Question System not utilizing all my ram

[Arigus14]

Alrighty so i'm having a bit of a head scratcher here. I highlighted all of my current parts.

My issue: Having instability issue with RAM. And only able to use 8gb of my 16gb. And its underclocked to about 1200mhz. This is causing major framerate drops in games and crashing of firefox and other programs. I can't deal with it anymore.

So last about October I was in my dorm with a friend and she dumped some water on my desk which ran over the side and poured into my desktop (I know, another bad reason to have Desktop on floor). And long story short my system was shot. My CPU (Intel i5 7500), motherboard (MSI PRO Z270 PC MATE), and my GPU (RX 480 ROG Strix) all got fried and were a lost cause. However my SSD (Silicon Power 1TB NVMe), RAM (4x4gb Team T-Force XTREEM DDR4 3600), and even my PSU (EVGA SuperNOVA 750 G2) all were fine and salvageable.

So I got new parts to rebuild. I got a Ryzen 5 1600af which was open box from newegg, Gigabyte Aorus Elite b450, and an MSI RX5500xt Mech as my replacements. I of course salvaged my old working parts. And when I put it all together and went in the bios and noticed that it was way underclocking my ram to about 1100mhz. So i turned on XMP hoping to get the 2667mhz out of the 1600af. And after a reboot it was still set to 1100mhz. But the system ran fine for the most part. I noticed not long after I started using it cause I needed it for school, that in task manager that the system only could use 8gb of the 16gb but it saw all 16gb. And at that it said it was 2133mhz. And after looking at CPUz it made it more complicated. It was stating I had 16gb in dual channel which of course cant be the case with a 4x4gb configuration. And that the frequency was 1064mhz. So i've already got 3 different numbers here. And on top of that its saying its 2400mhz ram which I know isn't the case.

So here I am. I've tried everything I can think of. Using Memtest to see if the stick is dead. Switching the sticks in and out of each socket and using them individually. Changing Bios settings, etc. The only real thing I haven't been able to do is use another set of RAM and a motherboard to see if my motherboard or RAM is defective.

My conclusions as of yet are these.

1. My motherboard is defective. Which could be 2 of the RAM slots are dead and they might not be getting the voltage they need.
2. My CPU is defective. Like I said i got it open box from newegg
3. My ram got short circuited or something in the water accident and although it's functional, it may have been left damaged.

I'm sorry that's a lot to read but there's a lot of info that is probably needed. I would like to solve this for as cheap as possible but if i have to buy all new parts i'm fine with it. I have attached some images to help support my case and give more information. If anyone has any ideas or anything I greatly appreciate it. And don't be afraid to ask for more information or pictures or anything.

Recap of Specs:
Ryzen 5 1600af
Gigabyte Aorus Elite b450
4x4gb Team T-Force XTREEM DDR4 3600
MSI RX5500xt Mech
Silicon Power 1TB NVMe
EVGA SuperNOVA 750 G2

https://imgur.com/QdrML0N

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https://imgur.com/4524Tu0

https://imgur.com/seBK36E

https://imgur.com/OcMn9Hf

https://imgur.com/lqx2dM8

https://imgur.com/InLkFC8

https://imgur.com/rTehHj4

https://imgur.com/oKvr0df

https://imgur.com/xG3ggZ1

 

[kerberos_20]

u have two different sets of ram, first gen ryzen is very picky about that
u might want replace your ram with 2x8GB

 

[Arigus14]

All 4 sticks are exactly the same. The model number on them is TXD44G3600HC17ABK. I had bought 2 packs of 2 4gb sticks, so 4x4gb. But the Motherboard or CPU or whatever is reading them differently and underclocking them. And it depends on the slot on the mob they're on. Cause Slot #1 and #2 the memory is not writable but is read as being taken up by 4gb sticks. And they clocked down to 2133mhz. But slot #3 and #4 are able to be read and written on. But still clocked down to 2400mhz. Im just uncertain if my CPU has something wrong or my Mobo, and its looking like my Mobo though.

