I have been struggling with this setup for a month!

I've RMA'd 2 boards whidh puts me on my 3rd.

The Win 7 install goes as far as "starting services" & then the system restarts. I get an error message:

"The computer restarted unexpectedly or encountered an unexpected error. Windows install cannot proceed. To install windows, click OK to restart computer & then restart installation.

Then it loops  to "setup is starting services" and round & round.

I'm not a noob. I've checked everything! It's nominal. The user base is very thin. No help there & ASRock support is nonexistent.

Think it could be a bad CPU?

FM2A85X Extreme6,  AMD A 10 5800K, 2x4G G-Skill Sniper 1866,

It can be bad RAM, bad HDD or bad CPU as well. Although I've only seen bad CPUs that didn't even boot.

If you haven't done it yet, try memtest86.

Optional: If your motherboard doesn't have EFI but regular BIOS (or it can emulate it), try installing Windows XP. If you succeed, you'll have an environment to run other testing software like Prime95, Furmark, AIDA64 etc.

CPU: AMD Phenom II X4 810 @ 3250MHz | RAM: Kingmax 2x2GB DDR2 800 @ 833MHz| MoBo: MSI K9A2 CF v1.0 (BIOS: 1.D)| GPU: Asus HD 6850 1024MB (DirectCu) @ 850/1100MHz | Display: Chili Green Vision L24FHD | PSU: PC Power & Cooling Silencer 750 Quad | OS: MS Windows 95 x64 Edition

CPU: Pentium 4 Northwood S478 @ 3200MHz | RAM: 1,5GB DDR 400| MoBo: Gigabyte GA-8S661FXMP-RZ | GPU: Abit Geforce Ti 4200 | Display: Dimarson 19" CRT | PSU: Noname 400W | OS: MS Windows XP Pro, Fedora 18

Thanks for your reply Eydee.

Dunno. It's a weird board. Yup it's got a 64 MB Eufi w/GUI support.

It does everything, I guess the board would run XP but I doh't think I have a 64 bit version so maybe I'm stuch w/ 4 G ram.

Ran the heck outa Mem86 no errors. Aslo shuffled the sticks around in the ususal way Ran the whole SpinDisk maintenance proggie on the drive. Tested the PSU voltage w/a seperate tester I have.

Does AMD have software to test CPU outside an OS?

It seems like the ASRock techs could figure it out.  This board has a digital readout but ASRock refuses to supply anything but a rudimentary code list.

The board is really nice & got great reviews.  Maybe I'm just the unluckiest builder in the world

FM2A85X Extreme6,  AMD A 10 5800K, 2x4G G-Skill Sniper 1866,

Hi Eydee,

I ran  Memtest=86  v4--0a again last nite. I watched it for about 40 min & went to bed. This morning whin I got up, it looked to still be running but I had a screen full of garbage.

What the heck does that mean?

Woah... Update:

I updated to 4.20

The processer detected right but the memory detected as 320 M Hz (DDR2 640) /CAS: /1-1-1-3/ DDR2 (64  Bit) is that normal?

 I attemped to install XP Pro x86 aa few times. There isn't an XP BIOS on the ASRock site but there are drivers for this board so I assume the current BIOS is OK. The drivers you probably know have to be installed via Windows.

The install stalled during the final stage reset  just like 7

FM2A85X Extreme6,  AMD A 10 5800K, 2x4G G-Skill Sniper 1866,

Not that I know of. But you can use a linux live CD + Prime95 linux version.

It's beta as far as I know. The latest stable release is 4.1.0.

There is something really wrong there. Try a linux distro, maybe it'll tell you when it encounters an issue.

What I suggest:

1. Download Fedora 18.

2. Burn it to a DVD.

3. Try booting it. If it succeeds, download and run Prime95.

4. If it fails, check what it says. Also watch the terminal for errors while booting, you can bypass the boot splash by pressing ESC.

5. If you can run it as a live CD, try installing it. If it fails, it may be a HDD issue or something related to it (SATA drivers etc.).

CPU: AMD Phenom II X4 810 @ 3250MHz | RAM: Kingmax 2x2GB DDR2 800 @ 833MHz| MoBo: MSI K9A2 CF v1.0 (BIOS: 1.D)| GPU: Asus HD 6850 1024MB (DirectCu) @ 850/1100MHz | Display: Chili Green Vision L24FHD | PSU: PC Power & Cooling Silencer 750 Quad | OS: MS Windows 95 x64 Edition

CPU: Pentium 4 Northwood S478 @ 3200MHz | RAM: 1,5GB DDR 400| MoBo: Gigabyte GA-8S661FXMP-RZ | GPU: Abit Geforce Ti 4200 | Display: Dimarson 19" CRT | PSU: Noname 400W | OS: MS Windows XP Pro, Fedora 18

Eydee,

Thanks for your response.

I've been shying away from Linux for years having struggled through CPM & DOS (yup I'm old)

I already mentioned that ASR tech support sux.

I decided to call them today and got a guy on the phone that pretty much verified that the online support just attempts to get a bunch of similar sounding inquiries and then sends them a canned response.

The kind of problems I run into have never been the run of the mill problems.

I explained the symptoms & the tech suggested doing a USB install through one of the 2.0 ports, going manual w/the memory voltage of 1.6. The nominal voltage of these G-Skill sticks is 1.5. That gives you 1333 but the sticks are rated 1866, They WANT more power.

Anyway I gave him the suspect code from the Onboard LED readout. He said it was an "unknown" code. WTF??? These Mfrs use modded AMI code on AMI based chipsets!

To suggest that the FM2A85X is not a sophisticated board would be foolish. 

Dig this, the guy suggested I get the CPU, RAM & board replaced.

I shipped the whole shebang off a couple of hours ago. I can't believe how stubborn and unlucky I am. I think I have had maybe 5 builds when I didn't get at least one major DOA component.

I'm convinced that it was the board but common! 3 in a row?

I'll build a dual boot system when this hardware comes back in I guess.

I'll let you know how it turns out. My next move is to just get another board. Probably a Gigabyte. ASRock was spun off from Asus years ago. Their tech support sux as well.

Thanks again!

FM2A85X Extreme6,  AMD A 10 5800K, 2x4G G-Skill Sniper 1866,