Help, I removed 2 sticks of RAM now I Can't put them back in.

M76

M76

[H]F Junkie
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I had 4 sticks of RAM in my main PC. Yesterday I ran into some problems with DXMD, so during troubleshooting I removed two of the four rams as a last ditch effort to find the culprit to why I was getting bluescreens in the game. (Turns out it was my CPU, when I replaced that the problem disappeared)

But now the won't PC to boot with all 4 ram sticks in. I tried every combination on which stick goes to which slot, but it just won't boot.

The problem is that the RAMs are actually from two different types. All four are KHX1600C9D3/4G but only two of them has XMP profiles. But all four require 1.65V for 1600 and has the exact same timings (9-9-9-27-1T) The two with the XMP profile has slightly different heatsinks with different branding on them.

I've been running these rams for four years together without problems. Now if I have two of the same type installed the PC boots ok with either type. But if I insert all four the post stops with the error code b7 on the Drbug readout which suggest RAM error.
 
Motherboard make and model?

Have you made sure that each pair are in the same channel (I know you said every combination, just making sure)?
 
I dare say that motherboard is flaky. CPU defective is a rare occurrence & replacing it then having RAM not recognize just screams at me MOTHERHBOARD. Did you put the supposed defective CPU in a known good board and test it? Did the board work with the old CPU and just the 2 RAM sticks? Maybe you can test the 2 flaky sticks in a diff rig?
 
Crash5417 said:
Motherboard make and model?

Have you made sure that each pair are in the same channel (I know you said every combination, just making sure)?
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Make and model in sig. I tried either way. Mixed / Same channel, to no avail.
DrLobotomy said:
I dare say that motherboard is flaky. CPU defective is a rare occurrence & replacing it then having RAM not recognize just screams at me MOTHERHBOARD. Did you put the supposed defective CPU in a known good board and test it? Did the board work with the old CPU and just the 2 RAM sticks? Maybe you can test the 2 flaky sticks in a diff rig?
Click to expand...
I don't have another board available. Either two ram sticks work by themselves, but if Install all four at the same time then it doesn't work. There is only one combination I didn't try. To install one stick from each series to see what happens then. But I'll tomorrow.

Shadohh said:
I agree, I think the root problem is the mobo and not the cpu or ram.
Click to expand...
The CPU being defective is not that hard to imagine. It was running on very high voltage for quite some time.

Actually it's quite certain that the CPU became defective. Since when I first removed the two ram sticks and still had the defective (I7-3820) cpu in I still got the freezing/bluescreen issues, even though only two sticks of rams were installed. But with the other cpu the problem instantly fixed itself.
 
You try resetting the bios back to the defaults so it's not using as aggressive a timing and speeds when running 4 sticks? Could be the memory controller just can't handle the speeds/timings any longer after prolonged usage at higher volts.
 
ND40oz said:
You try resetting the bios back to the defaults so it's not using as aggressive a timing and speeds when running 4 sticks? Could be the memory controller just can't handle the speeds/timings any longer after prolonged usage at higher volts.
Click to expand...
The memory controller is on the CPU, and I've replaced the CPU.
 
M76 said:
The memory controller is on the CPU, and I've replaced the CPU.
Click to expand...

Somehow I missed where you posted you replaced the CPU and it works fine. If that's the case, you're right, your memory controller on the CPU is going. Only option is drop back down to two sticks or feed it even more volts until it completely dies or starts working again. At least it's only a 3820 though.
 
ND40oz said:
Somehow I missed where you posted you replaced the CPU and it works fine. If that's the case, you're right, your memory controller on the CPU is going. Only option is drop back down to two sticks or feed it even more volts until it completely dies or starts working again. At least it's only a 3820 though.
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Nope, you got it wrong. Here is the proper order of things:

  1. 3820 with 4 sticks of ram running overclocked.
  2. I got an E5-2670 replaced the 3820 with it, still with 4 rams, working fine
  3. I put back the 3820 to run some additional benchmarks and testing, still with 4 rams working fine
  4. DXMD released tryied to play. Got bluescreens and freezes with it every time I tried running it
  5. dropped back the 3820 to default clocks, still freezes and bluescreens
  6. removed 2 sticks of rams, still freezes and bluescreens
  7. Replaced the 3820 with the 2670, bluescreens and freezing gone, everything is rock solid.
  8. Tried to put back the removed 2 sticks of ram, ->no boot and b7 error.
  9. Tried moving around the rams between slots still b7 error
  10. either of the two sticks works fine if only those two are installed

So that's where I'm at now.

I'll try ressetting the cmos to defaults, and if that doesn't work reseating the CPU, and if that fails too, guess then I have a reason to upgrade. As 8GB of RAM is not enough for me, and I'm not going to spend money on DDR3 ram at this point.
 
