PC won't boot/post black screen

[CuzinEd]

So I am using my old hardware plus some new hardware I bought to build a PC for my nephew. The issue I am having is the PC won't boot. 

 

Parts I am using are 

 

ASUS H170 Pro Gaming motherboard

 

i7 6700

 

My old Vengeance LPX 16GB RAM kit

 

MSI GTX 1070 TI 

 

All the lights on the motherboard come on. The CPU fan runs. The case fans which are connected to the headers on the motherboard come on. The PSU works fine. The lights on the GPU work as well if that means anything. 

 

There is 4 lights in the upper right hand corner of the motherboard and they say CPU LED, VGA LED, DRAM LED and Boot Device LED underneath them. The second light is coming on. I tried looking through the manual for this cause I believe they are error indication lights. 

 

So far I have tried taking out the GPU and reseating it. Taking out the RAM and reseating it. I have checked a few power connections. I have tried booting up the PC without any storage drives connected. I tried booting it up with my windows installation USB plugged into a US drive on the back of the PC. I have 32GB RAM kit and I tried that and still it wouldn't boot. That RAM kit is the same brand, Vengeance LPX. Both the RAM kits worked with this motherboard and CPU before with no issues. Same thing for the GPU. I even removed the battery from the motherboard to clear the CMOS. I kept the battery out for 20 seconds. That did nothing. 

 

This was supposed to be a fun easy build with hardware I was familiar with. I wanted to do something nice for a family member and so far it's been a big pain in the ass. Almost $300 invested in a case, PSU and SSD.

 

I have no idea what else I could do. I have an R9 390 I could try. 

 

Any help would be appreciated. 

[CuzinEd]

So I got an update. 

 

I screwed around with it and tried some stuff. I finally got it to post. But not in a dual channel configuration. The memory kits I am using come in 2x8GB and 2x16GB. They are supposed to be used in a dual channel configuration. 

 

The memory slots on the H170 Pro Gaming are labeled as A1, A2, B1 and B2. A2 and B2 would be for the dual channel configuration. When I put the 16GB kit in the A2 and B2 slots it won't post. The little red LED stays on the DRAM. Some times it will jump from the CPU back to the DRAM light. 

 

But if I put just one memory module in the B2 slot it will post like normal. I also tried putting a module in A1 and B1 separately and it posted. If I fill both A1 and B1 with a memory module it won't post. 

 

So like I said before I have two different kits. A 16GB kit and a 32GB kit. I can install one of the 16GB modules from the 32GB kit and that will give him 16GB of memory in single channel. Is that ok? Does dual channel make that much of a difference? 

 

Also after all this I believe the A2 slot is messed up. I don't know how it happened. It was working fine the day I shut my PC off and uninstalled my old hardware to switch over to my Ryzen build. All I did was clean the thermal paste off the CPU, I left the CPU in the motherboard and put it back in the static proof bag and put it back in the box it came in and stuck it up on a shelf. 

 

The CPU is still good and the GPU is fine. How the A2 memory slot got screwed up is beyond me. When I built the PC for him I installed the memory the same way I have many times. 

 

It sucks, but I don't know what else to do. I can't afford a new CPU and motherboard for his build. 

 

[1982 Original]

Just to check. Take the CPU out of the socket and inspect. Make sure there are no bend pins or thermal pastes in the socket. 

[CuzinEd]

6 hours ago, 1982 Original said:

Just to check. Take the CPU out of the socket and inspect. Make sure there are no bend pins or thermal pastes in the socket. 

I got it to post last night with one stick of RAM. The CPU is recognized in the BIOS. It's an Intel CPU so there are no pins to bend. Before I put it back in the anti-static bag and into the box I took the CPU out of the socket to see if there was any thermal paste in the socket and there was none. I put the CPU back in the socket and it was done correctly. Like I said the CPU is being picked up in the BIOS.