Current Events > PC Build RAM Upgrade. (BlogFAQs: no tl;dr option)

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BACKGROUND:

So from 2019 on through 2020, I was gathering parts for my upgrade. Just gathering pieces as they went on sale using Amazon Gift card money earned through various reward programs. By about January of 2020 I had everything but the GPU. I still went ahead with the build, because saving up for the GPU was going to take the longest. I was also interested in waiting until the end of the year when the nVidia 3000 Series and AMD 6000 Series were going to launch. Even if I didn't get them, I could snag the older ones for cheaper, is what my thought was. I'd just stick my old GPU in there for the time being. January Rial didn't know what was to come in 2020.

Anyway, I finally get the build but it wouldn't boot. I was not happy, but I stayed calm. Eventually I figured it out. The mobo was not accepting the RAM in the correct spots. Only slot 3 and 4 would allow me to boot. I ran through all of the combinations, single stick and two sticks. 2 8gb Fury(Hyper?) X boyos. Anyhoo, it would only boot in single channel. That bummed me out, but I read enough research that I was "okay" with the setup. I just wanted to get going, and I couldn't afford to buy a new mobo. Because I had gotten this so long ago, I couldn't return it to Amazon, and MSI was like sorry, dude, you got to go through them.

So I just went ahead with 16gb of single channel memory on two 8gb sticks. Performance was fine. I know with AMD the hot would have been even worse than the hit likely took on Intel, but it is what it is. I gamed on and forgot about it like within a month.

Now here's 2024, and I want to upgrade my RAM. I order another set of 16gb RAM. "YOU'RE NOT SUPPOSED TO MIX RAM S-" it's fine. Anyway, of course I had completely forgotten that I had only 2 of my 4 slots working. I open my machine and I'm like...."did my dumb ass have these in single channel this whole time? What a n00b!" Not remembering why it was like that. I go to boot, and it does, but the bios is only seeing 16gb. I'm moving them around, trying to see what the fuss is. I try with just the new RAM, and it works. I try with 1 new stick and 1 old stick and it works. But again, only in slots 3 and 4. Then I remembered. I could never get slots 1 and 2 to work. Me and my cheapness, laziness, and HORRIBLE MEMORY.

So I return the RAM to Amazon, and I note on there that the RAM is in good working order, and I'd pay a restocking fee if needed, the issue was entirely mine. But they say it's fine and give me a full refund. I then order a new set of 32gb sticks. Two 16gb boyos. Two days later(thank you Prime) they arrive. In a plain brown envelope. Package freaking mangled! RAM sticks bent in HALF! I take pics and RMA them.

Another 2 days(today) the new RAM came. This time in the White Amazon bubble wrap like it should have the first time. Undamaged. Nice. Put it in. No booting. Because of course. Does this system just not like more than 16gb running at a time? Is that it? Swapped them around. Still no luck. Took one stick out and it booted. But one of the new sticks at 16gb is the same as two of the old sticks. So that's not helpful.

Going from 16gb to 16gb, and paying a premium for it, is not gonna fly. I put one old stick with the new stick. Bang. Working. Okay, cool. 24gb isn't 32gb, but it's better than nothing, I guess. I feel really bad about wasting shit, so I'm just gonna be a stupid consumer and keep it, even though it's not what I was trying to to do, and I'm still being somewhat wasteful. And I don't want to do another RMA. But now I have loose RAM sitting around. Might as well throw it one of the old slots that I could never get to work in the first place. I put the other new RAM stick in. The system boots. 40GB of RAM. And the Dual Channel that wasn't working now IS working. Why I could never get it to work before but it's working now is beyond me. I always made sure they were populated properly, and seated correctly. It's not my first rodeo.

So all in all, that was a "better" outcome than I could have expected. I'm hesitant to add the last stick of the old RAM. It could throw off this delicate balance. Let's hope memtest doesn't give me any issues.

tl:dr?

Were_Wyrm posted...

tl:dr?

Yes.

First check if the all ram slots work by using one of your good ram stick and booting up pc with each slot.

CommonStar posted...