 

[kerberos_20]

hmm, youre looking at it from wrong point of view, looking at ram heatspreader with some sticker with letters and numbers means nothing
motherboard reads whats written on your sticks, your sticks says they are different, if you remove heat spreaders, u will see different memory chips

well anyway your mobo is confused as youre using 2133MHz rams combined with 2400MHz rams, the only common thing is XMP profile, which doesnt seems to work for you with this mixed pairs

 

[revodo]

Have you tried running just two at a time? One at a time? If the system is picking up all 4, just not when they're together, then I'd say that rules out the RAM being defective, and the CPU... maybe it could still be an issue with the motherboard, but the problem would probably lie elsewhere at that point.

 

[mamasan2000]

Consumer motherboards are dual channel. You have 4 slots. That means 2 slots closest to CPU is 1 channel, the other two slots is the 2nd channel.
Memory is DDR, Double Data Rate. It sends a 1 or 0 at both the rising and falling, what is it, voltage? Can't remember. But to get the true speed you have to take 1066 Mhz times 2 = 2133 Mhz. You can see this also with the XMP 3600, it says ~1800 Mhz in CPU-Z.
First gen Ryzen can't run that fast RAM. You are lucky to get 3333 Mhz after tinkering for weeks, months, depending how good you are, how much you've overclocked RAM etc. And depends on motherboard, CPU IMC. That said, 3000 Mhz should work.

Have you tried 3000 Mhz and 14-16-16 or 15-17-17? Could be you have to drop to 2800 Mhz because 4 sticks. 4 sticks is rougher on the Integrated Memory Controller, IMC.

 

[kerberos_20]

2666MHz should be more realistic for first gen
but u should start with placing same ram in same channels
sticks made in 2017 slots A2+B2
sticks made in 2018 slots A1+B1
that would make your mainboard less confused as it will train you older slower ram in better compatible slots
u might rise soc voltage a little due to 4 sticks, ram voltage 1.20v is plenty enough if u wanna stick with ~2666MHz

 

[Usmaan23]

Hello,

I am having the same issue, i have installed 4x4 gb rams but the system bios shows 8gb of ram installed but on the desktop Cpuz shows 16gb installed,
I have tried almost everything suggested on this page all the ram sticks are having same frequency bios also shows all DIMM ram installed but total memory shows only 8gb

 

[Arigus14]

Have you tried running just two at a time? One at a time? If the system is picking up all 4, just not when they're together, then I'd say that rules out the RAM being defective, and the CPU... maybe it could still be an issue with the motherboard, but the problem would probably lie elsewhere at that point.

Yeah ive tried each stick in each slot individually. And then ive alternated sticks out trying them in both dual channels. And all of my testing has told me that slot #1 & #2 are not functioning correctly no matter the stick of ram. And Slot #3 &#4 work pretty much as intended but of course I cant run in dual channel. Like I said this is one confusing issue haha
The PC is still functional but is just unstable. Whenever im doing anything with Firefox as well as lets say photo-shopping or gaming it significantly reduces performance. And ive had multiple issue with Firefox crashing when im using Roll20 which is a browser based tabletop simulator

 

[DRagor]

So what exactly happens if you try just 1 stick at slot #1 or #2?

 

[Arigus14]

Nothing seems to happen. I can attempt to start my PC and lights and fans go but it does not boot to windows or bios. But to be fair ive only tried the 1 stick in slot #1 so i might be able to in slot #2 but i doubt it

 

[DRagor]

Nothing seems to happen. I can attempt to start my PC and lights and fans go but it does not boot to windows or bios. But to be fair ive only tried the 1 stick in slot #1 so i might be able to in slot #2 but i doubt it

So it looks like slot #1 (and probably #2 also) failed. This can be caused by motherboard or by CPU. Considering CPU was essentially not brand new (as I understand) it is more suspect, but you can't unfortunately rule out bad motherboard.

 

[Arigus14]

So it looks like slot #1 (and probably #2 also) failed. This can be caused by motherboard or by CPU. Considering CPU was essentially not brand new (as I understand) it is more suspect, but you can't unfortunately rule out bad motherboard.

Yeah thats kinda how its looking unfortunately. Ive been thinking about going Mini-ITX for a while so I think im gonna just get a new mobo and build a Mini-ITX build using the existing CPU and ram and that may show me what part failed. I will get back to you all later once the build is complete to help anyone else that's having a similar issue.