eziowar

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Jun 11, 2015
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hi, my cpu i5-4670k, gpu - zotac 1050ti mini, mobo- gigabyte z87x-ud3h, bios version F10b, psu corsair cs650m , ram 4x4gb @1600 mhz, MX 500 500gb ssd, WD 1TB sata internal hdd, AHCI,windows10, cabinet cooler master haf 912, cpu cooler-Hyper 212X

i installed my cpu cooler 3 years ago myself. my heat sink of cpu cooler hyper 212x can be rotated slightly clockwise or anticlockwise with enough pressure on the cpu, is this an issue or normal?
it's been like this for past three years and i had no issue( atleast i haven't recognized any). but yesterday i ran into a memory issue, untill yesterday i used3x4gb rams sticks and bought 4th same model capacity part no ram and tried to insert in 4th slot and system didn't even passed the POST and in my mobo debug code showing screen showed debug code 15 which in the manual says is "Pre-Memory Northbridge Initialization.". and for that reason some people suggested i had faulty heatsink positioning which caused cpu socket pin bend etc and suggested me to reinstall cpu cooler. though i did not have to do those things at all and fixed the issue by some ram sticks and slots combination changes cause i had some stats difference between 2 pairs of rams though 2 rams in each pair had exact same stats(cpu-z shown 1 pair has ranks "dual" and another pair ranks "single" and there's some timing differences in them). u can see more about that here -https://forums.tomshardware.com/thr...-same-capacity-brand-speed-and-chips.3622741/
even though i fixed that issue without touching cpu or its cooler, still i'm skeptic cause of 1 reason -
Afaik system should run even with different model capacity ram sticks, mayb it wont enable dual channel and it will run in single channel but still system should boot and run completely fine. but for my case was those boot failure scenarios normal? can my cpu cooler's heatsink causing any issue? please help me out, any input is appreciated.
 
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Solution
A little rotation is not a major concern. It depends on the bracket holding the CPU in place.

what can happen if you rotate the heatsink is that the paste will crack (if it's old and dried out) and that would have an effect on performance.

The boot failures you saw are entirely normal for mixed ram scenarios. It is recommended to only buy matching kits and replace all ram with a new matched kit. IE upgrading from 2x4g to 2x8g rather than buying another set of 2x4g. And to really avoid adding single sticks. Even though the settings and timings are all the same there are differences between build lots that may cause two ram sticks with the same stats to have a really hard time working together.
A little rotation is not a major concern. It depends on the bracket holding the CPU in place.

what can happen if you rotate the heatsink is that the paste will crack (if it's old and dried out) and that would have an effect on performance.

The boot failures you saw are entirely normal for mixed ram scenarios. It is recommended to only buy matching kits and replace all ram with a new matched kit. IE upgrading from 2x4g to 2x8g rather than buying another set of 2x4g. And to really avoid adding single sticks. Even though the settings and timings are all the same there are differences between build lots that may cause two ram sticks with the same stats to have a really hard time working together.
 
Solution