Asus Z390-F & G.Skill 3200MHZ not working together

[Ninogan]

Hi,

I just got a new PC with the following:

Z390-F Gaming Motherboard
G.Skill Trident 3200MHZ CL16 DDR4
i7-9700K
GTX 1080

The RAM is 4 sticks of 8GB each. When all sticks are in the PC starts up but nothing shows up on the monitor, can't get into BIOS etc. I figured out that the only way to boot was to have one of the sticks plugged into slot 3 (second closest to the CPU) and then it works fine. I can boot into Windows and everything runs fine but I only have 8GB of RAM so that's definitely not optimal.

I looked a bit more and I realized that my RAM wasn't under the QVL for the MoBo.
My RAM is the: F4-3200C16D-16GTZR

So what I'm wondering now is:

1) Is something wrong with the motherboard?
2) Is the RAM faulty?
3) Is it just that the RAM is not fully compatible with the mobo which is why 1 stick works?

I am really hoping it's 3) because I'd hate having to return the motherboard and having to reseat everything

Anyone got any idea what exactly could be causing it? Should I just try with some other DDR4 RAM? Is the QVL that important?

 

[wingman99]

Did you try all sticks in the slot 3 to see if you have a defective stick of memory? Then you can try the one or two sticks in all the slots. If the one stick or two sticks works in all the slots then the memory is defective. The Memory is on the QVL (qualified vendors list) for then Z390-F Gaming Motherboard at G.SKILL LINK: https://www.gskill.com/en/product/f4-3200c16d-16gtzr

 

[Ninogan]

I tried all the sticks in slot 3 and it works. I also realized that all sticks work in slot 4 too

So that makes Slot 3 and 4 fine but 1 and 2 completely dead. What could cause something like that? Slot 3 and 4 are the two closest to the CPU just to clarify and it boots with one stick in each slot at the same time.

With 3 and 4 connected and trying a stick in either 1 or 2 it starts up, reboots and does that a few times before it keeps being on but I never get into BIOS or Windows. Fans just spin and the yellow dram light is lit.

Here's a pic:

https://imgur.com/dYMhuWN

 

[Ninogan]

Update:It was a bent pin on the mobo socket that was the issue. I managed to unbend it and now it's booting up fine, detecting all four ram sticks!

 

[wingman99]

I'm glad you have the problem solved.