Weird RAM upgrade issue

Otus456 · April 21, 2020

Hey guys,

trying to upgrade the RAM in an older machine, but it does not POST if I put in more than two sticks.

Going from 2x4GB DDR3 to 4x4GB. The 4 sticks are bought as separate kits but the exact same type, specs etc. Corsair Ven LP 1600 ver. 2.12

All 4 sticks work in all DIMM slots and in all combinations. System boots, reports correct size and speeds etc. Even silly combinations like mixed kits in 1 and 4. So all the sticks work, all the slots work and the kits play well with each other. I tried booting with XMP enabled and off. Both kits run with XMP enabled or disabled as long as only two sticks installed. I triple checked if they are correctly inserted.

As soon as I insert a third stick or all four, the system does not POST. It turns on, CPU fan spins up briefly but then stops. One case fan and GPU LEDs are on but nothing else happens. No audible BIOS error codes either. Screen is black. Powering down, removing ans sticks over two and rebooting displays a BIOS error message that the system encountered an error booting due to incompatible settings. This also happens if the settings are default even when restored to default settings from the error message's dialogue itself.

CPU is a i5 4570, mobo a Gigabyte h87-hd3. PSU: Corsair RM650i. GPU: Asus Strix 1070.

BIOS (f10), Windows 10 (1909), drivers etc are all up to date. CPU and Board support up to 32GB. Board supports dual channel RAM.

Not sure what else to try at this point. I hope someone has an idea what it could be.

Thanks in advance for your help!