)
    So I rebooted the PC and decided to press DEL to enter BIOS. However, every time I want to enter the BIOS the screen turns black! The display is still functional though from what I can tell (the display does not lose signal).
    Following that, I reset the CMOS from behind by pressing the button with a pen tip. Starting the PC again now gives me a display of all my hardware that it detected (correct CPU, Correct amount of ram, correct HDD etc...). It also gives me two options... F1 to Enter setup or F2 to Continue. Pressing F1 displays the text "Entering Setup..." at the bottom but again it fails to enter the BIOS (it freezes on the above screen - does not turn black this time) and choosing F2 to Continue freezes as well.
    I have tried to boot up with the following changes:
    - No GPU and use on board VGA only
    - One stick of ram in multiple slots
    - No HDDs connected at all
    - I've checked the CPU to make sure no bent pins
    - Reconnected the PSU cables into the motherboard
    I should also mention that when I test it on the bare minimum (CPU, PSU, 1 stick of ram) I get A9 in the lower corner before the dragon logo appears.
    Right now I am out of ideas and any suggestions would be helpful or at least some insight in what problems I described may indicate. Thanks!

    Quote from: Bernhard on 08-July-14, 19:43:46
    Can you post your board's serial number. This contains the manufacture date. From that one could deduce the BIOS version on that board.
    As for the windows installation from your previous system, you would be very lucky if you were able to boot with that. Perhaps force safe mode if and when you are able to boot, and then try installing the new drivers. The problem is that with the old drivers still in the boot menu, you are probably heading down a slippery slope trying to re-use it. A clean installation would be advised.
    Whatever is on the HDD now should however not prevent you from getting into the BIOS.
    The fact that your CPU is recognised by its make doesn't mean that its supported. The CPU ID is probably read by the BIOS, but the microcode of the CPU may be missing in the BIOS support. I am trying to think of possible reasons here, and these are just some of my current ideas as to why you may not be able to get into the BIOS.
    Have you tried your MB outside the case yet, i.e. on a non conductive surface, i.e. wood or cardboard to eliminate any chances of a potential short?
    Also, you may want to check your CPU seating again and carefully inspect the CPU socket pins to ensure that none were bent or are not making proper contact
    Yep here is the serial number: 601-7821-050B1405415963
    Yeah I didn't really expect to have too much luck with the original windows 7 installation but I had no choice since my last computer failed to power on (faulty PSU I suspected).
    However, as you also mentioned, I do not think it would prevent me from reaching the BIOS setup.
    Hopefully the above serial can make some sense for you but I do recall some sort of date after a CMOS reset at the top... I think it was 21 April or May 2014 or so. This was next to the following: E7821IMS v2.0.
    Once I get home, I will try a few things like you suggested but trying to get as much info as I can before I get home so I have a few things to try.
    Thanks again!
    EDIT - as a side note, I also contacted the Online Retailer I got it from and the first response from them was that the DEBUG "A9" code meant it was the RAM not fully inserted. That is another thing I have to be 100% sure of but I am fairly sure it was fully clicked in on both sides... but you never know!

  • Any new BIOS for Z97 G45 Gaming ? USB issue

    I have a MSI Z97 G45 Gaming with latest BIOS 2.40 but since I've bought this mobo there is a problem with USB ports under MS Windows 7/8.1 and latest Windows 10 Technical Preview Build 9860. The problem is with gaming keyboard Saitek Cyborg. This keyboard working only when is connected to the front USB panel (right side). Rear USB ports (even 3.0) and left front USB port are not recognizing this keyboard. Under Linux, BIOS and DOS everything is ok.
    Please fix it.
    Thank you.

    Does the LED lights on when you plug in? What does it show under device manager? Did you install the keyboard driver??? where does the front USB panel connect to this mobo?

