Very Weird Motherboard RAM Issue. Endless Loop ( Z170x gaming 3(rev 1.0), Corsair RAM 16gb Kit)

[mikemefistous]

This motherboard won't support dual channel mode for my memory and the other 2 RAM slots aren't working as mobo gets stuck in endless loop when i try to boot it when the RAM is placed on them.

Steps i took:

1) Bought the MOBO with 1 x8gb Corsair 2666MHz RAM (that wasn't officially supported on the official RAM list of the MOBO) last summer.

Despite not being officially supported, the RAM worked flawlessly on Slot 1.
However 2-3 months after the summer ended, i wanted to upgrade to 16gb, so i bought the exact same RAM stick and for some reason when i installed it on slot 2 (the same colored one) the system wouldn't boot and it would endlessly loop. (attempted on latest bios with default BIOS settings.)

People on tomshardware forum on my previous post, suggested i increase the Vcore or mess with the voltage, but nothing helped.
When i installed those 2 ram sticks on slots 1 & 3 of channel A & B, then the system boots fine at 16gb recognized with XMP able to be enabled as well and CPU overcloacks etc. no issues, however the other 2 slots are not working, even when trying to boot the machine from slot 2 or slot 4 with only 1 stick in it, it would endleslly loop.

2) 5-6 months go by and i bought about 2 months ago a 16gb RAM Kit from Corsair again but this one is officially supported by the Motherboard's RAM list, this time at 3000MHz it's this one: CMK16GX4M2B3000C15 and i have the exact same issue. Basically they won't run on dual channel mode and the other 2 slots are not working.

3) After not having even an officially supported RAM kit work, with the latest bios on default BIOS settings on freshly clean installed windows etc. i've decided i've had enough and went to my local retailer that i bought it from and asked for it to be replaced. They supposedly "checked it" (big corporation most likely didn't even bother with runnning the tests on my old MOBO) and decided it is indeed broken and replaced it with a newly sealed one about 1-2 weeks ago, that they still luckily had left.

Now, that i replaced the old MOBO with a new one, it still has the exact same issue.

So to sum things up, the RAM issues are all over the place with this MOBO and i cannot run them in dual channel mode and if i wanted to upgrade to add even more RAM and utilize all 4 slots of the RAM, i couldn't since the other 2 slots won't work and will endleslly loop my machine.

I changed the RAM and made sure it's officially supported and i even replaced the MOBO in case it was a faulty one, but the exact same issue persists and it leads me to believe that the MOBO is defective as a model in general.

What can be done about this?

Here are my full system specs:

Z170x Gaming 3 rev 1.0 World of Tanks edition (both the old and the newly replaced one)
i5 6600K
16gb DDR4 3000MHz CAS latency 15
Gigabyte GTX970 G1 (Windforce)
250GB Samsung 850 EVO SSD
2TB Western Digital Black
3TB Toshiba
win 10 x64 (when i bought the mobo at summer i used to have win 7 and upgrade to 10 on christmas)


Extra Unnescessary info: One step i haven't taken, is to get my CPU replaced, but i doubt it has any issues as it's working flawleslly.

No temp issues on any PC compartment.

Also forgot to add some weird MOBO interference issues that i've been having both with the previous MOBO and the New One, that are related to my onboard Audio and the onboard network card. Occasionally, once every 2 weeks, my PC will start messing up and slowing down and the audio will have interferences and the internet will get turned off and troublshooting network issues won't fix the issue unless i restart the machine.

As far as sound issues go, when i am listening to a youtube video on chrome and i launch an application like a game or smth where the CPU will work at 100%, then the sound starts buzzing and having some weird interferences, buying a Fiio E10k external DAC/AMP fixxed the sound glitching issue.

 

[Jan_26]

What is your PSU? Brand/model, how old is it?
What you describe sounds to me like a faulty memory controller (part of cpu)... As you have obviously reseated the whole thing while swapping motherboard, it's not bent pins or so)... Just a side note, is there no dirt on cpu bottom, pieces of thermal paste etc.?

Sound issue itself would sound like a driver thing, but along with NIC it smells like a faulty PSU, power fluctuations etc. (you don't have an old fridge on same electricity circuit do you?)...

My bet would be like 70% PSU, 25% CPU, 5% power interference from network

 

[mikemefistous]

What is your PSU? Brand/model, how old is it?
What you describe sounds to me like a faulty memory controller (part of cpu)... As you have obviously reseated the whole thing while swapping motherboard, it's not bent pins or so)... Just a side note, is there no dirt on cpu bottom, pieces of thermal paste etc.?

Sound issue itself would sound like a driver thing, but along with NIC it smells like a faulty PSU, power fluctuations etc. (you don't have an old fridge on same electricity circuit do you?)...

My bet would be like 70% PSU, 25% CPU, 5% power interference from network

Bought the CPU along with the MOBO and the original ram at summer alltogether. Bent pins is not a thing and as for thermal paste having fallen on the MOBO, i don't believe so, since i changed the motherboard as well. The paste had worn off a bit, but not too much so i didn't put any extra with the new mobo.

Faulty PSU has never went through my mind, however it was on my list as the next thing to upgrade on my PC.

The PSU is a bronze thermaltake 730Watt and it's about 3-5 years old and i remember buying it really cheap back then.

Before i upgraded to this MOBO/RAM/CPU the summer, i used to have an old computer with an old ASUS and i5 760 CPU that was an 8 year old system.

Now that you mentioned the PSU issue, it makes sense trying to change it ASAP, as my previous computer i was forced to upgrade, had the same PSU and the reason i upgraded it, was that it had a simillar issue right before i upgraded.

However that PC had definitely bent CPU or MOBO pins and the CPU was OC'ed so much that it was running at 80-90 Celcious degrees.
The pins got bent, when i tried fixxing that temp issue by installing the H212 Evo Cooler, and was causing the RAM slots 2,3,4 not work, however the slot 1 worked.

I remember after installing that cooler, the pins got bent and i went from having 2x4 gb 1666 DDR3 RAM kit Corsair Vengeance, to buying a single 8gb DDR3 Corsair Vengeance Ram stick to temporarily use my PC, until i upgraded.

However, having the same PSU and same cooler, currently no CPU/MOBO pin is bent because of it whatsoever.

My last PC, however that had a simillar issue, would boot, but would only read 4gb of RAM as if the other slots didn't even have any power.

This MOBO, it will endleslly loop if i put any RAM at slot 2 or 4 of 2 different channels.