PC won't start up unless I re-insert RAM

noboot22

Commendable
Oct 9, 2016
2
0
1,510
I added a new HDD yesterday involving some additional cable management after which I struggled to get my computer to boot up even to bios until I removed and reinserted the ram and reset the cmos. Thought everything was fine but after turning it off I discovered I need to re-insert the ram every time now just to get it started up. When I do that it runs fine even for long periods of time and under heavy stress like gaming. If I don't the PC powers on but no picture comes on screen and the fans keep spinning at full speed.

What should I try to fix it? I have no spare parts to experiment with. Only the HDD is new, the CPU/GPU/mobo/PSU/RAM combo has worked fine for 20 months before this. The PSU should easily have capacity for another HDD and when I tried unplugging both HDDs and just starting up with the SSD it changed nothing.

i7-4790k w/ macho rev b
gigabyte gtx 970 windforce
gigabyte z97 sniper
g.skill ram 2x8gb
xtr xfx something psu
250gb pny ssd + 2x wd red 3tb hdd
 

noboot22

Commendable
Oct 9, 2016
2
0
1,510
Just a small update:
I reinstalled windows to rule out any software issue however unlikely
Reattached all cables.
Small correction/more details:
The way re-inserting ram works is I have to remove them both then start up the computer with one stick of ram and it boots fine. After this I can turn it off and reinsert the second stick and it will boot up fine ONCE and run just like normal. If I turn it off after this I need to repeat the steps above.
However the computer does not function regularly if I just keep one stick in. It will boot up fine twice or three times after witch it gets stuck in a boot loop restarting itself every ~20 seconds. This is different from the 2 ram behaviour in that BIOS does show up but nothing after that except a small white "_" on a black screen. Also with 2 sticks of ram it doesn't restart itself. Both of these cases are fixed by removing all ram then starting it up with one stick. Which stick and which hole I plug it in makes no difference.