Question Stumped with RAM issues here... could use some input.

[Thibeaultt]

So. I'm stumped
I got a few parts today from a friend, for a budget build (I build and sell budget gaming PCs here and there) well I grabbed a 1650 LP Zotac, and a Gigabyte ga-z77x-ds3h LGA1155 with an i7 3770 inside. The Mobo came with a 2gb stick on dimm-1. The system works with the 2gb stick on dimm-1 but will not accept any other ram sticks, not my ddr3l-1600 cl11 stick from silicon power, and a 1600 hyper x ddr3 stick, nor two other (unknown but modules are SK Hynix) 4gb ddr3 ram sticks. If I try to populate all 4 dimm slots, or try one of my other (apparently compatible) ram in the dimm slot that the 2gb old micron stick works on, I get the same issue. No display, at all, CPU fan spins very slow, and turns off and on. This isn't the first time this "friend" sold me an item that had issues , I just got an rx 570 8gb from him as well that will not accept drivers, windows always replaces the drivers and I get the error "windows may have replaced your AMD drivers automatically) but that's for another post 😪

Again, the board is a Gigabyte ga-z77x-ds3h dual bios, LGA1155. Only a 2gb stick on dimm-1 will work.

EDIT
Also, these 4 ram modules all work, on my other Asus lga 1155 board. I have the same CPU in the other Asus board as well, but I'd prefer to use this gigabyte board due to the M-SATA port and it being populated already with windows. I think I'll swap CPUs and see if there's a difference even though they are the same, but I'd still really love feedback as I really am stumped here.

 

[thestryker]

It sounds like the motherboard isn't dealing with different memory modules well. Do you have 2 matching sticks? If so try putting them in slot 1 and 2 then try resetting the BIOS by pulling the CMOS battery. It could be a bad board, but it sounds like a memory specific issue. You could also check to make sure the BIOS is up to date though it doesn't look like there were any memory compatibility updates in the recent BIOS revisions.

 

[Misgar]

Pull the working 2GB DIMM. Power on the computer. Allow it to complain about no RAM. Switch off PC. Plug in a different DIMM. Switch on and see what happens.

Are some of the DIMMs LV (Low Voltage), i.e DDR3L (1.35V) instead of DDR3 (1.50V). This normally only affects servers and most DDR3L can operate at 1.5V, but some BIOS are fussy about RAM.

Is the working DIMM single sided and the non-working DIMMs double sided?

Is the working DIMM ECC (unlikely I know) and the non-working DIMMs non-ECC?