MSI Z170a SLI & I7-6700 PC bought off Craigslist, Dimm Slots 1 & 2 won't post

[marvin5881]

Just bought a gaming PC with an MSI Z170a, I7-6700 and 2x 8gb Corsair ram.

 

The computer will post and work with the ram in Dimm slots 3 & 4 so I know the ram is working perfectly fine, but if I move the ram to slots 1 and 2 the computer won't post. The Debug LED will just alternate between flashing on the CPU led and ram led. I also have extra ram known good ram that I've tested with and it will not work in slots 1 & 2 either. I've tried pressing down on the power for 30 seconds with power supply turned off and CMOS battery removed to reset the motherboard and no dice. A singe time out of many I've gotten it to boot in slots 2 & 4 but the system was super unstable and if you lightly tapped on the computer case the system would crash. I reseated the CPU cooler and reinstalled the CPU too.

 

I found online a post with somebody with the same exact issue as me: https://forums.tomshardware.com/threads/2-x-8gb-in-3-4-slots-msi-z170a-sli.2747962/

 

He eventually wrote: "So come to find out it was the CPU the whole time. I hypothesize that it was the bent processor when I mashed it in the 1151 slot the wrong way, bending 2 corners, causing it to not recognize slots 1 &2. Switched it with a new one and everything is functioning."

 

I just bought this computer yesterday so I don't know what the last owner did nor is he replying to my message. Do you guys think that this is plausible and I should try to test with a new CPU first before the motherboard?

[CommanderAlex]

7 minutes ago, marvin5881 said:

"So come to find out it was the CPU the whole time. I hypothesize that it was the bent processor when I mashed it in the 1151 slot the wrong way, bending 2 corners, causing it to not recognize slots 1 &2. Switched it with a new one and everything is functioning."

 

I just bought this computer yesterday so I don't know what the last owner did nor is he replying to my message. Do you guys think that this is plausible and I should try to test with a new CPU first before the motherboard?

Did you remove the processor to check for bent pins??? Just thinking maybe the pins are damaged. Place the CPU with the IHS upside down on a flat surface and see if the substrate of the CPU is flat or curved (the substrate is the green PCB with the gold contact points). Is the BIOS currently up to date? 

[jaslion]

Your ram is supposed to go in 2&4 not 1&2 or 3&4. So if there is so much trouble in the correct slots you may wanna check the socket for dirt, the cpu pins for dirt and reseating the cpu.

[Levent]

For some reason this is a common occurrence on MSI boards. I saw this with Z77-Z87-Z97 and Z170. It's 100% motherboards fault, you can try clearing CMOS and reseating everything as long as you are willing to. It was the only way my Z77 boards would work when memory was installed in dual channel.

[SavageNeo]

your ram shoul be at slots 2 and 4. or 1 and 3. never 1 and 2 or 3 and 4

[Mister Woof]

Pins in the motherboard socket probably fucked - picture of empty socket?

 

Also picture of bottom of cpu?