New RAM causes issues

[Mythix]

Hello everyone

 

Recently I've upgraded my RAM. First time I booted the system it turned off instantly, then when I turned it on it booted (Fans and lights on hardware worked) but on my screen I have no signal.

I've tried to boot with the old RAM but that didn't work. Also tried to reset the bios (Cmos battery) but still no signal. I can't go into the bios because of this, and not sure what I can still do other than sending the pc to a repair service.

 

System:

Msi Raider X99a (don't know the version)

i7 6800k

Gtx 1070

 

Old RAM

Corsair-Vengeance-LPX-DDR4-2133-C13-2x8GB

New RAM

Corsair Vengeance LPX DDR4 3000 C16 2x16GB

[Christophe Corazza]

Have you only touched the RAM modules (and the CMOS battery)?

 

Do you hear any BIOS beep codes when booting your system?

[Mythix]

1 minute ago, Christophe Corazza said:

Have you only touched the RAM modules (and the CMOS battery)?

 

Do you hear any BIOS beep codes when booting your system?

Yes (However I removed the gpu in order to access the battery - after I tried using the old RAM)

 

Nothing.

[Christophe Corazza]

What kind of PSU do you have?

 

To be sure: verify that every connector is seated properly. You might have bumped them while installing the RAM modules.

Especially all of the power connectors.

[Mythix]

21 hours ago, Christophe Corazza said:

What kind of PSU do you have?

 

To be sure: verify that every connector is seated properly. You might have bumped them while installing the RAM modules.

Especially all of the power connectors.

Cooler Master G750M

Yes I'll check the connectors and report back after.

 

Still the same happens.

[Christophe Corazza]

You've mentioned that your fans were running. However this does not necessarily indicate a good PSU. If you on top of that also don't hear any BIO beep code, it might also not indicate that the system is booting.

At this point, you can sort of check the PSU. Try to borrow a known good PSU of around 550 - 600 W. That will power just about any system with a single GPU.

If you cannot do that, use a voltmeter/multimeter to measure the voltages. Measure between the coloured wires and either chassis ground or the black wires.

- Yellow wires should be 12 V

- Red wires should be: +5 V

- Orange wires should be: +3.3 V;

- Blue wire should be: -12 V

- Violet wire should be: 5 V (always on.)

 

The gray wire is really important. It should go from 0 to +5 V when you turn the PSU on with the case switch. Your CPU needs this signal to boot.

[Mythix]

27 minutes ago, Christophe Corazza said:

You've mentioned that your fans were running. However this does not necessarily indicate a good PSU. If you on top of that also don't hear any BIO beep code, it might also not indicate that the system is booting.

At this point, you can sort of check the PSU. Try to borrow a known good PSU of around 550 - 600 W. That will power just about any system with a single GPU.

If you cannot do that, use a voltmeter/multimeter to measure the voltages. Measure between the coloured wires and either chassis ground or the black wires.

- Yellow wires should be 12 V

- Red wires should be: +5 V

- Orange wires should be: +3.3 V;

- Blue wire should be: -12 V

- Violet wire should be: 5 V (always on.)

 

The gray wire is really important. It should go from 0 to +5 V when you turn the PSU on with the case switch. Your CPU needs this signal to boot.

Is this a possibility? I've been using the system today before changing the RAM. If yes then maybe I can get another PSU.

 

The system did just boot, then shut itself down and booted on it's own. However still no signal.

That multimeter stuff is confusing... how exactly do I do that?

Edited June 23, 2018 by Mythix
more info

[Christophe Corazza]

21 minutes ago, Mythix said:

Is this a possibility? I've been using the system today before changing the RAM. If yes then maybe I can get another PSU.

 

You've mentioned that you did not hear any BIOS beep codes and that the system did not boot at all. So this is a real possibility (more frequent than you might think).

 

22 minutes ago, Mythix said:

That multimeter stuff is confusing... how exactly do I do that?

 

I might have explained it badly.

Your PSU delivers power to your motherboard at different voltages using the 20/24 pin connector. The goal is to verify the ouput voltage of these pins.

Rather than writing down all of the steps, you should have have a look at part 2 of this webpage.

 

32 minutes ago, Mythix said:

The system did just boot, then shut itself down and booted on it's own. However still no signal.

