Memory slot malfunctioning on motherboard, what could be the problem?

[auric]

The channel 3 ram slot on my mobo (ga-ex58-ud3r rev 1.6) has ceased to work.  It stopped working during the course of the ram being seated in that slot (which, to my mind, reduces the odds that the problem is a physical problem with the slot since I haven't been touching it).  During POST it only detects 2GB of ram even though 3x1GB stick are inserted.  In the BIOS, if channel 3 is occupied it is able to detect the CAS latency and automatically fill it in with a value--but none of the others!  If I insert values into the other fields manually (the other two sticks have uniform values so I just copy them over) nothing is accomplished by it, it is unable to detect anything about the stick but that one bit of data.

My full specs are:
Mobo: GA-ex58-ud3r, BIOS rev. FI (latest), but symptoms occured before the BIOS upgrade.
CPU: Intel i7 920 SLBEJ d0 stepping, was clocked at 4.2 ghz for a while but I've reverted to factory defaults while I investigate this problem.  Bears a megahalems heatsink.
Ram: OCZ gold tri-channel memory, 1gbx3 @ 8-8-8-24 1600mhz.

First of all I do not believe it is the memory sticks since I've tried each stick individually in all of the other slots and they work fine.  I'm wondering if I've caused this by supplying inadequate airflow around any particular part of the motherboard such as the northbridge (the only fans are on the heatsink), or just due my general overclocking escapades, and whether I could have damaged the memory controller in the CPU rather than it being a fault in the motherboard (although the machine is as stable as a rock even if I have the memory inserted into the dud slot, it just doesn't detect the extra gig of memory).  I'm wondering if I should seek to claim the warrantee on my motherboard, or whether there are other things to try beforehand. If I claim my warrantee how do I go about it?  This mobo was purchased b-grade with no manual from a retailer.

Thanks for reading.

[auric]

BUMP

[Fatman]

Have you memtested your ram one stick at a time to make sure there are no proplems there? can you boot with just one stick of ram in slot 1 ? if so take that stick and see if it will boot from slot 2 and then slot 3. I f no go and you know the ram is good, it may be time to RMA the board!

[auric]

Yes, that was the first thing I said I'd done.  The modules are fine.

[Dark Mantis]

Sounds as if it's time to RMA the motherboard.

[jaicigy]

I would try the memories in another motherboard and try other memories in your own.. that way you find out what is the cause, the memories or the mobo

[Dark Mantis]

I am sure that I read another thread where someone had the same problem and in the end it all boiled down to using double sided sticks of ram. The board would only accept single sided if more than two were installed at once. I don't know if this is relevant in your case but it is worth checking. Good luck.

[7Enigma]

Similar problem, likely the same cause (faulty mobo or incompatibility).

Hello, I had to sign up since I just went through this issue on my new build:

tem List:
Item Number:    Item Description:    Quantity:    Price:
N82E16832116754    WIN HOME PREM 7 64-BIT ENG 1PK DSP    1    99.99
N82E16819115215    CPU INTEL|CORE I5 750 2.66G R    1    199.99
N82E16822152185    HD 1T|SAMSUNG HD103SJ 32M 7K %    1    89.99
N82E16817139005    PSU CORSAIR|CMPSU-650TX 650W RT    1    89.99
N82E16813128412    MB GIGABYTE GA-P55A-UD3 P55 R    1    129.99
N82E16820231276    MEM 2Gx2|GSKILL F3-10666CL7D-4GBRH    2    114.99
N82E16820167016    SSD 80G|INTEL SSDSA2M080G2XXX OEM    1    194.95
N82E16814125318    VGA GIGABYTE|GV-R585OC-1GD RT    1    309.99
N82E16827106289    DVD BURNER LITE-ON | IHAS124-04 %    1    19.99

I was getting nothing on boot; no beeps, just a quickly turning on and off of the main power. The odd thing was if unplugged the system would turn on for about 10 seconds, then turn off/on/off/on, but if I just rebooted the system it would happen almost immediately.  All of the fans, HDD's, and DVD-drive seemed to be working so I was really worried (I build systems for friends/family about 4 times a year so I'm not an expert, but I'm also not a newb). I got really freaked out thinking it was the CPU overheating and turning off prior to damage but I took my time with the installation.

So after spending about 3 hours this morning and getting really upset I tried to remove everything one at a time. Fan headers, extra HDD, restart button, HD activity, nothing was working.  Then I thought the ram could be the issue (again since there was no post beeps that would lend me to believe it was ram I didn't put much thought into this). After my last build almost drove me mad (1 of my 2 sticks of ram was bad), I always do the single stick in the proper slot (DDR3_1 on this mobo). I started playing musical chairs with the ram (I have a total of 8GB in 4 sticks). When I put the stick in either of the farther away ram slots DDR3_4 or DDR3_3 suddenly I was able to POST with no problem! I was so happy, until I did some more experimentation and believe both the DDR3_1 and DDR3_2 slots are faulty (I can do any combo of sticks (so I know none of my ram modules are faulty) in the 3 and 4 slots, but once I try to put anything in the 1 and 2 slots the system goes back to the no POST reboot-loop).

What this means is I can't run in dual-channel mode, and am going to have to likely RMA the mobo. That is the worst feeling to know you've blown a lot of hours building a system only to have to rip it all apart to RMA the mobo.

My last chance is going to see if there is a bios update that could fix this (if it is just a ram compatibility issue and not an actual damaged mobo).

So my recommendation is to try a single stick in the farthest away slot (DDR3_3) and see if that fixes the problem like it did for me.

HTH as I see a lot of other threads on this forum with people having the same issue.