  • Z97-G45 Gaming boot loop issue

    Hey everyone,
    My new build seems to be giving me problems.  I put everything together, imaged my SSD and everything seemed to be working fine at first.  I had games running and was getting excellent performance with everything on stock settings.  Then I started to sync my Plex media server with all it's contents and my computer froze.  The keyboard/mouse were non-responsive so frustratingly I reset the computer manually.
    Now my computer fans will boot up and then immediately turn back off.
    So far I've:
    -Disconnected everything except my CPU/RAM and PSU -- I got the same boot loop response
    -Initially, I was able to get the system to the BIOS by changing the configuration of the RAM.  Now that no longer works.  It would require me to change the RAM multiple times, and the system by random chance would sometimes boot to the BIOS.  It would freeze if I tried to get into the OS.
    -I just exchanged the PSU with a known working component.  (Both 750W)
    -I reseated the CPU and ensured I had a proper connection between the heat sink and CPU
    There doesn't seem to be any physical degradation of the motherboard.
    Here's the specs:
    MSI Z97-G45 Gaming Motherboard BIOS v2.0
    Intel Core i7-4770k processor
    Corsair H70 CPU heat sink
    16GB Crucial Ballistix Tactical (2 x 8GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600(I've tried both w/ XMP on and off when I can get the system to boot)
    Nvidia Gefore GTX 750 TI Graphics Card (also tried onboard DVI connections)
    Corsair HX750W (tried also my Thermaltake 750W)
    Zowie Mechanical Keyboard
    Zowie optical mouse
    Windows 7 Ultimate Edition 64-Bit
    1x 250GB Western Digital Black
    1x 1TB Western Digital Black
    1x 120GB Corsair Force 3 SSD (Broken in my attempts to plug/unplug it and the terminals snapped -- SOOOO frustrated at that.  I have the 1TB Western Digital imaged with the same OS now.)
    Hopefully you guys have an idea to try before I RMA it...

    It's used to clear the CMOS, so no, it should not have a jumper on it. Most use a flat tip screwdriver to short it to clear CMOS, or the clear CMOS button at the I/O plate if one is provided there.

  • MSI Z97-G45 Gaming VS MSI Z97 Gaming 5

    Hello there!
    As I received much of good help on these forums already, here comes my next help request. I will have to decide which motherboard should I buy soon (upgrading to Intel Core i7 4790K), I have done some research and found out that these two models I mentioned in the thread subject would be of my main interest. I am, however, a bit uninformed, as I could not find any test of MSI Z97-G45 Gaming. I have a few questions about those two.
    First of all, Z97-G45 has a fast boot in official specification on MSI Global and Gaming 5 does not say anything about it. Does it mean that Gaming 5 boots long? How I should understand that?
    I think Z97-G45 looks better, that red dragon is really fancy, however Gaming 5 laminate looks more black, which makes it also atractive to me.
    All that I really need to know is, which one of these will perform better for CPU overclocking? Is there any difference at all? The price is really simillar. I also see that G45 does not contain an M.2 and neither of them got Sata Express. Could anyone explain if Sata Express or M.2 are really worth having them right now? Will M.2 improve my current SSD speeds? And Sata Express will improve my HDD speed? Or how does it work? Will it only boost up drives that are particularly made to work with those connectors?
    Thanks in advance!

    Quote
    First of all, Z97-G45 has a fast boot in official specification on MSI Global and Gaming 5 does not say anything about it. Does it mean that Gaming 5 boots long? How I should understand that?
    All modern mainboards support fastboot as it is a Windows8 feature.
    Quote
    I think Z97-G45 looks better, that red dragon is really fancy, however Gaming 5 laminate looks more black, which makes it also atractive to me.
    All that I really need to know is, which one of these will perform better for CPU overclocking? Is there any difference at all? The price is really simillar. I also see that G45 does not contain an M.2 and neither of them got Sata Express. Could anyone explain if Sata Express or M.2 are really worth having them right now? Will M.2 improve my current SSD speeds? And Sata Express will improve my HDD speed? Or how does it work? Will it only boost up drives that are particularly made to work with those connectors
    Z97 Gaming 5 is the more modern board. It offers more ram speed dividers. M.2 is pretty much standard for Z97 boards so G45 is more an option for those still willing to use slower msata devices. Of course M.2 is only any use for you if you are using a PCI-Express based (!) M.2 SSD. If you buy such an M.2 SSD (e.g. Plextor M6E) then it will speed up data transfer a lot as SATA 6GB/s limits latest generation SSDs already. M.2 on Z97 boards being PCI-Express based is running directly through PCIe lanes to the CPU while throughput of SATA is limited by the SATA interface. SATA Express being a similar technology is not supported by both boards but devices are also not available really.
     

