Scroll Down to the bottom for my uncommon, but reasonable solution to the problem, and a quick question.
Intro
Well it's not common, to have 8 sticks of RAM (Just for the joy of overkill in my case). However, a few days ago I stumbled upon something that it rarely checked, and I'd just like to share my experiences in hopes some of you won't be troubled like me. Feel free to just Alt-Tab back into whatever your hobby is if you don't like reading walls of text.
Specs:
CPU: i7 5930K
Mo-Bo: MSi X99A Godlike Gaming
RAM: G.Skill DDR4 2400MHz 8GB Sticks, 8 Sticks Total (Two 32GB Quad Channel Kits)
GPU: GTX 980Ti (EVGA)
HDD/SSD: Samsung 950 Pro 512GB M.2
Background
So I got the system running, Windows 8.1 Pro. However, after some windows updates, the system BIOS became corrupted somehow (Not sure if thats the case, but a reflash fixed it). I then Updated to windows 10 because MS was nagging me with their update prompts. Update went well, but during the first user-initiated reboot, the system would not pass the post. Gave me error code "04", which means Power On South Bridge Initialization according to the manual. based on the debugger, it may seem like a faulty motherboard. However, I was oblivious to this at the time, so I proceeded to reflash BIOS 1 again using BIOS 2. After the flash, Non of the BIOS's worked, multiple trials, CMOS cleared, battery changed, 1 stick RAM you name it, I'd tried it. "Sh*t.." i thought.
BIOS 1 always got stuck on debugger code D6: Console Output/Input devices/Console initialization, etc...
As you can tell, this is I/O related, according to the manual, which makes it look even more like a faulty motherboard. However, BIOS 1 also gave a 1 long, 2 short beep code, possibly being memory-related.
BIOS 2 didn't even get to D6, and always stopped at 19: Early South Bridge Initialization
(More southbridge related stuff)
At this point, checking the manual, I was almost certain it was motherboard related, and was about to RMA my board.
Diagnostics and Troubleshooting I/You Take (The Common, Basics):
Minimal Boot Setup:
No hard drive/SSD, 1 Stick of RAM, GPU (I had no iGfx), CPU, no other USB devices, Mouse + Keyboard <-- THIS! you might just fix your problem here, as systems won't boot if no I/O detected For some reason, 1 Stick of RAM didn't work for me (Even though I'm using 8 right now!).
Keyboard+Mouse:
Try to avoid wireless I/O devices in general.
Clear CMOS:
Either a jumper, a button, or a battery. For me, I even tried replacing the battery. No help.
Check For Short Circuits:
ESP motherboard standoffs.
Is you CPU fan connected?:
GPU in a x16 slot?:
Usually the first slot closest to the CPU is an x16 one.
Too Much Pressure on CPU?:
I've heard of systems not turn on because of too much pressure on the CPU. Try undo-ing the bolts/locks, and just pressing it on steadily with your hand. pray the debugger passes the CPU related stuff.
CPU power installed?:
This sounds dumb, but i've made this mistake quite a few times when I was in a hurry.
Are There Any Buttons (Such as OC helpers) Pressed Down on the Board?:
Without adequate cooling, an OC solution being ON could lead to instability, Blue screens in windows, endless cycling, or just not posting or booting.
Reseat Your Hardware:
RAM, GPU's, etc. Make sure your RAM is installed in the right order (The manual, or the motherboard itself next to the DIMM1,2,3,4,5 etc printed text should tell you which to install first (Even if theres no power at all connected). If you don't find the instructions, then assume it's install in the order of DIMM slot 1, slot 3, slot 5, slot 7, slot 2, slot 4, slot 6, slot 8.
Check For Bent Pins:
Doesn't really make sense why pins would bend by themselves, but it's better to tick it off the list, or maybe you're just hallucinating?
Try Another Power Supply:
Try A Known Working GPU:
Is your RAM tested to be MoBo Compatible?:
My RAM model was on the list of supported Memory modules, but I noticed 1 thing: only 4 DIMMS supported, and I had 8. Still doesn't explain why it was working perfectly fine before the problems started.
Heres the Solution For Me:
RAM sets: I originally had never heard of this before: Even if your RAM is the same make, same model, same frequency, same CAS latency, but DIFFERENT BATCH, they might NOT work together! Just like CPU's, tiny differences in the RAM may cause different actual performances (in CPUs, overclockability being the major one). Apparently, I had mixed up my RAM sticks as I bought 2 packs of 32GB quad channel RAM, 4 sticks each. When I inserted them in, I did not go by any order based off of RAM batch.
