[SOLVED] ASUS Z87-PRO DIMM slots not working

[0li4tw]

Hi,

Today I installed my new Z87-PRO with a 4670k CPU and 2 x 4gb of Corsair Vengeance 1866mhz memory. When I switched the computer on it would not boot, not even to load bios and the QCODE screen showed 55 which means "Memory Not Installed".

After a bit of playing around switching memory etc I have found that if any sticks are installed into DIMM_B1 or DIMM_B2 the computer will not boot. But with one stick in any of the DIMM_A slots or even with both sticks in A1 and A2 the computer will boot no problem. I've tried both sticks in various combinations and it seems that the problem is the B slots and not the memory.

I'm fearing the worse that I will have to send the motherboard back, but does anyone have any more suggestions for me before I starting taking the whole system apart again? I've read this could be cause by bent pins somewhere? I don't know enough about that though.

Many thanks in advance,

Oli

 

[Tradesman1]

Might check the CPU socket, bent pins can often cause this problem

 

[0li4tw]

Thank you for your reply.

I actually solved the problem by flashing BIOS to a newer version, having found the board and memory worked fine with one of the first released Haswell chips. I guess it didn't like my new 4670k!

 

[Tradesman1]

Glad to hear all is well! Have fun

 

[coastie65]

Hmmm. I have the same MOBO and have not updated the BiOS. Running an i7 4770k. I installed the RAM in Slots A2 & B2 and it ran fine.

 

[Tradesman1]

Might have to do w/ the particular set of DRAM - in particular the advanced timings setup in the BIOS, while you seldom see anything about DRAM on BIOS updates, the bulk of all BIOS updates normally is concerning DRAM setups, as new sticks are always coming out and the freqs are increasing

 

[0li4tw]

When I took the board to the tech support in my local store we tested it with an i3 Haswell chip (possibly a 4130). We put 4 sticks in and the system booted straight away and showed all clear in BIOS. We then tried it with my memory and the board again booted straight away, set the XMP profile and everything worked fine. Then as soon as we put the 4670k back in the board wouldn't boot again until BIOS was flashed.

I don't really understand this stuff enough to draw a conclusion from this, but perhaps this thread will help someone else in future!

 

[coastie65]

That's interesting. Apparantly there is a different BiOS version for the i5 / i7 chips. Or the BiOS flash hadn't been good the first time. Thanks for posting that. As I said, I am using the same board with an i7 4770k and have had no issues.

 

[chrysalis]

I got same issue, I have just ordered 2 sticks of 8gig, not a happy camper. £120 due to shoddy quality control, poor products from asus.

Is possible I have a faulty board, but returning this thing will be a huge pain in the backside.

I am scared to upgrade the bios because asus block bios downgrades, and the last 2 asus boards I have purchased have regressions in bios updates (the first of the 2 I was able to downgrade again tho as was before they started blocking downgrades).

I went to a large pc vendor in my town, and they told me they have returned 196 z87 boards to asus (and gigabyte) within the past 3 months due to ram issues, crazy. They have also took all asus of their shelves and suspended sales until asus provide a satisfactory fix. Apparently gigabyte have fixed with a bios update tho, so they still been sold.

on my board

all 4 slots used - memory errors (1 bsod in 2 or so weeks use - this could be due to nvidia drivers tho).
3 slots used - for a while I was able to get no errors, but after removing ram and reseating cannot repeat.
2 slots used, the black slots - stable with and without XMP
2 slots used the lighter coloured slots, had some errors
testing one slot at time, stable with all dimms.

so all dimm slots are stable when only 1 dimm in use.
the channel B slots (ones people usually suggest to use first) are not stable when pair of dimms in.
channel A stable and I hope will be with pair of 8 gig dimms.
3-4 dimm slots unstable but for a while I di dhave 12 gig 3 dimms stable.

4 dimm slots at 1333 speed did pass memtest86+ over night but hci memtest failed it after 1 hour. going to retest at 1066 speeds LOL as other z87 owners on gigabyte and asus forums reported it works (but obviously they not happy, running 1600 spec'd ram at 1066 due to dodgy boards)

all asus approved dimms are not low profile and since my apparent 2 good slots one is below my cpu cooler fan I need low profile.

apparently vengeance pro dimms work well, but they are of course over spec'd and premium priced plus no low profile.

I had same issue on my 1st gen i5 750 but bumping IMC voltage solved it.

 

[0li4tw]

I got same issue, I have just ordered 2 sticks of 8gig, not a happy camper. £120 due to shoddy quality control, poor products from asus.

Is possible I have a faulty board, but returning this thing will be a huge pain in the backside.

I am scared to upgrade the bios because asus block bios downgrades, and the last 2 asus boards I have purchased have regressions in bios updates (the first of the 2 I was able to downgrade again tho as was before they started blocking downgrades).