  • MSI Z97-G45 GAMING Sata controller performance

    Hello
    I have an question about the Intel Z97 Express Chipset Sata 6gb controller on my MSI Z97-G45 GAMING motherboard.
    Is there any difference between the sata ports performance that can make different results when testing the hard drives. I have an Seagate 3Tb HDD and an WD RE 3Tb HDD and the Segate seems faster. When testing the drives with the manufacturers test suites Seagate takes about 1min to test and WD takes 2min to test and in HD Tune Pro Segate shows a faster speed and a more even curve.
    Could this big difference between the harddrives be affected with which sata port that is being used or are the all the same?
    Thanx
    Niklas

    Im quite sure my sata cables in my new computer says 6gb on it but im not 100 sure. Im using Asus black Sata cables with black/white connector and the Sata cable included with the motherboard. So there should not be any problem.
    From reading this test it seems there no difference between 6gb and 3gb cables as long as they are high quality cables from known manufacturers. I only own Asus red 3gb cables in my old computer and black/white Asus 6gb cables and the ones included with the modtherboard in my new computer.
    Sata II vs Sata III cable test:
    http://www.pugetsystems.com/labs/articles/SATA-cables-Is-there-a-difference-97/

  • Z97-G45 Gaming Wake by Onboard LAN Missing

    Hello,
    I recently built a PC using the Z97-G45 Gaming MOBO. I was hoping to employee the use of the wake on LAN feature that the manual outlines ("Resume by Onboard LAN") found under "Wake Up Event Setup". However, I do not have this option. I do have all the other options discussed in the manual such as by keyboard, mouse, PCI and RTC Alarm.
    The only steps I have taken so far has been to update the BIOS to the newest version. This did not reveal the setting. I do have a ticket in with MSI as well, however, I thought a fellow user may have some experience in this.
    Is there another setting that must be in play in order to reveal certain Integrated LAN settings?
    And advise would be greatly appreciated.
    Thanks for your time,
    wilkie1020

    you could try to go to bios and set the Resume by PCI/PCIE device to Enabled   

  • MSI Z97-G45 Smart fan control Bios v2.0 vs Bios v2.3

    Hello
    I have an MSI Z97-G45 Gaming motherboard in my new setup with 4ghz i7 4790k and 16gb of ram and so on that i bought a few weeks ago. At first the motherboard had v2.0 Bios and everything worked just fine but as i like maximum compatability and other fixes i upgraded the bios to the latest one v2.3.
    In my setup i use the bios smart fan control for both system and CPU fan, i set it at a curve where the fans instantly will rise the fan speed when doing tests like Prime95 and Aida64. When doing the tests the fan rised from idle 800rpm to neded fanspeed for the correct cooling for my CPU and reached maximum 1500rpm in a matter of seconds to keep the CPU cool. This worked perfectly with Bios v2.0 but after i upgraded the bios to v2.3 the smart fan control changed fanspeed extremely slowly, it took almost 50sec for the fan to speed up from 800rpm to 1500rpm when stressing the CPU at 100%. When i stoped the stress test the fans slowed down to idle 800rpm very fast with bios v2.0 but with bios 2.3 i took a looong time to slow down to idle speed again from 1500rpm.
    Because of the slow changing fanspeed in bios v2.3 i downgraded to v2.0 again and then my fans works just as i want them to do.
    What is the reason for this problem/change in bios v2.3 and will this be fixed in future versions? Is this a known problem with newest bios?
    When people will buy this MB and it has v2.3 from factory the smart fan control will not work properly and buyers will not know how good it can acctually be. I think the Smart fan control in v2.0 is super great 
    //Eson

    Hello,
    reflash this bios .241:
    https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/40094917/E7821IMS241.rar
    then retest

  • MSI z77a-G45 Gaming 3770k overclocking?

