Z68X-UD3H-B3, wont boot anymore with 4 sticks of ram.

[Darkje]

Ok, so me and a friend both build the from the same board and cpu. He's been running 4x 4gb corsair vengeance ddr 1600 since the start, but then we both decided to try some M378B5273DH0-CH9 sticks, because of legendary oc reported.

Mine is fine, running ddr2140-c10 (), but his is in a constant bootloop, it beeps and restarts, even after clrcmos, with only one stick and running @ 1333 his board won't start anymore with 4 sticks. That is until 1 stick is pulled from the far channel. So it will only start with 3 sticks now. Putting back the corsairs won't work either, these too will only work now with 3 or less inserted.

slot setup accoring to manual: cpu->slot4->slot2->slot3->slot1

have to pull one from slot 3 or 1 to get it start again, switching shows the dimms themselves are not the point, they are okay. but we are still wandering what could have happened to his setup.

Any clues? could it be the cpu?, could one channel suddenly break after changing mem?

[Lsdmeasap]

Inspect the memory slot to be sure there is no dirt, hair, dust, debris, ect in there, and look with a bright light and make sure that none of the gold wires are bent out of place.

Other than that, extended clear CMOS might fix it up!

[Darkje]

Okay, we'reremoving the board from the case for close inspection, will try the long clr-cmos and reseating the cpu. I don't think it's a damaged slot, since removing either 1 or 3 will work.

[Lsdmeasap]

Sorry, Looks like maybe you were editing while I replied

Ya, try Extended clear CMOS if nothing else helps. I'd say try a short one first too in case that fixes it up, but when you do the short one drain the board and PSU and pull the battery too, but you don't have to let it sit for hours like that. Just pull the battery, drain the board and PSU, and then clear CMOS for a minute or two and then try to start it and see if it's ok. If not extended clear.

I doubt it would be the socket since he didn't remove the CPU when this happened, but he could have changed the mounting pressure on one or more sides slightly, so a remount might help!

[Darkje]

Cpu reseat is going to be last attempt, with the mugen 2 it's squeezed pretty tight between the cooler and the backplate, so it seems unlikly mounting pressure changed by inserting dimms. I'll do the clrcmos dance for a while and report back later.

[wazza300]

i agree with a long cmos clear,hold in front power switch when turned off at the wall to fully discharge pc,leave battery out 30mins to overnight,if it crashes or blue screens badly sometimes its needed

[Darkje]

Inspect the memory slot to be sure there is no dirt, hair, dust, debris, ect in there, and look with a bright light and make sure that none of the gold wires are bent out of place.

Lsdmeasap, I have to give it to you: great post and perfect guess, because that seems to be what happened. Somehow he was able to damage both far slots, one has 2 pins bend, the other one just one. Will try to bend them back. Any tips or procedure for that ?

[wazza300]

try small flat bladed screwdriver? or thin sewing needle? be carefull not to break any off as they are pretty fragile,esp if they have been weakened ect,see what lsdme suggests

[Lsdmeasap]

Ouch, sorry to hear! This is the second topic this month with bent memory pins, how are users doing this?

I cram shop towels and paper towels into slots and pull them out without issue, so I'd think you have to try really hard to bend them with normal use.

Any idea how he did that? Best I can say is try a needle or needle point tweezers, good luck and be careful!

[Darkje]

No idea how this could have happend, and we both have several decades of experience (in messing with stuff that is...), so this was certainly not his first stick of mem... my guess is it has something to do with the quality of the slots themselves, making it possible that the edge of the dimm gets stuck on one or two pins. Some pics where made also, put one up later on.

We decided the board was dead the way it was, and rma would take too much time and explaining. An other one would have to be ordered anyhow, so repair was attempted first.

He bend the pins back with a small screwdriver, inserted the 4 dimms with extreme caution, and the board appears to be working again, so it got fixed in the end. The dimms are never to be touched again I guess, but hey better than buying a new one.


edit: added picture