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PC not posting after moving RAM stick

molletje

I'm sorry for the long story, I really appreciate if anyone reads it and can offer me some guidance!

 

Hi,

 

Some background: a couple of weeks ago I found a listing for a second hand Acer Predator PO9-900 desktop with a - according to the PC store the seller brought the PC to - broken motherboard.

The rest of the components were fine according to him, so although the specs are a little bit dated, I still thought it was a bargain to pay 150€ for:

  • CPU: i7 7800x
  • GPU: RTX 2080
  • RAM: 32GB (2x16GB) DDR4 3200Mhz
  • PSU: 1000W
  • Storage: 128GB NVME SSD and 2x 1TB WD Blue HDD

When I got the system, I tried booting it, everything powers on both there is no video out (no post).

First thing I tried was a BIOS reset, so I took out the CMOS, waited +/-20min, put it back it, and booted it up again.

 

It powered on for about 3 seconds, then shut itself down, powered itself on about 3 seconds, shut itself down (it this point I was thinking I made it worse). Then it powered itself on again, and YES! "PREDATOR" appeared on my screen and 🥳🥳🥳 it booted! 🥳🥳🥳

I was so excited, I did a fresh Windows install, installed Cyberpunk 2077, which ran great! What a bargain I just did!

I used the system for about a week, booting and shutting it down several times with no issue.

 

But this is where the good news ends. 😮‍💨

 

I noticed in CPU-Z that my RAM was running in single channel. I googled for the PC's manual, and indeed the RAM sticks were installed in slots C1 and C2, and for dual channel I should install them in C1 and D1. Easy fix right?

 

I powered off my PC, disconnected the power chord, and moved 1 stick from slot C2 to D1.

Plugged in the PC again, booted it up... It doesn't post. Some as when I got the system in the first place.

I did another BIOS reset, still nothing. I moved the stick back from D1 to C2, nothing. Another BIOS reset, nothing. Removed the stick so only C1 was installed, nothing. Another BIOS reset, nothing. Flipped the BIOS ROM switch from A to B on the motherboard, nothing.

 

I noticed in the manual it said to only use Acer approved DDR4 2666Mhz memory. So maybe the 3200Mhz RAM was causing instability on the motherboard or something? I tried looking up what "Acer approved" meant, but it said basically any DDR4 2666Mhz RAM should work fine. So I got some good old Kingston Fury DDR4 2666Mhz sticks, installed them in C1 and D1, C1 and C2, only C1, did BIOS resets between all of these configurations, but nothing helps.

 

So I'm basically out of ideas. If the motherboard is broken, how come I got it to work for a week? And how did changing the RAM configuration break it again?

Thank you so much if you've read all this. I'd be really grateful for any advice or guidance, or if anyone's got an explanation what's wrong.

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