Question Asus Z390-F & G.Skill 3200MHZ not working together

[pixels]

Hi,

I just got a new PC with the following:

Z390-F Gaming Motherboard
G.Skill Trident 3200MHZ CL16 DDR4
i7-9700K
GTX 1080

The RAM is 4 sticks of 8GB each. When all sticks are in the PC starts up but nothing shows up on the monitor, can't get into BIOS etc. I figured out that the only way to boot was to have one of the sticks plugged into slot 3 (second closest to the CPU) and then it works fine. I can boot into Windows and everything runs fine but I only have 8GB of RAM so that's definitely not optimal.

I looked a bit more and I realized that my RAM wasn't under the QVL for the MoBo.
My RAM is the: F4-3200C16D-16GTZR

So what I'm wondering now is:

1. Is something wrong with the motherboard?
2. Is the RAM faulty?
3. Is it just that the RAM is not fully compatible with the mobo which is why 1 stick works?

I am really hoping it's 3) because I'd hate having to return the motherboard and having to reseat everything 😛

Anyone got any idea what exactly could be causing it? Should I just try with some other DDR4 RAM? Is the QVL that important?

 

[alexoiu]

I suggest removing the CPU, taking a picture of the CPU socket and posting it here.

 

[pixels]

I suggest removing the CPU, taking a picture of the CPU socket and posting it here.

Will do that soon since I can't seem to fix it. You think something with the socket is messing it up?

What I did so far now is update to the latest bios as well as choose the XMP profile to be on and to use the RAM's settings from the manufacturer (XMP II) and now I realized it boots if I have a ram stick in slot 3 OR 4.

So slot 4 also works and I tried with one stick in slot 3 and 4 at the same time and that also boots! So weird.

With 3 and 4 connected and trying a stick in either 1 or 2 it starts up, reboots and does that a few times before it keeps being on but I never get into BIOS or Windows. Fans just spin and the yellow dram light is lit.

Here's a pic:

https://imgur.com/dYMhuWN

View: https://i.imgur.com/dYMhuWN.jpg

 

[pixels]

Update: alexoiu had the right idea from the start. It was a bent pin on the mobo socket that was the issue. I managed to unbend it and now it's booting up fine, detecting all four ram sticks!

 

[alexoiu]

Thank you for the update,