PC couldn't boot today

[Nobaris]

Specs of PC: R5 3600, B450 Tomhawk MAX, 2x8gb 3200CL16, Gigabyte Windforce 1660S, Seasonic Focus Plus Gold 650W, Adata SX8200 Pro, Arctic Freezer 34 eSports DUO

OC: Only XMP on RAM, PBO enabled. 

 

My PC of around 2 years that has been working perfectly fine all this while suddenly did not boot up today. Pressed the power button, PC still on but monitor just blackscreens and CPU debug LED lights up. I tried resetting CMOS, and the PC boots up, but the moment it goes past the BIOS screen, before even reaching the desktop, it just crashes and blackscreens. PC still on, but no monitor signal and again the CPU debug LED. I have no spare parts but after some basic troubleshooting I found that swapping the ram sticks around made it boot longer, (I can get into desktop for like 3 minutes before it blackscreens again) but the debug LED is swapping around CPU LED and DRAM LED. 7/10 times I reset CMOS with the ram sticks in different places CPU LED turns on. Other 3/10 times it's DRAM LED. But the moment I use a single stick in slot 2 the PC works fine, albeit with only 8 gb of ram and single channel mode. 

 

I'm not sure what's going on, but I have a strong suspicion (based on previous experience) that either the motherboard RAM slots are broken, or there's something wrong with the CPU, but since I have no spare parts to test with I can only assume. If anyone has encountered this issue before or has any clue what is going on I would sincerely appreciate the help. Worse case scenario I could just get a new motherboard+new CPU, but I'm strongly against spending money unnecessarily. I can provide any further information that is needed, so please do help this poor soul out! 

[fade2black001]

If your CPU was bad I don't think it would boot to begin with. Have you tested all your RAM slots with a single stick of RAM? You may have found the perfect only working one. I would say if it posts with the single RAM stick in all other slots than I would say they are good.

[Nobaris]

15 minutes ago, fade2black001 said:

If your CPU was bad I don't think it would boot to begin with. Have you tested all your RAM slots with a single stick of RAM? You may have found the perfect only working one. I would say if it posts with the single RAM stick in all other slots than I would say they are good.

I will be trying that now. Will be editing this reply or making a new one when I come back with the results. 

[Nobaris]

3 hours ago, fade2black001 said:

If your CPU was bad I don't think it would boot to begin with. Have you tested all your RAM slots with a single stick of RAM? You may have found the perfect only working one. I would say if it posts with the single RAM stick in all other slots than I would say they are good.

I'm back with the results! Tested single stick, each stick thrice, all with a reset CMOS, no XMP. 

 

Stick X:

1st slot: No/No/Yes

2nd slot: No/Yes/No

3rd slot: Yes/Yes/Yes

4th slot: No/No/Yes

 

Stick Y:

1st slot: Yes/Yes/Yes

2nd slot: Yes/Yes/Yes

3rd slot: Yes/Yes/Yes

4th slot: Yes/Yes/Yes

 

What should be my next step? @fade2black001

[fade2black001]

I guess if I'm looking at that correctly that you have faulty RAM and your slots are good? I guess to make sure is to run a Mem test and see what happens. It's looking like that you will be RMA'ing the RAM though.

[Nobaris]

5 hours ago, fade2black001 said:

I guess if I'm looking at that correctly that you have faulty RAM and your slots are good? I guess to make sure is to run a Mem test and see what happens. It's looking like that you will be RMA'ing the RAM though.

With stick X in slot 4 and stick Y in slot 2 it finally works in dual channel, and even survived the AIDA64 Mem test for over 10 minutes. I guess the problem is solved...thanks, I guess!