    I just recently purchased the z77a-G45 Gaming mobo and a i7 3770k, most of my googling would leave me to believe that the 3770k can easily obtain 4.6Ghz with fairly low voltages like 1.16-1.20 vcore; here comes the question...in order for me to obtain some level of stability @ 4.6Ghz I must crank my vcore to 1.4150 with 100% cpu offset resulting in a 1.39 vcore in windows with a 1.38 vcore under load.  I have all power saving technologies disabled, pll overvoltage enabled, cpu vdroop offset set to 100%; my question is am I missing something with MSI boards as this is the first one I've ever owned or did I just get a very power hungry 3770k?
    General system specs
    MSI z77a-G45 Gaming MOBO
    i7 3770k CPU
    16Gb of Gskill Trident X 2400mhz memory
    Corsair HX850 Gold PSU
    MSI GTX 670 PE OC
    Cooled by custom water loop

    Alrighty, appreciate the info; gonna back down to 4.4Ghz as I can maintain stability with 1.275 vcore in bios = 1.26 in windows = 1.24 under load resulting in hottest core never exceeding 70...was really hoping for 4.7-5.0Ghz overclock when most everyone who reviewed this chip in the early days was claiming such great overclocks with such low voltage.  But I'll chalk that up to either misinformation or non stability checked overclocks, I guess I'm old school; cause if it can't hold up to a minimum 24hr pass of Prime 95 small fft's it isn't stable in my book.  Might consider delidding it in a year or so once the new wears off, I had my i7 920 for about that long before I lapped it into a mirror shine lol.  So based on my new information 3770k's on average overclock between 4.4-4.6Ghz and can require up to 1.4 vcore and higher past 4.6Ghz which is where you start to really become thermally limited on liquid as the Ivy Bridge's 22nm technology puts the cores to closely together in combination with intel's cheap ass thermal compound solution. Maximum recommended voltage for 24/7 shouldn't exceed 1.4 vcore without some kick ass cooling or a combination of delidded processor and kick ass cooling cause ideally you want your cores mid 70's and below...that about sum it all up?

  • Z97-G45 Gaming ISSUES..

    Hi all..
    I have the Z97-G45 Gaming board in my pc.. recently installed it.
    I am trying to install windows 7 and having a nightmare with it.
    The OS seems to install ok, when it comes to reboot to finish the installation I will get a BSOD
    If then i reset it again it may boot up ok and get onto the desktop.
    If I then shutdown the PC.. on next boot I get the EFI shell inferface and the SSD drive that I am installing to has dissappeared from the BIOS and I cant select it to boot from at all.
    If I then turn off and on again, the SSD drive may re appear, system will boot. Then again, if turned off and on again the SSD drive seems to dissappear and I get the EFI shell again.
    I have changed my SSD.. same problems happen.. I am on my 2nd motherboard now... same thing happening..
    I have tried a new PSU.. same issues.. changed RAM and GPU same issues..
    Flahed latest BIOS when I got windows to load but still same issues
    Its driving me INSANE.. Can anyone shed any light on this problem for me?
    Thanks, Dan

    As signature with AMD system obviously doesn't match the system in question follow >>Posting Guide<< and add specs.

  • New z97 G45 Gaming board with big issues

    Hi guys,
    Don't know if I am posting in the wrong spot but I recently bought a new CPU and to go with it I purchased a z97 G45 Gaming board however I'm currently having issues. Before I talk about the issues I'll just state my build:
    CPU: i5-4690k
    MB: z97 G45 Gaming
    GPU: Gigabyte GTX 770
    After market cooler: Noctua NH-DH14
    PSU: Silverstone Strider Gold 850W ST85F-GS
    Ram: 8GBx2 Kingston Hyperx Blu 1600
    Case: Aerocool X-Predator Case - Black/Orange
    So the issue is when I press the power button everything turns on like it should except any fans connected to the motherboard will not work. Everything plugged into the fan controller that comes with the case works fine. However the weird thing is when the computer is about to turn off the fans connected the motherboard will start working for a few seconds and then go off with everything else.
    Another large problem is that no video is being outputted from the GPU or on board graphics. I know the GPU is at least getting power since the fans are spinning on it. Also the fans connected to the CPU are working fine since they'll actually power. 
    I'm pretty sure I've done everything right. I installed all the brass mounts correctly and the cooler is in the right spot. I've tried taking out the CMOS battery and waiting a few minutes. I've also tried removing the GPU and ram to try and even get beeps, still no luck. I can't really think of anything else to do so I came here hoping any of you might be able to help.
    Thanks for reading this,
    Dyltom.