Remove all cards/cables in the way. Unplug the PC, make sure little clips are open at each end of the slot, place the RAM into the groove gently, there ia a little groove slightly off centre of each strip around the lump, put your fingers on top and bottom of the RAM module and press firmly. Hope it works for you
 
carol palmer said:
Remove all cards/cables in the way. Unplug the PC, make sure little clips are open at each end of the slot, place the RAM into the groove gently, there ia a little groove slightly off centre of each strip around the lump, put your fingers on top and bottom of the RAM module and press firmly. Hope it works for you
Click to expand...
You only read the title, didn't you?
I mean why the hell do you even reply if you can't be bothered to read at least the first comment?
 
I would try the following (if one does not work, try next):
0. Disable in BIOS using XMP profiles and try starting with all 4 sticks.
1. Insert one of the working pairs of memory, note how they are detected and set conservative settings by hand, leaving the rest to Auto
2. Do the same with the second pair. Compare the settings and choose the worst case and set that manually.
3. Try again with 4 sticks.
4. Try booting with 1 stick in 1st slot, then again in 2nd, 3rd and 4th to check if slots on the mainboard are not defective

The fact that you had, at some point, both old and new CPU running with 4 sticks without problems points strongly to problems with motherboard.
You may try to delicately clean memory slots with a brush.
Was the new CPU also heavily overclocked? It would be strange for the memory controller in it to fail so quickly and completely that it would not even boot with 4 sticks. Do you have the old CPU? Does it also not boot at all with 4 sticks?
If so another point against motherboard.
 
M76 said:
You only read the title, didn't you?
I mean why the hell do you even reply if you can't be bothered to read at least the first comment?
Click to expand...

It seems you got this under control without our input. You know the next steps. Good luck!
 
ah.. I can't remember how much times i've seen this kind of issues.. return to the basic, what cooler are you using?... sometimes the solution is as easy as just loose the cooler a bit, as some coolers when are really tightened prevent the motherboard to communicate correctly the CPU and the RAM.. I would start there as it's a issue that has happened to me in the past..
 
Yeah, could be too much socket pressure or all of the swapping could have damaged or slightly bent a pin. I'd check the socket and make sure everything looks ok.
 
OK, end of story. The second RAM slot does not work. If I install RAM in that one then it won't boot.Now it works with 3 sticks in slots 1,3,4 in triple channel mode. I've tried clearing the cmos, tried loosening the cooler, taken out the cpu cleaned the contact area, and reseated it to avail.
 
Maybe take some close up pics of the slot.....maybe we can spit the issue!
 
Take a good flashlight and check for any pins out of alignment in the slot. It sometimes happens that they get out of line while reseating the memory sticks. I had that happen to me twice on my testing board.
If that does not help I think it's bye bye board :( (unless you can live with 12gb of ram for now)
 
I of course checked the slot, cleaned it, but it didn't help. Thanks for the helpful comments, but it seems this board has outlived it's usefulness.
 
M76 said:
I of course checked the slot, cleaned it, but it didn't help. Thanks for the helpful comments, but it seems this board has outlived it's usefulness.
Click to expand...
Before you run off and do something rash...

I had a nearly identical problem with my X79 Extreme 3 and 3930k. My cmos got cleared the other day and I couldn't post with all four sticks. I assumed I had fried my imc after years of overclocking, but I did end up fixing it (same cpu, mobo, and ram.)

I fixed it (eventually) by booting to bios with one stick of ram and manually setting the voltages (all of them) and timings. Once these settings are saved you should be good to go, though it did take some fiddling with one of the voltages to get it all working. I'll double check my voltages when I get home, I feel like sometimes Asrock likes to use different nomenclature. I wonder if asrock is a bit conservative on "auto" with voltages?
 
capt_cope said:
Before you run off and do something rash...

I had a nearly identical problem with my X79 Extreme 3 and 3930k. My cmos got cleared the other day and I couldn't post with all four sticks. I assumed I had fried my imc after years of overclocking, but I did end up fixing it (same cpu, mobo, and ram.)

I fixed it (eventually) by booting to bios with one stick of ram and manually setting the voltages (all of them) and timings. Once these settings are saved you should be good to go, though it did take some fiddling with one of the voltages to get it all working. I'll double check my voltages when I get home, I feel like sometimes Asrock likes to use different nomenclature. I wonder if asrock is a bit conservative on "auto" with voltages?
Click to expand...
Except I didn't clear the cmos until after the problem started happening. So the timings and voltages didn't change all along. I only clreared the cmos as a last ditch effort to get it working but it didn't.

It's not like I can do anything rash, I have to wait for the next "paycheck" until I do anything. Which won't happen for another two weeks. And it's on a friday so I can't buy anything until the week after.
 
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