Question Dual Channel suddenly stopped working

[MowTin]

Hi,

One day after almost a year of solid performance my computer froze and shut down. I turned it on but it kept rebooting every 3 seconds. I isolated the problem to my memory modules. Each stick works individually but fails in any dual-channel configuration.

I removed the XMP profile, no difference. I read some posts which suggest that if the screws on the heat sink are too tight in one corner this could cause an issue.

I have one of those large heatsinks and I always worried about the uneven pressure this must create on the CPU. I can see a slight slump with the cooler.

I don't know if the cooler is relevant at all here. Any advice?

Gigabyte Aeros Pro Wifi (F11)
i7 9700k Noctua NHU-12S (I think)
G .Skill Trident Z Neo 3600 2x16
3090 EVGA FTW3

 

[LordVile]

Hi,

One day after almost a year of solid performance my computer froze and shut down. I turned it on but it kept rebooting every 3 seconds. I isolated the problem to my memory modules. Each stick works individually but fails in any dual-channel configuration.

I removed the XMP profile, no difference. I read some posts which suggest that if the screws on the heat sink are too tight in one corner this could cause an issue.

I have one of those large heatsinks and I always worried about the uneven pressure this must create on the CPU. I can see a slight slump with the cooler.

I don't know if the cooler is relevant at all here. Any advice?

Gigabyte Aeros Pro Wifi (F11)
i7 9700k Noctua NHU-12S (I think)
G .Skill Trident Z Neo 3600 2x16
3090 EVGA FTW3

How many slots does the board have? Maybe try the other 2 if you have 4 slots

 

[MowTin]

How many slots does the board have? Maybe try the other 2 if you have 4 slots

Yeah, I tried that. No luck. It has 4 slots.

 

[LordVile]

Yeah, I tried that. No luck. It has 4 slots.

Weird, do you have any more ram to try it with and is the board in warranty?

 

[MowTin]

Weird, do you have any more ram to try it with and is the board in warranty?

The board is only a year old so it's surely under warranty. I'm planning to try and reseat the CPU and adjust the tightness on the heatsink this weekend to see if that changes anything.

I've heard some speculate the problem could be on the CPU memory controller.

 

[MowTin]

Today I tried holding up the Noctua heat sink while booting and that worked. I was able to boot in dual channel.

So, I tightened one of the screws on the top side of the heat sink and now it's working.

I ran memtest86 for one pass and all good.

Not sure I understand how that loose screw on the heat sink caused the dual channel to fail.