Question PC Wont Boot When Installing More Than Once RAM Stick

MoMacaroni

Honorable
Jan 15, 2017
10
0
10,510
Hello! I don't post here often as I'm usually very stubborn and think I can always solve my PC problems myself, but after days of troubleshooting my main PC, I've nearly given up. I recently bought a CoolerMaster MasterLiquid ML240L V2 RGB to replace my old Hyper 212 EVO as I wanted to experiment with more serious overclocking. The installation had went fine for the most part until I went to boot up the PC. My motherboard wouldn't even post. I began troubleshooting and found out that the PC boots just fine if there is ONLY one RAM stick installed, but if theres more than one stick installed in ANY configuration, the PC does not post. The motherboard status LEDs cycle between a red LED (CPU) and an orange LED (RAM) after eventually stopping with the power LED on the motherboard turning orange and staying there. The only new part I installed was the CPU cooler. In my process of troubleshooting, I uninstalled the AIO cooler and reverted to the 212 EVO (exactly how my setup was before) and the PC still wouldn't load with more than one RAM stick. I've also tried resetting the BOIS multiple times, by taking out the CMOS battery and power cycling the PC with no luck. The only cause of the issue I can imagine was that during the installation of the new cooler, I had taken the CPU out of its socket to clean it, and had accidentally ignored the arrows on the CPU and motherboard on how to place the CPU (I was making the installation at 3AM) and might have damaged a pin in the socket, although I couldn't see any damage visually. Absolutely any advice/help is appreciated. PC specs are below.

Motherboard: ASUS ROG Strix z270e gaming
CPU: Intel Core i7-7700k
CPU Cooler: CoolerMaster Hyper 212 EVO / CoolerMaster MasterLiquid ML240L V2 RGB
GPU: AMD Radeon RX580 8GB
RAM: G.Skill Trident Z Royal DDR4-3200 16GB (8GBX2) + Corsair Vengeance LPX DDR4-2400 16GB (8GBX2)
PSU: EVGA 1000GQ 80+ Gold
 

Aeacus

Titan
Ambassador
had accidentally ignored the arrows on the CPU and motherboard on how to place the CPU

If that would be the case, your PC wouldn't POST and boot at all, one RAM stick or not.

and might have damaged a pin in the socket

That's possibility, but may not be because you put the CPU wrong back, but too much mounting pressure on CPU, when installing AIO pump.

Tightening the mounting screws too much usually leads to RAM issues, where MoBo can't detect the RAM (some or all of it).

--

For troubleshooting, try different RAM slots.

Default RAM placement, with 2 sticks, would be; counting from CPU socket:
Slot 1 - empty
Slot 2 - DIMM
Slot 3 - empty
Slot 4 - DIMM

On which slot, your PC works when you have single RAM installed? Slot 2 or Slot 4?

Also, you can try by putting the RAM into Slot 1 and Slot 3, to see if it works with 2 sticks of RAM. You can even try out all combinations possible.

--

Now, it is possible that one RAM channel on your MoBo is damaged and you're unable to get dual channel RAM anymore. Recently, same happened with another person, with same era PC (also Z270 chipset MoBo).
Their topic, with their results: https://forums.tomshardware.com/thr...h-rams-properly-seated.3774914/#post-22783615

If same is with you, you have 2 choices:
  1. Use single channel RAM
  2. Replace MoBo

--

And moving forwards: take extreme care when replacing CPU cooler, especially when you take CPU out of the socket. Also, don't tighten the mounting screws as hard as you can.
 

MoMacaroni

Honorable
Jan 15, 2017
10
0
10,510
If that would be the case, your PC wouldn't POST and boot at all, one RAM stick or not.



That's possibility, but may not be because you put the CPU wrong back, but too much mounting pressure on CPU, when installing AIO pump.

Tightening the mounting screws too much usually leads to RAM issues, where MoBo can't detect the RAM (some or all of it).

--

For troubleshooting, try different RAM slots.

Default RAM placement, with 2 sticks, would be; counting from CPU socket:
Slot 1 - empty
Slot 2 - DIMM
Slot 3 - empty
Slot 4 - DIMM

On which slot, your PC works when you have single RAM installed? Slot 2 or Slot 4?

Also, you can try by putting the RAM into Slot 1 and Slot 3, to see if it works with 2 sticks of RAM. You can even try out all combinations possible.

--

Now, it is possible that one RAM channel on your MoBo is damaged and you're unable to get dual channel RAM anymore. Recently, same happened with another person, with same era PC (also Z270 chipset MoBo).
Their topic, with their results: https://forums.tomshardware.com/thr...h-rams-properly-seated.3774914/#post-22783615

If same is with you, you have 2 choices:
  1. Use single channel RAM
  2. Replace MoBo
--

And moving forwards: take extreme care when replacing CPU cooler, especially when you take CPU out of the socket. Also, don't tighten the mounting screws as hard as you can.


If that would be the case, your PC wouldn't POST and boot at all, one RAM stick or not.



That's possibility, but may not be because you put the CPU wrong back, but too much mounting pressure on CPU, when installing AIO pump.

Tightening the mounting screws too much usually leads to RAM issues, where MoBo can't detect the RAM (some or all of it).

--

For troubleshooting, try different RAM slots.

Default RAM placement, with 2 sticks, would be; counting from CPU socket:
Slot 1 - empty
Slot 2 - DIMM
Slot 3 - empty
Slot 4 - DIMM

On which slot, your PC works when you have single RAM installed? Slot 2 or Slot 4?

Also, you can try by putting the RAM into Slot 1 and Slot 3, to see if it works with 2 sticks of RAM. You can even try out all combinations possible.

--

Now, it is possible that one RAM channel on your MoBo is damaged and you're unable to get dual channel RAM anymore. Recently, same happened with another person, with same era PC (also Z270 chipset MoBo).
Their topic, with their results: https://forums.tomshardware.com/thr...h-rams-properly-seated.3774914/#post-22783615

If same is with you, you have 2 choices:
  1. Use single channel RAM
  2. Replace MoBo
--

And moving forwards: take extreme care when replacing CPU cooler, especially when you take CPU out of the socket. Also, don't tighten the mounting screws as hard as you can.

I apologize for the late response as I found myself rather busy. I should also apologize for some sentences I wrote that could’ve been more detailed.

For one, when I had placed the CPU incorrectly into the MOBO socket, I had not applied pressure from the clamp system, I had wiggled the cpu with some pressure as I thought it would seat into place. When I noticed my mistake, I removed the CPU and placed it in the correct orientation

I don’t consider myself experienced in building PC’s, although I was aware of the issue that over tightening a CPU cooler can lead to issues with the PC recognizing RAM sticks. Because of this I gave multiple attempts at booting the PC with different CPU coolers as well as with no CPU cooler and I experienced the same issues.

In terms of troubleshooting the RAM slots, I had spent hours previously doing that. I had tried each ram stick in in slots 1 through 4 and the PC would boot and post with no issues, however, as soon as I would add a second