# Only one channel of ram is working



## Lbrthelbr (Jun 28, 2021)

So I recently built a ryzen pc with used parts.
Specs:
Gigabyte a320m-h
Ryzen 2600
2x Corsair Vengeance 8gb 3000mhz (both exact model)
Powercolor R7 265
500w PSU (it has 4 pin cpu connector but I will buy a new psu soon)

The problem is when I install into first ram slot, it appears to be working but if I try the second slot the fans spin but there's no image. If I install into both slots it also works, bios detects 16gb ram but windows says only 8gb is usable. Also xmp won't work with both installed.
What could be causing this?


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## agent_x007 (Jun 28, 2021)

Check pins on CPU.


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## Lbrthelbr (Jun 28, 2021)

agent_x007 said:


> Check pins on CPU.


Pins are in good shape. I tried to reseat the cpu carefully multiple times but same thing happens.


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## Nash (Jun 28, 2021)

Run Windows Memory Diagnostic (type into the search box). Second attempt, remove one module, restart and test it all the way into Windows. Move it to the next slot and do the same test in each slot, for each stick.


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## Lbrthelbr (Jun 28, 2021)

Nash said:


> Run Windows Memory Diagnostic (type into the search box). Second attempt, remove one module, restart and test it all the way into Windows. Move it to the next slot and do the same test in each slot, for each stick.


So I ran that and both sticks passes test in slot A but slot B just doesn't work(no display)
With both installed into slot A and B it also passes test but windows still recoginses it as 8gb instead of 16.

Anybody?


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## agent_x007 (Jun 28, 2021)

You can check pins inside the slot (maybe they are misaligned ?), but that's a long shot.
Also, you should test CPU in other MB to see if it works on Dual Channel with it.


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## Nash (Jun 28, 2021)

Lbrthelbr said:


> So I ran that and both sticks passes test in slot A but slot B just doesn't work(no display)
> With both installed into slot A and B it also passes test but windows still recoginses it as 8gb instead of 16.
> 
> Anyody?



If Windows only sees 1/2, I would replace it. The socket may be bad or the memory manger in the CPU.


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## Lbrthelbr (Jun 28, 2021)

I will try testing on another mobo. Is it possible that the internal memory controller is faulthy? Mobo is still under warranty but cpu is not.


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## The red spirit (Jun 28, 2021)

Hard reset BIOS, this stuff happened to me after BIOS didn't properly detect RAM settings and it sort of kept running with old RAM settings. And by hard reset, I mean removing battery and unplugging power cable, then pressing on power button for a minute or two.


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## Nash (Jun 28, 2021)

Lbrthelbr said:


> I will try testing on another mobo. Is it possible that the internal memory controller is faulthy?



It's PROBABLE, I don't think it's the most likely point of failure. At the moment I'm more concerned with video output failure than a stick of memory.



The red spirit said:


> Hard reset BIOS, this stuff happened to me after BIOS didn't properly detect RAM settings and it sort of kept running with old RAM settings. And by hard reset, I mean removing battery and unplugging power cable, then pressing on power button for a minute or two.



That's a good suggestion. I thought I read that it was tried and I completely forgot to re-read the OP.


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## Jose Jeswin (Jun 28, 2021)

1.Clean the memory slot with isopropyl alcohol....take a flashlight and shine it into the slot...look for any foreign bodies or bent pins...
2..Try using a different ram kit if you have any..
3.Look for any standoffs touching the back of the ram slot..


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## GerKNG (Jun 28, 2021)

does either of these sticks work in the second channel?


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## Lbrthelbr (Jun 28, 2021)

The red spirit said:


> Hard reset BIOS, this stuff happened to me after BIOS didn't properly detect RAM settings and it sort of kept running with old RAM settings. And by hard reset, I mean removing battery and unplugging power cable, then pressing on power button for a minute or two.


Tried resetting bios multiple times but still no luck.