I went to a large pc vendor in my town, and they told me they have returned 196 z87 boards to asus (and gigabyte) within the past 3 months due to ram issues, crazy. They have also took all asus of their shelves and suspended sales until asus provide a satisfactory fix. Apparently gigabyte have fixed with a bios update tho, so they still been sold.

on my board

all 4 slots used - memory errors (1 bsod in 2 or so weeks use - this could be due to nvidia drivers tho).
3 slots used - for a while I was able to get no errors, but after removing ram and reseating cannot repeat.
2 slots used, the black slots - stable with and without XMP
2 slots used the lighter coloured slots, had some errors
testing one slot at time, stable with all dimms.

so all dimm slots are stable when only 1 dimm in use.
the channel B slots (ones people usually suggest to use first) are not stable when pair of dimms in.
channel A stable and I hope will be with pair of 8 gig dimms.
3-4 dimm slots unstable but for a while I di dhave 12 gig 3 dimms stable.

4 dimm slots at 1333 speed did pass memtest86+ over night but hci memtest failed it after 1 hour. going to retest at 1066 speeds LOL as other z87 owners on gigabyte and asus forums reported it works (but obviously they not happy, running 1600 spec'd ram at 1066 due to dodgy boards)

all asus approved dimms are not low profile and since my apparent 2 good slots one is below my cpu cooler fan I need low profile.

apparently vengeance pro dimms work well, but they are of course over spec'd and premium priced plus no low profile.

I had same issue on my 1st gen i5 750 but bumping IMC voltage solved it.

Perhaps you could get your computer store to do the bios update for you as not to void any guarentee? Although it sounds like we have had slightly different issues. My system wouldn't even boot with the 4 sticks in and after bios update all worked flawlessly. Also worth noting I am using Corsair low profile ram.

 

[Tradesman1]

chrysalis

What mobo, CPU and what model (or models if you have more than one package of DRAM) are you using. Sounds like they aren't set up right or you have a bad stick in their, or mixed DRAM

 

[chrysalis]

its a bit hard to setup dimms wrong they only fit one way

internet is rife with complaints about haswell and memory errors, corsair even made ram specific to haswell which to me suggests there is compatability issues that havent been released into the public domain.

I now have 2 8 gig sticks and no errors.

board is asus z87-plus

basically errors were none when each dimm tested seperate and also dimm slots tested seperate, errors just appeared when using all 4 slots at same time, or when using the 2nd coloured channel, however if I used the 2nd coloured slots one at a time or combined with the black channel (so 3 slots at time) they worked fine, bizzare.

I concluded I either got faulty board or weird compatability issue, lots of people on the net with same problem reported the issue went away when they started using corsair vengeance pro dimms which are advertised as designed for haswell.

 

[Tradesman1]

Yep you install the sticks but one way, then they need to be setup properly to run properly, i.e. freq, timings and voltage(s). Asked before what model or models of DRAM were the 4 sticks, because if two or more sets (packages) of DRAM that can be asking for problems. I've got 2 builds on this mobo and worked on about 3-4 others doing upgrades. During that time I've tested numerous set of DRAM (primarily GSkill and some Corsair sets) and haven't encountered problems with any that were set up right.

 

[hydroponix]

I recently upgraded on my ASUS z87 sabertooth, previously running an i5-4760k with all 4 dimms running corsair vengance 1866 @1333mhz with no problems, i swiched my processor to the i7-4790k after flashing the bios to handle the new cpu (didnt even touch the ram) only to have it not even boot up. Mem ok led lit up solid and pc did nothing, after i pressed mem ok and let it do its tests, it eventually cycled over and over (reset). I pulled the ram from dimm b1 and b2 and left two sticks in the dimm a1 a2 and magically windows booted up. When i tried the dimm b1 and b2 slots only, no luck, black screen. I also tried both tan and both brown. Only dimm a1 and a2 and no more wilk boot up pc. Litterally 5 min b4 the cpu swap i was runnning all 4x 8gig ram in all slots, no problems. I went in the bios, enabled xpm even manual overclocking checking that both dram channels were open, running at both 1333mhz or 1600mhz clock with no avail. Now ive got 2 sticks of ram just sitting around collecting dust. No solution to this one yet??? This must be a BIOS issue.

 

[Kenneth_41]

I have the same problem, No bent pins on the mobo, each stick tested good, i'm thinking (with seeing so many of the same issues) it might be a problem with a chipset driver or a setting in the bios. There are too many people having the same issue to be something simple as a bad stick of ram or bent pins. My old mobo was replaced with a new one by Asus, it was the same model, I used the same video card, same ram, same hard drive but for some odd reason two of the dimm slots say nothing is installed yet Bios tool stat shows the ram, Cpu-Z shows the ram, but Bios main page and windows shows only two slots.