HELP! i think one of my DIMM slots failed!

i turned on my computer this morning, and the bios only reported 2 gigs of memory..once i got into windows, CPUZ is also only showing 2 gigs. the system monitor in windows shows 4 gigs installed, with 2 gigs useable...WTF!?!?
i tried taking out and putting back in the ram...tried switching slots, tried putting them in slots 2 and 4 instead of 1 and 3, and the computer wont even boot...tried switching the 2 sticks between slot 1 and 3 with the same results....any ideas?
ps. my WEI is low cause of my hard drive

Take 1 stick out leave another in slot 1 and see what happens. If one works fine and other doesn't POST or BSoDs, you probably have a bad stick. If having either in slot 1 fails to boot up or if both works fine in slot 1, you may have a bad slot.

well, i took out the motherboard and everything, and it seems like the hyper 212+ i had in there managed to somehow tear open the embedded wiring between the cpu and the ram...it broke the connection between 2 of the embedded wires. i broke apart and old am2 mobo i had that was fried to get some of the copper wires from it, and put them ontop of the 2 broken connections, then taped it down with scotch tape...just to see if i could get the connections back active again.... didnt work (im guessing) the post* still shows 2 gigs, but the bios shows both sticks of memory. (*when i can get it to post at all) if i change anything in the bios, it does a cycle of power after 5 or so seconds, and tries to boot again, failing until i reset the cmos. as long as i dont change anything, it will boot ONCE, then fail on the next attempt. im going to take it somewhere monday to have them attempt to repair the 2 broken connections, but i very well may be SOL...

any ideas if coolermaster or MSI would do anything about this?

I kinda doubt it, more places don't warranty user error. If you have a steady hand and a leeeetle soldering iron and some patience you can probably fix it. A decent electronics tech almost certainly could.

And a good magnifying lens on an adjustable arm or a second person... mustn't forget that.

Could a conductive pen works? If you have one.....wouldn't hurt to try...
Good luck.

well, rather than try to fix it, im just going to replace it and sell the damaged board on here (with full disclosure of course)
Just ordered an EVGA P55-SLI...should be here tomorrow or wednsday...will post results

EDIT: concidering a different motherboard instead of that one....looking at either the UD3 or asus P7P55D Pro ...opinions?

retrogreq said:

i turned on my computer this morning, and the bios only reported 2 gigs of memory..once i got into windows, CPUZ is also only showing 2 gigs. the system monitor in windows shows 4 gigs installed, with 2 gigs useable...WTF!?!?

Click to expand...

Looks like you need to make sure that the onboard video is disabled (if any) and reinstall Windows.

RJARRRPCGP said:

Looks like you need to make sure that the onboard video is disabled (if any) and reinstall Windows.

Click to expand...

should probably reread the whole thread

retrogreq said:

should probably reread the whole thread

Click to expand...

It looks like the BIOS is using all the RAM, but Windows thinking it's being reserved by the BIOS.

RJARRRPCGP said:

It looks like the BIOS is using all the RAM, but Windows thinking it's being reserved by the BIOS.

Click to expand...

again, should read the thread....the issue is caused by 2 broken embedded wires in the board...its ok, we cant all notice everything

also, for future reference, reinstalling windows should be someones last resort, not the thing they start with

OK, Windows shows 4 GB, but CPU-Z reflects the change of RAM disappearing. O_O