Jose Jeswin said:


> 1.Clean the memory slot with isopropyl alcohol....take a flashlight and shine it into the slot...look for any foreign bodies or bent pins...
> 2..Try using a different ram kit if you have any..
> 3.Look for any standoffs touching the back of the ram slot..


The slot seems to be in great shape. I will try different sticks soon.


GerKNG said:


> does either of these sticks work in the second channel?


They both work in the slot (or channel) that is close to cpu but other slot (or channel) won't work with either of them.


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## Valantar (Jun 28, 2021)

My prime suspect would be dust or debris in the slot, especially for a used motherboard. It doesn't need to be big to cause a channel to not work. After that, I'd check if the board has any signs of having been bent around the ram traces, as even a single broken trace would kill a slot. Then it's the CPU/memory controller's turn, though the only test for that is another CPU. Of course check the socket for dust and debris as well.


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## GerKNG (Jun 28, 2021)

when there is no debris in the socket and ram slot and nothing on the pins aswell... i'd say the board is damaged.


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## eidairaman1 (Jun 28, 2021)

Return the corsair ram, go with anyone but corsair


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## jayseearr (Jun 28, 2021)

eidairaman1 said:


> Return the corsair ram, go with anyone but corsair


Why? the o.p already confirmed both sticks work by trying them in the working slot...?

I agree with this:


GerKNG said:


> when there is no debris in the socket and ram slot and nothing on the pins aswell... i'd say the board is damaged.



this is the one of the drawbacks of 2 slot boards and buying used, if the board had 4 slots you could still (possibly) run dual channel, and I have no problem buying used but only local so i can see it working myself. Some douche nozzle probably sold you the board knowing full well that it was broken. Anyway good luck, and p.s I think you can just get an adapter for the psu no sense in buying a new one if it works fine.


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## delshay (Jun 28, 2021)

There's also possible corrupt BIOS, may want to try updating with one stick in working slot.


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## eidairaman1 (Jun 28, 2021)

jayseearr said:


> Why? the o.p already confirmed both sticks work by trying them in the working slot...?
> 
> I agree with this:
> 
> ...



There is a incompatibility of corsair ram on ryzen platforms


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## Lbrthelbr (Jun 29, 2021)

delshay said:


> There's also possible corrupt BIOS, may want to try updating with one stick in working slot.


Updated the bios, no luck.



eidairaman1 said:


> There is a incompatibility of corsair ram on ryzen platforms


It appears to be compatible in the official gigabyte site.


jayseearr said:


> Why? the o.p already confirmed both sticks work by trying them in the working slot...?
> 
> I agree with this:
> 
> ...


I also suspect that the problem is mobo. I will test the cpu in another system and replace the mobo probably.


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## sneekypeet (Jun 29, 2021)

Can you boot with a single stick and tell us what the BIOS/UEFI shows for RAM voltage and SOC?

Also, just on a guess..... do these sticks share the same revision number after the part number? Can you run Thaiphoon burner and show us what it says?


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## Lbrthelbr (Jun 30, 2021)

sneekypeet said:


> Can you boot with a single stick and tell us what the BIOS/UEFI shows for RAM voltage and SOC?


single stick xmp disabled:








sneekypeet said:


> Also, just on a guess..... do these sticks share the same revision number after the part number? Can you run Thaiphoon burner and show us what it says?


They are the same model.
Both sticks installed xmp disabled thaiphoon burner:







And task manager says 8gb usable:




Tried running memtest86 and it also detects 16gb but says 8gb usable.


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## eidairaman1 (Jun 30, 2021)

Go find other ram to test.


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## sneekypeet (Jun 30, 2021)

Lbrthelbr said:


> single stick xmp disabled:
> View attachment 206023
> 
> 
> ...



Just so I know I have this information right....

You say in what I quoted that "Both sticks installed xmp disabled thaiphoon burner:" which makes me think it is possibly not enough SOC voltage, assuming that 1.35VDIMM set with DOCP is actually delivering that. From old school use of gigabyte, they tended to undervolt a bit, but no idea if that is still a thing.

