[SOLVED] System not working with two sticks of RAM

[hercules505]

Bottom line up front; I started a new build and the system will only work with one stick of RAM. When I insert two the system will not boot up. I have interchanged the two sticks and they both work individually.
The system I am working with has the following components:
MSI MPG Pro Carbon LGA 1156ATX Z39p Gaming Motherboard
INtel i7-8700
Samsung 970 FVO 250 GB M.2 SSD
WD Blue 4tb PC hard drive
Corsair Vengence RGB pro, two 8gb memory (RAM)
EVGA 850 G3 power supply
NZXT H7001 - ATX Mid-Tower PC case

Any assistance would be greatly appreciated!

 

[Darkbreeze]

That's not an 1156 motherboard, to start with. It's an LGA 1151 if it's a Z390 and you are running an 8th gen CPU. Typo?

Did the memory come together in ONE kit, or were the memory modules purchased separately?

Are you installing them in the correct slots, which should be the A2 and B2 slots as seen here:

Make absolutely sure you are getting both sticks fully seated and check to see that neither of the slots has ANY foreign object or debris down in the slot. Even a piece of lint could be enough to cause a stick to not want to work in a DIMM slot.

Do you have the MOST recent motherboard BIOS version installed?

Have you tried (With the memory installed in the A2 and B2 slots) doing a hard reset of the BIOS to reset the hardware tables? If not, then try the procedure below:

Power off the unit, switch the PSU off and unplug the PSU cord from either the wall or the power supply.

Remove the motherboard CMOS battery for five minutes. During that five minutes, press the power button on the case for 30 seconds. After the five minutes is up, reinstall the CMOS battery making sure to insert it with the correct side up just as it came out.

Now, plug the power supply cable back in, switch the PSU back on and power up the system. It should display the POST screen and the options to enter CMOS/BIOS setup. Enter the bios setup program and reconfigure the boot settings for either the Windows boot manager or for legacy systems, the drive your OS is installed on if necessary.

Save settings and exit. If the system will POST and boot then you can move forward from there including going back into the bios and configuring any other custom settings you may need to configure such as Memory XMP profile settings, custom fan profile settings or other specific settings you may have previously had configured that were wiped out by resetting the CMOS.



And if none of that works then it's likely you have a bad set of sticks, but you should read the information at the following link for additional suggestions:

*Resolving memory problems and setting up XMP/DOCP/AMP profiles

 

[hercules505]

Answering in order of questions.
1. Yes it was a typo. The correct specs are LGA1151ATX Z390
2. Yes, the memory came in a two pack.
3. Yes, currently the only time the system works is when the memory is in slot A2
4. I was able to check and the slots are clean and nothing is hindering a secure fit.
5. I would say yes because I was able to get the system running and able to update OS and other things on single RAM stick.
6. No, I have not tried a hard reset and will do that when i get home after work.
Is there a possibility I could have a bad bus on the motherboard?
Thank you for your time!

 

[Darkbreeze]

What is your #5 answer in regard to? The BIOS being up to date? System running and OS updated has nothing to do with the motherboard BIOS version if so. Often, VERY often in fact, BIOS updates address compatibility and memory configuration issues so when there is an issue with a memory configuration it is ALWAYS a good idea to make sure the BIOS version you have installed is THE latest version available.

If you do not have BIOS version 7B17v12 installed, then I would update the bios to that version and try again with both sticks. There are plenty of tutorials on how to update the bios on any given manufacturer and motherboard chipset generation so I won't go into that, just google MSI Z390 how to update bios and you'll find plenty of plain text and video tutorials on how to do it if you don't already know.

If it IS already up to date, then it's always possible there is a problem with the motherboard. If possible I'd try both sticks in another system to see if they have the same issue there or not, but if you can't do that then it's probably going to be a matter of which is the MORE likely, and RMA the other component.

Honestly, since I see this type of situation ALL the time and OFTEN the problem is related to either a motherboard standoff being in the wrong place under the motherboard where there is no standoff hole in the board, shorting something out, or bent pins on the motherboard, I'd bench the unit before trying to RMA anything and try to determine whether either of those could be the culprit.

Bent pins on the CPU could affect one or all of the DIMM slots, or none. So could a misplaced standoff.

As follows:

How to properly bench test your motherboard​

 

[Steve Istvan Horvath]

You need to make sure that the sticks of RAM are inserted in the slots that pair with each other. You should look at your MOBO's documentation about where to install the RAM sticks so that they would be paired correctly in their respective slots, e.g. DIMMA2 paired with DIMMB2.

Bottom line up front; I started a new build and the system will only work with one stick of RAM. When I insert two the system will not boot up. I have interchanged the two sticks and they both work individually.
The system I am working with has the following components:
MSI MPG Pro Carbon LGA 1156ATX Z39p Gaming Motherboard
INtel i7-8700
Samsung 970 FVO 250 GB M.2 SSD
WD Blue 4tb PC hard drive
Corsair Vengence RGB pro, two 8gb memory (RAM)
EVGA 850 G3 power supply
NZXT H7001 - ATX Mid-Tower PC case

Any assistance would be greatly appreciated!

 

[Darkbreeze]

Yeah, that was already covered in the very first post.