 

So the system did boot?

Have you tried only ONE of your old RAM modules? (In the slot that is located the closest to your CPU?)

[Mythix]

DCV on a range of 20V

yellow 0.43
red 0.18
orange 0.12
blue -0.45
purple 0.18
grey 0.18

 

Not really sure if these numbers are correct, they are different from the values you've written down.

 

15 hours ago, Christophe Corazza said:

So the system did boot?

Have you tried only ONE of your old RAM modules? (In the slot that is located the closest to your CPU?)

No, it did not. However it did behave differently, I used the wrong words to describe that.

So after the power cable was disconnected for some time I put it back in, tried to turn on the pc. It did turn on, however after a few seconds it restarted (shut down and turned on without me doing anything) on it's own. This happens every time I leave the pc with the power cord disconnected for some time. Not sure if this will be useful to resolve the issue.

 

Edit:

I remembered something that might have caused this. With the old RAM I had XMP enabled in the Bios settings. However I didn't turn this off when replacing the RAM. This means that I tried to turn the pc on (new RAM) with XMP enabled (without knowing if it's good or not).

 

Also starting to think its the motherboard that's bad. Searched a bit and found other examples where installing RAM caused issues.

Edited June 24, 2018 by Mythix

[Mythix]

I'll just bump this because I would like to find the issue if possible (and resolve it).

@Christophe Corazza (you helped me with this; see above)

[Christophe Corazza]

7 hours ago, Mythix said:

DCV on a range of 20V

yellow 0.43
red 0.18
orange 0.12
blue -0.45
purple 0.18
grey 0.18

 

Not really sure if these numbers are correct, they are different from the values you've written down.

 

These values are waaaay off. Are you sure you've measured them correctly?

 

7 hours ago, Mythix said:

I remembered something that might have caused this. With the old RAM I had XMP enabled in the Bios settings. However I didn't turn this off when replacing the RAM. This means that I tried to turn the pc on (new RAM) with XMP enabled (without knowing if it's good or not).

 

But you've mentioned you cleared the BIOS, right?

 

As I have mentioned before:

 

19 hours ago, Christophe Corazza said:

Have you tried only ONE of your old RAM modules? (In the slot that is located the closest to your CPU?)

 

[Mythix]

5 minutes ago, Christophe Corazza said:

These values are waaaay off. Are you sure you've measured them correctly?

Not sure what I did wrong if they aren't correct. I measured every connector. I'll try it again to see if it has changed...

6 minutes ago, Christophe Corazza said:

But you've mentioned you cleared the BIOS, right?

 

As I have mentioned before:

I've cleared the bios by doing 3 things.

Removing Jumper

Removing Battery

Pressing the Cmos Button

All of this resulted in nothing. It's still not booting.

 

Yes I've tested one RAM module. In multiple DIMM slots.

 

How could I have messed this up so badly? I was thinking upgrading RAM would be easier than this...

[Christophe Corazza]

4 minutes ago, Mythix said:

Not sure what I did wrong if they aren't correct. I measured every connector. I'll try it again to see if it has changed...

I've cleared the bios by doing 3 things.

Removing Jumper

Removing Battery

Pressing the Cmos Button

All of this resulted in nothing. It's still not booting.

 

Yes I've tested one RAM module. In multiple DIMM slots.

 

At this point, I'm leaning towards a dead component.

Even clearing CMOS and using only one of your old RAM modules (that previously worked just fine) in different slots does nothing at all.

 

7 minutes ago, Mythix said:

How could I have messed this up so badly? I was thinking upgrading RAM would be easier than this...

 

It is (normally) very easy...

[Mythix]

What I did notice however is that my keyboard doesn't work when I start up the pc (no lights). So probably all the USB slots don't work.

 

So what is dead? Would I better leave this to more experienced people (repair)?

I also measured the voltages again and the results are exactly the same.

 

Edit - found this https://forum-en.msi.com/index.php?topic=272109.0

Seems to be very close to what I'm coping with right now.

 

Anyway thanks for your help so far.

Edited June 24, 2018 by Mythix

[Christophe Corazza]

11 minutes ago, Mythix said:

What I did notice however is that my keyboard doesn't work when I start up the pc (no lights). So probably all the USB slots don't work.

