ASRock E3C224D2I problem booting

[theozaurus]

Hello,

So I've assembled the following components:

• ASRock E3C224D2I
• Pentium G3220
• 2x 8GB ECC DDR3
• Seasonic fanless 400W PSU
• Node 304 case
• 6x 4TB Hitachi Coolspin drives

However, I've been unable to get the motherboard to POST. I keep getting 3 long beeps which suggests a memory error. I've tried multiple brand new 8GB sticks including the recommended Kingston RAM and still no luck.
ASRock have replied to my support request and said:

"I’m afraid the E3c224d2i does not support 8GB memory modules."​

Is this true? Is no one else attempting to use 16GB of RAM on a E3C224D2I? It seems crazy that the latest Haswell board can't take 8GB sticks and on this page:

http://www.asrock.com/server/overview.asp?cat=Manual&Model=E3C224D2I​

It states:

1. 2 x DIMM DDR3 1600/1333, Max. 16GB

Has anyone else had memory issues on these boards?

Thanks
Theo

 

[cyberjock]

If it's not even POSTing then your problem isn't with FreeNAS. I'll move this to off-topic.

 

[enemy85]

If you search on the forum there is someone using 16gb. Could be JAEVANARD.
Btw which version are u using? Someone reported the mobo won't post with 9.2.1.2 without video card installed

 

[theozaurus]

Yes you're right jyavenard is also using this board: http://forums.freenas.org/index.php?threads/asrock-e3c224-a-note-of-warning.18189/
I can't even get to the POST screen so haven't got as far as booting a particular version of FreeNAS.
I'm going to try some more RAM in it over the next couple of days to see if that helps any further.

 

[DaveF81]

I have the same motherboard, only Xeon and i3 processors are supported. ASRock are wrong that it doesn't support 8GB ECC RAM modules. I have two Crucial 8GB ECC modules.

Best guess that the Pentium processor is probably not compatible. Most likely this is the reason why it's not POSTing (check the specs): http://www.asrockrack.com/general/productdetail.asp?Model=E3C224D2I

 

[trey22]

Hardware in my signature has been up and running for months "out of the box".

Do you have the additional 4-pin power cable connected on the motherboard (labeled CPU)?

 

[theozaurus]

Thanks for all the replies.

Last week I had success!

The board was not working with the Kingston KTH-PL313LV/8G stick. Apparently the KTH series is designed to replace OEM sticks in prebuilt servers that are inflexible with what RAM they can take and need tight tolerances to emulate the original RAM. I guess the ASRock board did not want to play nice with this stick.

I'm now using an 8GB Kingston stick KVR16E11/8 (recommended for the E3C226D2I board, NOT E3C224D2I board I have). This is working perfectly.

I'm not too impressed with ASRock support on this issue. They immediately said the board does not support 8GB sticks - which is nonsense. There is also conflicting information in the manual about supported processors ("E3C224D2I:
Intel® Xeon® processor E3-1200 v3 product family & Haswell i3"), and the web page (which specifically lists Pentium G3220 as supported). To further complicate things the memory compatibility list for the E3C226D2I is much wider, and I suspect all of UDIMM sticks listed on that will work with the E3C224D2I (except possibly RDIMMS, the one I tried did not work).

In summary, the E3C224D2I board will work with BIOS 1.3 (and above), Pentium G3220, and 8GB KVR16E11/8 stick of RAM.
HTH