RAM not showing up, Screen flashes, PC freezing. Motherboard the culprit?

[TheProphecy]

I built my computer about a year ago. Immediately when I was finished building it, half of my RAM wouldn't show up (4 of 8GB). I tried re-seating numerous times, and although all 8GB would show up in the BIOS, it would never show up in Windows. The extra 4GB wasn't a huge issue for me, so I let it slide. Recently, though, new problems have been emerging. First, my screen started getting dimmer at random times. I messed around with the settings on my TV thinking that was the problem. It wasn't. Second, my graphics card would just stop working for a second, giving me a white screen with a message saying the driver crashed or something (happened while typing this post). Updating to the newest NVIDIA drivers have done nothing. Finally, my PC has started to freeze on a consistent basis. There's no rhyme or reason. Sometimes it freezes when I'm surfing the web, other times it freezes at idle (froze while making this post). I've done the following things to try and diagnose the issue.

1. Ran all my virus/spyware programs. Clean.
2. Ran chkdsk. Clean.
3. Ran memtest for 8 hours. Clean.
4. Checked the temps. Nothing higher than 45 at any given time.

Any ideas would be appreciated. I planned on building a new PC when Black Friday and Cyber Monday rolled around, but it's looking like I'm going to be forced to build one earlier now. Specs are below.

ASUS M5A-97
G.Skill Ripjaws 8GB
AMD Phenom II X2 555 BE
EVGA GTX 560
Connected to a Philips 32'' TV
Windows 7
Western Digital RE4 500GB Hard Drive

 

[alexoiu]

Hi, Regarding the memory, Is Win 7 x64 or 32?
For the other issue/s, can you borrow a graphics card and test?

 

[h3sham]

first is the windows 64bit! also check the cpu for any bent pins that could be the problem if not try reseating it , and u should test the rams each on its own as well as the DIMMS maybe one of them is faulty

 

[TheProphecy]

It's the 64bit version of Windows 7. I think I have an old 9800 GT around here that I could try.

I'll check the CPU. Only problem with that is it has a 212 EVO on it, making it a pain to check. The thing about the RAM is that it won't boot with only one stick in there. I've reseated them in each possible configuration dozens of times, and it only works when both of them are in, yet one stick won't show up.

 

[h3sham]

remove the battery and the rams and then put the battery back in and try with one ram at a time

 

[TenPc]

1 stick of 8gb ram?

http://www.asus.com/Motherboards/M5A97/#specifications

 

[h3sham]

if you are using more than one ram stick yea use only one of them if its only one remove it and put it in a different slot also make sure u dont have any bent pins in ur cpu!

 

[h3sham]

also as for the diming problem did u check ur nvidia control panel and made sure its not the cause? open the panel and on the left side pick adjust desktop color settings and use nvidia settings and see if it fixes the diming problem , keep in mind a faulty ram messes everything up this could be just a faulty ram! thats why if the computer reads all ram and there arnt any bent pins test the ram using memtest or windows diagnostics tool mdsched.exe , if its a faulty ram thats an easy replacement , keep me posted how it goes

 

[TenPc]

You need a pair (2) of dual channel ram, you are only using one of a dual channel ram that is why it's being read as only 4gb.

 

[TheProphecy]

I didn't get a chance to try any of the recommended fixes from yesterday because I had work all day, but I will give them a shot and post the results after work tomorrow.

@h3sham

I'll remove the battery and reseat the RAM again tomorrow when I try the other suggestions. I just tried your suggestion using the NVIDIA control panel, we'll see how it goes.

@TenPC

The RAM I have is dual channel. I believe this is the exact RAM, but I'll be 100% sure when I open the computer up tomorrow. http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231445

Also, I just wanted to throw this out there as well. In the beginning, I tried OC'ing the processor since I read how easy the things are to OC. I figured I could get it to 4GHz pretty easily, didn't turn out to be the case. I could only manage to keep it stable at 3.5GHz, which is barely faster than the stock speed. The temps weren't the problem. I gave up on it and set the speed back to stock.

 

[TenPc]

If the CPU cooler is too close to the ram fins, it might pressing on the ram iteslf and causing distress. If the cooler is too tightly fitted then that, too, will stress the CPU and may actually damage it.

The ram has to be pressed into the slots so that the lifters are drawn and clicked into place. If they do not click in, then the ram is not actually fitted properly and need to be reseated.

Hope to hear from you soon, while you are in the PC, check for dust, it is a big issue that many people overlook or disregard as anything but an inconvenience.

 

[h3sham]

yea like TenPc said ur ripjaws arnt low profile rams move them to the slot further from ur evo cooler that could be why