Reinstalling RAM causing bootloop

[greenswamp]

So I just installed a corsair hydro h100i v2 to my PC and took out the CPU to clean out all the old thermal paste. I then installed everything back together, slapped in my AIO and tried booting the PC. To my surprise, I got no signal for my monitors nor did my keyboard or mouse get any power. I then tested around, taking out the GPU and pieces of RAM, and reinstalling the CPU again. I managed to get the PC to boot by doing a boot without any RAM and then with one stick. My PC now works fine except that I can't put in anymore than 2 sticks of RAM since the 2 other slots I'd need seem to cause an infinite bootloop if any sticks are installed. Is it possible that the RAM slots were damaged when I took out the CPU or something?

Current hardware config:

Asus Z97-A

originally 16gb hyperx DDR3 1600mhz RAM, now using 8gb

i7-4790K

Asus Strix GTX 970 4gb

Fractal Design 550W PSU

Corsair Hydro H100i V2 AiO

HyperX 240gb SSD

2x Seagate barracuda 1tb HDD