I dont understand why my ram doesnt work

[n1ck ballzy]

So I have 2 sticks of ram and 4 ram slots on my motherboard. Stick 1 works fine in all 4 slots, however stick 2 only works in slots 1 and 3. When in slots 2 and 4 the computer randomly lags, crashes, and sometimes won't even power on until I move it to another slot. My question is, is this the fault of the ram or the mother board, what would cause this, and how do I go about fixing it?

 

[snowctrl]

Have you checked your motherboard manual? Some motherboards prefer slots to be filled in a certain order... or to put it another way, if you aren't using all the slots, you have to leave the correct ones empty

 

[jitpublisher]

What motherboard do you have? What 2 slots do the manual say you must put 2 sticks into when you are only running 2 sticks, it does matter on most boards. Was the ram a matched set when you bought it, or did you buy 2 sticks separate?
Memory can touchy, that is why there is a qualified memory parts list for your motherboard on the manufactured web site. These are sticks they have tested to work on your particular board. But even then, it does not guarantee anything.

 

[Tradesman1]

What are the model #s, are the sticks from a single package, may need timing/voltage adjustments or may just have a bad stick

 

[n1ck ballzy]

Sorry I don't know the motherboard or ram, I threw away the boxes after the warranties expired. The sticks sticks are the exact same and I know slots 2 and 4 are the primary slots for the ram. I ran memtest86 and when I ran it in slots 1and 3 I got no errors but in 2 and 4 I got 1 error every time. To make sure this was only the second stick I ran memtest on the first stick by itself in all 4 slots with no errors. I also ran stick 2 by itself and in slots 1 and 3 I once again received no errors but the computer would not power on when I tried it alone in slots 2 and 4

 

[Tradesman1]

COuld run CPU-Z (a free utility) will give (most of the time) the DRAM model # in the SPD tab and mobo model in the Mobo tab