Also my intention was to get a screen shot with DOCP enabled, but I did not say that much, sorry.

 I would look into borrowing another set of RAM, or whatever you need to do to troubleshoot this. I see you are on the latest BIOS, so that would fix many of the issues. the only other thing I could suggest is opening a support ticket with Gigabyte and see what they may say.


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## Valantar (Jun 30, 2021)

I don't know, from what we've seen so far I feel very sure that the issue is either with the slot/board or cpu/memory controller. Given that each stick of RAM works in the primary slot but neither work in the secondary, and that Windows sees it but doesn't activate it tells us that Windows thinks that one stick is faulty - I've seen that exact thing happen on systems with faulty memory. If one of the sticks was actually faulty, the system wouldn't boot with only it installed (it refusing to make use of that DIMM doesn't change if its the only one installed), so that's ruled out. In other words, something between the OS and the DIMM must be faulty. Which means memory controller or board.


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## quanash (Jun 30, 2021)

If BIOS sees the memory as 16GB, but OS sees as 8GB, the problem might be OS related. From screen shots, I see that your OS is in Turkish. I'll explain it in both English and Turkish for easy navigation, so you won't miss it.

*click to the search ( arama sekmesi ) and type "msconfig" without ""
msconfig (sistem yapılandırması) option will appear, click to it.

*an small window will appear on desktop
select boot ( ön yükleme ) sub category from the left.

*select the advanced options ( gelişmiş seçenekler )
there is a category named maximum memory ( bellek üst sınırı ), just click to the box next to it and type 16384 ( 16 GB in MB : 16*1028MB ) than click ok and exit from all the pages clicking ok. System restart request will appear, just click ok and let the system to restart. Probably the issue will be solved when system restarts.


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## eidairaman1 (Jul 1, 2021)

quanash said:


> If BIOS sees the memory as 16GB, but OS sees as 8GB, the problem might be OS related. From screen shots, I see that your OS is in Turkish. I'll explain it in both English and Turkish for easy navigation, so you won't miss it.
> 
> *click to the search ( arama sekmesi ) and type "msconfig" without ""
> msconfig (sistem yapılandırması) option will appear, click to it.
> ...



This is a apples oranges comparison but I would only see this on my sig rig if I was trying to run 2400 with a cas of 9 or less.


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## Valantar (Jul 1, 2021)

quanash said:


> If BIOS sees the memory as 16GB, but OS sees as 8GB, the problem might be OS related. From screen shots, I see that your OS is in Turkish. I'll explain it in both English and Turkish for easy navigation, so you won't miss it.
> 
> *click to the search ( arama sekmesi ) and type "msconfig" without ""
> msconfig (sistem yapılandırması) option will appear, click to it.
> ...


It does not necessarily mean there's an OS issue. I had the same thing happen with several systems with faulty RAM (confirmed, refusing to boot with only one stick inserted, tested in other systems, etc.). This is normal windows behaviour when it sees RAM but isn't able to communicate with it properly from what I've been able to tell.


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## basco (Jul 1, 2021)

i am with quanash here:
in the tsakmanager on the right side there under DIMM should not be: Hardware reserved 8gb !
on my system its 90mb.


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## Lbrthelbr (Jul 1, 2021)

quanash said:


> If BIOS sees the memory as 16GB, but OS sees as 8GB, the problem might be OS related. From screen shots, I see that your OS is in Turkish. I'll explain it in both English and Turkish for easy navigation, so you won't miss it.
> 
> *click to the search ( arama sekmesi ) and type "msconfig" without ""
> msconfig (sistem yapılandırması) option will appear, click to it.
> ...


I did this before and still the same. I tried with memtest86 which is a standalone bootable and it also says 8gb usable when 16gb installed. Linux mint is the same too.
I'm guessing it's hardware related.