First check if the all ram slots work by using one of your good ram stick and booting up pc with each slot.

I feel like you didn't read all my post. Which is fine, I understand that it's relatively long and all. But still.

This is going to sound nuts but I had this same exact issue two years ago making a B550, 5800x, 32GB build for a friend. One stick worked, two didn't, four never did, was tearing my hair out.

The issue was the CPU. Namely, the CPU itself was pulled out of the socket (sadly extremely common for AM4) by the cooler and was making partial/incorrect contact and thus died in the crib whenever the DRAM bus was over one stick.

I took the cooler off, replaced the paste, seated it again and very gently screwed one rotation per screw at a time until it was seated. Let it sit level for about 10m, propped it back up on its base, and was good to go.

Edit: So try to take the CPU cooler off and reinstall it. If the CPU is stuck to the bottom of the damn thing, you've replicated my white whale problem.

Other funny methods to check:

1: Are all the motherboard grounding screws in w/ washers?
2: Do you have a mechanical drive whatsoever? HDD/ SHDD? Them dying can lead to this problem.

Final Edit: You're completely wrong about mixing sticks, bud. Make sure your XMP profile is synced up so that both are receiving the (weaker) sticks timings, and if either of them run at different voltages I'd remove the one immediately. If one is 24-24-24-13 and one is 20-20-20-10, and one is 1.4v and one is 1.5v, and one is 3200 and one is 2600, you're going to run into so many problems.

Rial_Kai posted...

I feel like you didn't read all my post. Which is fine, I understand that it's relatively long and all. But still.

I skimmed through it but didn't see you mentioned that you tested each slot one at a time.

Also as the other user said, which I also suspect, is that your CPU might have bent pins. But I was trying to go the long way around by seeing what you have and haven't troubleshooted.

I don't mind people weighing in with their musing, but I may not have been explicit enough. I have no issues now, and I don't really need advice. I was just blogging.

C-zom posted...

Edit: So try to take the CPU cooler off and reinstall it. If the CPU is stuck to the bottom of the damn thing, you've replicated my white whale problem.

I didn't mention it, but I originally did reseat the CPU. I had taken it off to look for dead pins, as that was a potential problem.

1: Are all the motherboard grounding screws in w/ washers?

Yeah.

2: Do you have a mechanical drive whatsoever? HDD/ SHDD? Them dying can lead to this problem.

I have drives. They aren't an issue. When I originally did the build, I didn't have them in when first booting because I was just trying to make sure all of the new stuff worked. Not the old drives. None of them were in at that time, and none of them are dying.

Final Edit: You're completely wrong about mixing sticks, bud. Make sure your XMP profile is synced up so that both are receiving the (weaker) sticks timings, and if either of them run at different voltages I'd remove the one immediately. If one is 24-24-24-13 and one is 20-20-20-10, and one is 1.4v and one is 1.5v, and one is 3200 and one is 2600, you're going to run into so many problems.

I'm not "completely wrong" you're just making some weird assumptions and then placing them on me. But to be clear, the memory timings are all in sync, and the voltages are the same.

That sucks, but I'm glad you got things working at least.

I never had RAM slots not work, but I've had bad sticks of RAM before. Maybe they were alright and just didn't like my motherboards, I honestly forget. I'd get random freezes that replacing the RAM fixed. Happened with my one laptop and with my first custom gaming PC.

Bass posted...

That sucks, but I'm glad you got things working at least.

I never had RAM slots not work, but I've had bad sticks of RAM before. Maybe they were alright and just didn't like my motherboards, I honestly forget. I'd get random freezes that replacing the RAM fixed. Happened with my one laptop and with my first custom gaming PC.

Ultimately, I think regardless of how many clicks I heard, and how much I thought I had them seated properly, clearly I did not because they are all working now. So as is often the case, the issue was likely all mine. I should have kept retrying then like I did now. Live and learn.

Just download more

I don't know why I said, by the way. It's a Gigabyte board. Not that this changes anything. Just an odd brain fart. Anyway. A delicious and stable 48gb of RAM. I can now easily run 6 Android emulators in parallel without any issues, giving each more than enough RAM.