    No beeps with no RAM installed is not a good indication of system health, neither is it not getting graphics when using the onboard. Recommend to remove the system from the case and attempt to run it in a 'barebones' configuration on a piece of plain cardboard or untreated wood.

  • MSI Z97-G45 Sound Issue

    I bought a MSI Z97-G45 two weeks ago, everything is working fine except for the sound. The problem is when I plug my 3.5mm jack into the motherboard it does give sound, but a very low volume. When you turn the volume up it starts making a crackling noise. I have to turn my speakers up all the way to the maximum (normally this would blow them up). The windows volume slider is on maximum so that isn't the issue.
    When I plug my speakers in the front of the case everything is working as normal, it's only when I plug them into the back of the motherboard.
    I've updated the drivers and even unplugged all my USB devices to see if the problem went away.
    Any advice on what this could be?

    Quote from: Nichrome on 16-July-14, 03:19:05
    >>Posting Guide<<
    Have you installed all the drivers required from here?
    http://www.msi.com/support/mb/Z97G45_GAMING.html#down-driver
    I have installed all drivers that are required, device manager shows everything as correct. Front panel audio works correctly (same drivers?), only when plugging the speakers in the motherboard the issue starts.
    Here are my full PC specs:
    Board: MSI Z97-G45
    Bios: Version 2.20
    VGA:   MSI 660GTX 2GB Twin Frozr
    PSU:   Enermax Liberty 620Watt
    Intel Core i7-4790K Haswell 4GHz (4.4GHz Turbo Boost) LGA 1150 88W
    MEM: Corsair 1600mhz 4x2gb CMX8GX3M4A1600C9 @ Auto Voltage
    HDD: Samsung Evo 840 250GB
    COOLER: Corsair h100i Water Cooler
    OC: No
    OS: Windows 7 64bit Professional

  • MSI Z87-G45 Gaming, sound from USB mouse?

    Hi!
    I have some issue from my new computer, see spec below.
    For the information I have a MSI Z87-G45 motherboard.
    I have some sound that occurs sometimes (specially during the first 2-5 minutes) when i move the mouse around.
    It occurs as well sometimes when I been using the computer for a while, basically random just more frequently at the start-up.
    It's hard to know from where the sound occurs, could be PSU but today I read something on another forum about the motherboard I'm using:
    - Higher sound quality using USB, thanks to special adapted current power.
    So i wounder if this can be the case? Is that the reason why i get this noise from inside the computer?
    Is there some way to disabled this "feature" in BIOS?
    Greetings
    |Asus 24" LED VG248QE 144HZ (2st) | EVGA GeForce GTX 780 3GB PhysX CUDA | Intel Core i5-4670K | MSI Z87-G45 Gaming, Socket-1150 | Corsair SSD Force Series GS 240GB 2.5" | Fractal Design Define R4 Black Pearl | Crucial DDR3 BallistiX Tactical 16GB | Corsair TX 850W PSU | Noctua NH-U14S CPU Kylare | CM Storm QuickFire TK Keyboard Brown | Ace Laser Gaming Mouse EDGE 3200 | QPAD XXXL |

    The sound sounds like the old mechanics hdd kinda.
    It comes inside the computer, not the speakers.
    My feelings is that it can be the PSU as well, just wanted to check this first, since it most often comes when i move my mouse.

  • MSI Z87 G45 GAMING erratic BSOD/freeze @ 2300, stable @1600. Can't solve.