 

So what is dead? Would I better leave this to more experienced people (repair)?

I also measured the voltages again and the results are exactly the same.

 

Anyway thanks for your help so far.

 

It can be either your motherboard or your power supply. That's why I've asked you to verify the voltages on your PSU, since it is easier to troubleshoot your PSU than your motherboard.

 

If you have measured the voltages correctly, then your PSU is at fault. For example: if you only measure 0.43 V instead of 12 V then there is something wrong. The voltages that you measure have the correct ratios compared to what is expected, however they are all about 28 times lower.

Do you have a second PSU that you can try?

[Mythix]

30 minutes ago, Christophe Corazza said:

Do you have a second PSU that you can try

Yes but not available right now (in use). And they are 28 times lower... maybe that's the multimeter (I'll test it with the other PSU if possible)?

 

Besides this forum I'm also trying to find similar issues - they all more or less point to the motherboard being at fault.

[Christophe Corazza]

3 minutes ago, Mythix said:

Yes but not available right now (in use). And they are 28 times lower... maybe that's the multimeter (I'll test it with the other PSU if possible)?

 

 

That's what I would do. If the system boots, then you know the PSU is the culprit.

As I've said: a PSU is easier to troubleshoot than a motherboard.

It would be quite strange though... that your PSU would die when changing your RAM modules.

[Mythix]

Just measured the voltages on the other PSU. I can't take it out of the other system but I was able to do that (Would take too long, and I'm afraid do mess something up with the cable management).

The results are exactly the same as the results I got with my own PSU.

[Christophe Corazza]

4 minutes ago, Mythix said:

Just measured the voltages on the other PSU. I can't take it out of the other system but I was able to do that (Would take too long, and I'm afraid do mess something up with the cable management).

The results are exactly the same as the results I got with my own PSU.

 

Are you sure that you are measuring the voltages right? Is the multimeter OK?

 

Nevertheless, then you have almost proven that your motherboard is the culprit here.

[Christophe Corazza]

3 minutes ago, CHEESYnachoMAN4 said:

Did you try running "Windows Memory Diagnostics"?

 

The PC isn't booting...

[Mythix]

1 minute ago, Christophe Corazza said:

 

Are you sure that you are measuring the voltages right? Is the multimeter OK?

 

Nevertheless, then you have almost proven that your motherboard is the culprit here.

 

Not sure why the multimeter is acting like that

Model: metex digital multimeter 3800

No idea when this one is bought, probably already several years old.

[Christophe Corazza]

2 minutes ago, Mythix said:

Not sure why the multimeter is acting like that

Model: metex digital multimeter 3800

No idea when this one is bought, probably already several years old.

 

You can do a few things:

Try another PSU. If the system boots, then you have a faulty PSU on your hands (unlikely). If the system does not boot, you most likely have a dead motherboard. In the latter case - to be sure that it is your motherboard - you could try another X99 motherboard. However, this will be much more difficult since I assume that you don't have a second X99 motherboard lying around 

 

About the multimeter: no big deal. You know that your PSU outputs the "same" voltage as your alternative PSU, whether you can measure the absolute value or not.

 

[Christophe Corazza]

16 minutes ago, CHEESYnachoMAN4 said:

oh sorry

 

No problem 

[Mythix]

22 minutes ago, Christophe Corazza said:

I assume that you don't have a second X99 motherboard lying around

Indeed, I don't. Using another PSU might be possible but not right now.

Since tomorrow is monday I really need to get my pc functional again (asap). Maybe it's better if I bring it to a repair service and tell them the motherboard is defective. Or should I do this differently?

[Christophe Corazza]

10 minutes ago, Mythix said:

Indeed, I don't. Using another PSU might be possible but not right now.

Since tomorrow is monday I really need to get my pc functional again (asap). Maybe it's better if I bring it to a repair service and tell them the motherboard is defective. Or should I do this differently?

 

I definitely expect that your motherboard is dead.

However, since you haven't proven this 100%, it could be an expensive mistake if you buy a brand new motherboard only to figure out that is was the PSU all along. Thus, if you don't have a second X99 mobo, or you can't borrow one, then I would suggest to go to a repair shop and mention that you have a dead motherboard. They definitely have an X99 test board that they use for troubleshooting.