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## bug (Jul 1, 2021)

Nash said:


> At the moment I'm more concerned with video output failure than a stick of memory.


If the system is using the IGP, it wouldn't have the VRAM to display anything if it can't use the RAM stick.


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## Valantar (Jul 1, 2021)

Nash said:


> At the moment I'm more concerned with video output failure than a stick of memory.


It's not a video output failure, it's a POST failure.


bug said:


> If the system is using the IGP, it wouldn't have the VRAM to display anything if it can't use the RAM stick.


There is no iGPU in a Ryzen 2600.


basco said:


> i am with quanash here:
> in the tsakmanager on the right side there under DIMM should not be: Hardware reserved 8gb !
> on my system its 90mb.


That is _exactly_ what Windows showed me in two separate cases, both of which were faulty RAM. Windows and the BIOS both detected both/all four sticks in those systems, but Windows also detected that one stick was faulty and thus "reserved" it to avoid BSODing when using it. It is expected behaviour and a way to avoid crashes in the case of RAM hardware faults. However, unlike in both of my cases, this system boots and works fine with either stick installed in slot 0, but not in slot 1. That means neither stick can really be faulty - though just to be sure, I'd run a bootable memtest instance on each of them separately. But with the DIMM itself being ruled out, the other possible sources for a RAM hardware error causing Windows to refuse to use that RAM are: slot, motherboard traces, solder joints, CPU pins, IMC. The OP has checked the pins and slot, which leaves traces and solder joints as _by far_ the most likely causes. Which of the two this is? Unless you have a microscope or want to strip the soldermask off each RAM trace and check for continuity on ~500 traces, it's more or less moot. The error is >95% likely with the motherboard.


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## Chomiq (Jul 1, 2021)

sneekypeet said:


> Just so I know I have this information right....
> 
> You say in what I quoted that "Both sticks installed xmp disabled thaiphoon burner:" which makes me think it is possibly not enough SOC voltage, assuming that 1.35VDIMM set with DOCP is actually delivering that. From old school use of gigabyte, they tended to undervolt a bit, but no idea if that is still a thing.
> 
> ...


They overvolt now. Input 1.4V in UEFI, actual voltage will be 1.41-1.42V.


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## bug (Jul 1, 2021)

Valantar said:


> It's not a video output failure, it's a POST failure.
> 
> There is no iGPU in a Ryzen 2600.


Oops, I missed that.


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## Mekki (Apr 7, 2022)

OP, did you find the solution or where the issue was?

I am having the exact same problem as you in a Gigabyte B450 Aorus M, Ryzen 5 2600.


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## Adlanedjeki (May 16, 2022)

Mekki said:


> OP, did you find the solution or where the issue was?
> 
> I am having the exact same problem as you in a Gigabyte B450 Aorus M, Ryzen 5 2600.


Hello, im having the same thing, and I’ve got the same cpu, did u manage to fix it?


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## Mekki (May 16, 2022)

Adlanedjeki said:


> Hello, im having the same thing, and I’ve got the same cpu, did u manage to fix it?


Yes, I fixed it. The issue was a short with the case screws and the motherboard. I saw the motherboard was working outside the case, but not in the case.

Then I loosened the screws a bit from the motherboard and it resolved for me.

Hope you can fix your issue too!

Cheers.


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## Adlanedjeki (May 16, 2022)

Mekki said:


> Yes, I fixed it. The issue was a short with the case screws and the motherboard. I saw the motherboard was working outside the case, but not in the case.
> 
> Then I loosened the screws a bit from the motherboard and it resolved for me.
> 
> ...


much appreciated, will do so, thank you for answering


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## eidairaman1 (May 17, 2022)

Mekki said:


> Yes, I fixed it. The issue was a short with the case screws and the motherboard. I saw the motherboard was working outside the case, but not in the case.
> 
> Then I loosened the screws a bit from the motherboard and it resolved for me.
> 
> ...


Check for Stray stand offs in case that don't match up to any motherboard screw holes


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