    Hi All,
    I would welcome some advice. I am about 4 months into a new machine build:
    * MSI Z87 G45 GAMING motherboard
    * i7-4770K Haswell 3.5 GHz & aftermarket heatpipe cooler
    * 4 x 4Gb G.Skill SNIPER DDR3-2133 PC3-1700  (F3-17000CL11D-8GBSR)
    * GeForce GTX 650 Ti  w/ 2 Gb Video RAM
    * Samsung 840 Pro 256 Gb SSD
    * Thermaltake 700W Toughpower
    * Win 7 Pro 64-bit SP1
    The system seems to run fine at the default 1600 MHz RAM speed, however if I implement either of the X.M.P. profiles (which kick the memory speed up to the RAM's advertised  speed of 2133 MHz), the system will occasionally (every 8 to 48 hours) freeze or BSOD.  The BSOD stop codes are inconsistent in number (0x00, 0x41, 0x1E, 0xC4) and driver.  When the system freezes, there is no consistent behavior.  I am not doing any other overclocking besides using the X.M.P. profile in the memory. 
    RAM timing on the 2133 X.M.P. profile is: 11-11-11-30.
    I have updated the BIOS to 1.5, including the ME, and updated all drivers in the system.  All irrelevant hardware and drivers are disabled.  Also I have done the following:
    * MemTest+  5.01 for over 30 hours, all 4 sticks in.  No errors.
    * Intel BurnTest on 'Very High', 10 passes, no errors
    * Prime95 for over day with 90 C CPU temps constantly being hit.  No errors.
    * Unigine Valley Benchmark for 30 minutes; no issues
    I increased V_DRAM from 1.60V (from the XMP profile) to 1.65V, and I also added  +0.10V offset to increase the CPU I/O ANALOG , CPU I/O DIGITAL  and SYSTEM AGENT voltages.  Didn't seem to help.  All other CPU voltages are default from [auto].
    I rolled the memory speed back to the default 1600 MHz, and the system seems stable as a rock.
    I don't really need to have the memory run at 2133 MHz, but it irks me that the system is not stable with the rated components, and I'm befuddled why the stress tests seem to pass just fine, then the system will randomly hang with arguably a far less demanding load than the stress tests.
    Note that I have not yet:
    * reset the CMOS when changing to X.M.P.  Perhaps I should?
    * reseated the graphics card or CPU.  The latter will require R/R of the thermal grease, which I will do if needed, but it's a pain.  Since the system is stable at 1600 MHz, I assumed that all basic systems are working as they should.
    * Tried to work my way up in memory speed step by stem from 1600 to 2133 to see where things fall apart.
    * Tested the video memory
    I suspect main system memory, despite the clean bill of health from MemTest, and based on many of the comments to others with similar problems from the veterans on this board.   I don't want to push the CPU voltages too much above the default/auto values, for fear of damage and reduced lifetime.
    Also, the power supply is a nice unit from an older high-end gaming rig. It is rated at 700W.  The PS does probably have over 30,000 hours on it (24/7 use for 3-4 years), however.  Strange that it would work at 1600 MHz fine, and with only slightly more power load at 2133.  I suppose stranger things have happened. 
    I've read the suggestions to run only 2 sticks, rather than 4, but I can't justify dropping $140 on new memory (I don't really need the extra speed benefit, it's more curiosity and just not knowing at this point).
    Anyway, perhaps more seasoned souls than I can share their thoughts.  The system is perfectly usable at 1600, but I'd really like to know where the lockups are stemming from.  Troubleshooting is maddening because of the inconsistency in the long times before failure and lack of repeatability to reproduce the issue.
    Thanks in advance for your time.
    -Paul

    Thank you both for the prompt replies.  I'm learning a lot.
    Turns out I also found this from G.SKILL in going over reviews of the memory modules I have.  Another user had a similar configuration as mine and was having similar problems.  G.SKILL replied:
    Quote
    We are sorry to hear you were unable to get two kits working in the same system. It is not guaranteed two kits can operate at the rated specifications since they were not pre-matched, tested, and guaranteed at factory. With multi-channel motherboards, perfectly matching memory is necessary to achieve high frequency. This is why we must offer high capacity 32GB, 64GB kits, otherwise we can just sell one module at a time and have you purchase as many as you need. Unfortunately, memory does not work that way. If you purchase a 16GB kit rated at DDR3-2133, you should have absolutely no issues. For any further questions or concerns, please feel free to contact us directly for assistance.
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    GSKILL SUPPORT
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