Question Faulty motherboard or faulty RAM?

Apr 17, 2019
7
0
10
I was reinstalling Windows 10 the other day and encountered interesting problem.

It crashed during installation and I couldn't boot it up afterwards. Computer itself was working but there was no signal. LED lights on GPU and other peripherals were dark.

I tried to remove RAM and put it into other slots and it actually worked. I finished Windows installation, downloaded drivers and upon restarting I encountered the same problem. I removed RAM again and put it into original slots and it booted up again normally... until I restarted and had to do everything all over again.

Is it faulty RAM or motherboard? MB is Gigabyte z97x gaming gt.
 
Apr 17, 2019
7
0
10
So I did restore BIOS to default settings and I still have the same problem. The only way to boot up is to jiggle the ram back and forth between 3rd and 1st, 4th and 2nd slots. Sometimes I get blue screen saying it's something to do with the memory.
 

shemsureshot

Distinguished
May 26, 2013
113
7
18,615
This sounds like a nightmare!

If the ram and motherboard were faulty neither of them would sometimes work. You could try flashing the bios to an older or newer version (anything but your current one). Out of interest what happens if you try to install windows from fresh?

Edit: It might be worth checking the power supply is properly connected and working.
 
Apr 17, 2019
7
0
10
I will try to upgrade bios tomorrow but could it really be problem with either faulty sticks or mb itself? It did use to blue screen a lot in the past and I also read that this particular mb was flawed.

I planned to upgrade RAM anyway so I have no problems with replacing any of the components. (It will also give me an excuse to buy new case for more space for the radiator)

PSU and all cables are fine by the way.