In the end, the solution was: Separate the ram sticks by Serial Number, and insert one batch into slots 1,3,5,7, and the other pack into 2,4,6,8. (If you took off your heatspreaders and have no serial numbers, you're in luck! trial and error it is!)
My RAM were two batches, one ranging from ending numbers of 59-62, the other from 87-90. I tested each batch of RAM individually in 4-DIMM quad-channel mode, before I inserted both batches together. This solved the problem for me, and after this, the system would boot up and output display!
And here I was, about to whine about the quality of MSi boards, but turns out it was a memory compatibility issue. Everything in the debugger LED pointed towards a PCH/SB fault, yet it was much simpler than that. Hope this little (long) story helps someone. Sorry if it just seems like a repost of "What to do when Computer Won't Post", but I've never seen anyone fix issues by installing different batches of RAM in different orders.
P.S: Now I'm no expert on how a computer works, so correct my assumption if it's wrong, but I think the primary slots 1357 and secondary slots 2468 are initiated separately by the post process, and incompatibilities in memory sticks 1357 due to manufacture-batch differences may inhibit the memory check from passing, thus preventing a successful POST. OR is it the other way around, being something like DIMM slots 12,34,56,78 being checked together?
Heres a question: Is a memory channel composed of 1 primary slot and 1 secondary slot, or 2 primary slots? This could turn the whole theory around.
A visual of the question below: Should it be
DIMM Slot 1 — Batch 1
DIMM Slot 2 — Batch 2
DIMM Slot 3 — Batch 1
DIMM Slot 4 — Batch 2
DIMM Slot 5 — Batch 1
DIMM Slot 6 — Batch 2
DIMM Slot 7 — Batch 1
DIMM Slot 8 — Batch 2
OR
DIMM Slot 1 — Batch 1
DIMM Slot 2 — Batch 1
DIMM Slot 3 — Batch 2
DIMM Slot 4 — Batch 2
DIMM Slot 5 — Batch 1
DIMM Slot 6 — Batch 1
DIMM Slot 7 — Batch 2
DIMM Slot 8 — Batch 2
or maybe something else?[i/]
Intro
Well it's not common, to have 8 sticks of RAM (Just for the joy of overkill in my case). However, a few days ago I stumbled upon something that it rarely checked, and I'd just like to share my experiences in hopes some of you won't be troubled like me. Feel free to just Alt-Tab back into whatever your hobby is if you don't like reading walls of text.
Specs:
CPU: i7 5930K
Mo-Bo: MSi X99A Godlike Gaming
RAM: G.Skill DDR4 2400MHz 8GB Sticks, 8 Sticks Total (Two 32GB Quad Channel Kits)
GPU: GTX 980Ti (EVGA)
HDD/SSD: Samsung 950 Pro 512GB M.2
Background
So I got the system running, Windows 8.1 Pro. However, after some windows updates, the system BIOS became corrupted somehow (Not sure if thats the case, but a reflash fixed it). I then Updated to windows 10 because MS was nagging me with their update prompts. Update went well, but during the first user-initiated reboot, the system would not pass the post. Gave me error code "04", which means Power On South Bridge Initialization according to the manual. based on the debugger, it may seem like a faulty motherboard. However, I was oblivious to this at the time, so I proceeded to reflash BIOS 1 again using BIOS 2. After the flash, Non of the BIOS's worked, multiple trials, CMOS cleared, battery changed, 1 stick RAM you name it, I'd tried it. "Sh*t.." i thought.
BIOS 1 always got stuck on debugger code D6: Console Output/Input devices/Console initialization, etc...
As you can tell, this is I/O related, according to the manual, which makes it look even more like a faulty motherboard. However, BIOS 1 also gave a 1 long, 2 short beep code, possibly being memory-related.
BIOS 2 didn't even get to D6, and always stopped at 19: Early South Bridge Initialization
(More southbridge related stuff)
At this point, checking the manual, I was almost certain it was motherboard related, and was about to RMA my board.
Diagnostics and Troubleshooting I/You Take (The Common, Basics):
Minimal Boot Setup:
No hard drive/SSD, 1 Stick of RAM, GPU (I had no iGfx), CPU, no other USB devices, Mouse + Keyboard <-- THIS! you might just fix your problem here, as systems won't boot if no I/O detected For some reason, 1 Stick of RAM didn't work for me (Even though I'm using 8 right now!).
