PC won't boot after installing additional 8gb of Ram

[Kolbe Howard]

Here's the situation: I had a single stick of 8gb Kingston Ram I was running. I got a second stick of Ram and installed it in the second slot for dual channel.

Surprise surprise my PC would not boot, so I reset the CMOS and booted it up normally. No problem except my PC still wasn't detecting the second stick. So I put the stick in a different slot just to see if would detect it and once again, it wouldn't boot.

Ok no worries, I reset the CMOS once again and now my computer will not boot no matter what I do. I've removed both sticks of Ram one at a time and reset the CMOS repectively. Won't boot at all, every time it does the cycle and then gets stuck on the led marked: "boot_device_led."

I have an ASUS z97-A motherboard. Please help. I read a solution is to unplug everything besides the CPU and ram and then do another reset. I'm not about to do that until I'm absolutely 100% sure.

 

[spooky2th]

Why people reset the CMOS all the time is beyond me. After a reset or a flash update, the BIOS has to be set up correctly again, each and every time. And setting the memory speed and timings is very important when setting up the bios.

What CPU and memory stick models do you have? When mixing sticks there is never any guarantee that they will work together. Even if they are exactly the same manufacturer and model of sticks. Different sticks and you are asking for problems.

 

[Kolbe Howard]

Why people reset the CMOS all the time is beyond me. After a reset or a flash update, the BIOS has to be set up correctly again, each and every time. And setting the memory speed and timings is very important when setting up the bios.

What CPU and memory stick models do you have? When mixing sticks there is never any guarantee that they will work together. Even if they are exactly the same manufacturer and model of sticks. Different sticks and you are asking for problems.

I have an i7-4790k CPU and the second stick I installed was the exact same stick of Kingston 8gb Fury ram. No it's not part of a kit and I know that could cause issues. My main concern is getting the PC to boot.

 

[Greg Gregorich]

you wanna unplug your pc from the wall ,remove BIOS battery from the battery holder use a metal object like a screwdriver to touch the positive and negative terminals of the battery holder,making them short for 5 sec.that what i did when my pc fail to boot i just follow motherboard manual.good luck!

 

[spooky2th]

Put the original stick back in and boot into bios, set optimized defaults, enable XMP Profile1 then save settings and exit. See if that works for the original stick. Might work for the newer stick too. On the 2 sticks there should be a model number of each stick. What are those numbers?

The 2 sticks should be installed in the same colored slots, with an empty slot between them.

 

[Kolbe Howard]

Put the original stick back in and boot into bios, set optimized defaults, enable XMP Profile1 then save settings and exit. See if that works for the original stick. Might work for the newer stick too. On the 2 sticks there should be a model number of each stick. What are those numbers?

The 2 sticks should be installed in the same colored slots, with an empty slot between them.

The problem is that I can't get to my bios. My PC will not boot into the bios. It's just a black screen, nothing on my display. I can't configure the sticks until I can get into my Bios first.

 

[spooky2th]

Tapping the delete key when booting up normally get you to the bios. Try one stick at a time in each slot too and see if you can get into bios.

 

[Kolbe Howard]

Tapping the delete key when booting up normally get you to the bios. Try one stick at a time in each slot too and see if you can get into bios.

Tried, both sticks in both slots, tapping delete key and holding. My manual says to hold it, I can't get it to boot into bios. Which is strange because like I mentioned I got into the bios earlier after resetting the cmos. Now it's not working.

 

[spooky2th]

Try resetting BIOS again. Unplug the computer completely for 10 to 15 mins with the MB battery uninstalled. Then install the battery and immediately boot into bios and set optimized defaults, enable XMP profile1, save settings and exit. I would do this with the original stick since it was working OK to begin with. Then try again with both sticks booting into bios and setting it up. What are the model numbers of each stick. I bet that the 2 sticks just won't work together?

 

[Kolbe Howard]

you wanna unplug your pc from the wall ,remove BIOS battery from the battery holder use a metal object like a screwdriver to touch the positive and negative terminals of the battery holder,making them short for 5 sec.that what i did when my pc fail to boot i just follow motherboard manual.good luck!

Going to try it.

 

[Kolbe Howard]

Try resetting BIOS again. Unplug the computer completely for 10 to 15 mins with the MB battery uninstalled. Then install the battery and immediately boot into bios and set optimized defaults, enable XMP profile1, save settings and exit. I would do this with the original stick since it was working OK to begin with. Then try again with both sticks booting into bios and setting it up. What are the model numbers of each stick. I bet that the 2 sticks just won't work together?

Should I unplug my GPU, HDD or SSD?

 

[spooky2th]

Just unplug the power supply is all and take the MB battery out. Depending on the board and all, you might need to remove the graphics card or any other device that might be covering up the battery.

 

[Kolbe Howard]

Just unplug the power supply is all and take the MB battery out. Depending on the board and all, you might need to remove the graphics card or any other device that might be covering up the battery.

Ok I can reach it fine. Do I just press the tab forward and remove the battery?

 

[Kolbe Howard]

Just unplug the power supply is all and take the MB battery out. Depending on the board and all, you might need to remove the graphics card or any other device that might be covering up the battery.

Ok It worked. Computer is running, I accessed the bios and got the ram working again. Only problem is that I am connected via HDMI straight to the motherboard. My Graphics card will not display on the monitor through DVI. Just a black screen. I forgot if I have to do anything in the bios.

 

[spooky2th]

You should be able to connect thru the DVI? You can go into BIOS and change settings if needed. Might have to power down and restart with video cable in the GPU to the monitor. Or hopefully not reset the bios again. And start with monitor hooked up correctly.

EDIT:
Page 91 of the board manual, section 2.6.4.

I would set the Primary display to "Auto."

I would think that it would be set already if you have set optimized defaults then save settings.

Select the Load Optimized Defaults item under the Exit menu or press hotkey F5

For your memory, enable XMP Profile 1 should set up the speed & timings correctly. Don't forget to save settings before you exit bios.

 

[Kolbe Howard]

You should be able to connect thru the DVI? You can go into BIOS and change settings if needed. Might have to power down and restart with video cable in the GPU to the monitor. Or hopefully not reset the bios again. And start with monitor hooked up correctly.

Problem solved I had to unplug the graphics card and reset the CMOS battery again. Everything is working great. Thank you for all your help, I really appreciate it.

 

[spooky2th]

OK, cool! Glad for you!