Keyboard+Mouse:
Try to avoid wireless I/O devices in general.
Clear CMOS:
Either a jumper, a button, or a battery. For me, I even tried replacing the battery. No help.
Check For Short Circuits:
ESP motherboard standoffs.
Is you CPU fan connected?:
GPU in a x16 slot?:
Usually the first slot closest to the CPU is an x16 one.
Too Much Pressure on CPU?:
I've heard of systems not turn on because of too much pressure on the CPU. Try undo-ing the bolts/locks, and just pressing it on steadily with your hand. pray the debugger passes the CPU related stuff.
CPU power installed?:
This sounds dumb, but i've made this mistake quite a few times when I was in a hurry.
Are There Any Buttons (Such as OC helpers) Pressed Down on the Board?:
Without adequate cooling, an OC solution being ON could lead to instability, Blue screens in windows, endless cycling, or just not posting or booting.
Reseat Your Hardware:
RAM, GPU's, etc. Make sure your RAM is installed in the right order (The manual, or the motherboard itself next to the DIMM1,2,3,4,5 etc printed text should tell you which to install first (Even if theres no power at all connected). If you don't find the instructions, then assume it's install in the order of DIMM slot 1, slot 3, slot 5, slot 7, slot 2, slot 4, slot 6, slot 8.
Check For Bent Pins:
Doesn't really make sense why pins would bend by themselves, but it's better to tick it off the list, or maybe you're just hallucinating?
Try Another Power Supply:
Try A Known Working GPU:
Is your RAM tested to be MoBo Compatible?:
My RAM model was on the list of supported Memory modules, but I noticed 1 thing: only 4 DIMMS supported, and I had 8. Still doesn't explain why it was working perfectly fine before the problems started.
Heres the Solution For Me:
RAM sets: I originally had never heard of this before: Even if your RAM is the same make, same model, same frequency, same CAS latency, but DIFFERENT BATCH, they might NOT work together! Just like CPU's, tiny differences in the RAM may cause different actual performances (in CPUs, overclockability being the major one). Apparently, I had mixed up my RAM sticks as I bought 2 packs of 32GB quad channel RAM, 4 sticks each. When I inserted them in, I did not go by any order based off of RAM batch.
In the end, the solution was: Separate the ram sticks by Serial Number, and insert one batch into slots 1,3,5,7, and the other pack into 2,4,6,8. (If you took off your heatspreaders and have no serial numbers, you're in luck! trial and error it is!)
My RAM were two batches, one ranging from ending numbers of 59-62, the other from 87-90. I tested each batch of RAM individually in 4-DIMM quad-channel mode, before I inserted both batches together. This solved the problem for me, and after this, the system would boot up and output display!
And here I was, about to whine about the quality of MSi boards, but turns out it was a memory compatibility issue. Everything in the debugger LED pointed towards a PCH/SB fault, yet it was much simpler than that. Hope this little (long) story helps someone. Sorry if it just seems like a repost of "What to do when Computer Won't Post", but I've never seen anyone fix issues by installing different batches of RAM in different orders.
P.S: Now I'm no expert on how a computer works, so correct my assumption if it's wrong, but I think the primary slots 1357 and secondary slots 2468 are initiated separately by the post process, and incompatibilities in memory sticks 1357 due to manufacture-batch differences may inhibit the memory check from passing, thus preventing a successful POST. OR is it the other way around, being something like DIMM slots 12,34,56,78 being checked together?
Heres a question: Is a memory channel composed of 1 primary slot and 1 secondary slot, or 2 primary slots? This could turn the whole theory around.
A visual of the question below: Should it be
DIMM Slot 1 — Batch 1
DIMM Slot 2 — Batch 2
DIMM Slot 3 — Batch 1
DIMM Slot 4 — Batch 2
DIMM Slot 5 — Batch 1
DIMM Slot 6 — Batch 2
DIMM Slot 7 — Batch 1
DIMM Slot 8 — Batch 2
OR
DIMM Slot 1 — Batch 1
DIMM Slot 2 — Batch 1
DIMM Slot 3 — Batch 2
DIMM Slot 4 — Batch 2
DIMM Slot 5 — Batch 1
DIMM Slot 6 — Batch 1
DIMM Slot 7 — Batch 2
DIMM Slot 8 — Batch 2
or maybe something else?[i/]
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