4p 12v connector on board may be faulty?

[x88x]

You might want to try (very carefully) filing down the heatsink, or maybe turning it 90 degrees, if it's touching the RAM at all. Worst case it could be bending the stick, best case it might just be making it run a bit hotter than it should.

[SinCrisis]

well since the mothboard ont even post on my monitor its probably the worse case if theres something wrong. I cant turn the heat sink, all other ways of installing it would put it in more contact with the ram. however, the ram is barely bent, just a little bit towards the other stick, roughly 5 degrees from the base. I tried starting up with both rams in or out in the second slot, and i got no luck.

[x88x]

however, the ram is barely bent, just a little bit towards the other stick, roughly 5 degrees from the base.

Yikes! Ok, yeah, that might very well have been the origin of your problem. If the stick is bent that much, it's likely not even connecting with all the contacts, and may have even damaged either the RAM stick, the slot on the MBB, or both. Have you tried booting with just the other RAM in just the other slot(s)?

[SinCrisis]

Sorry about the ultra delayed response, I live in DC and we got hit ahrd by the snow and i had to catch up on schoolwork cuz I ended up procrastinating and drinking my days off away. Anyway, it booted after i removed the bent stick. The cooler is pushing the stick to the right towards stick 2. They are touching, does that amtter?

[x88x]

Well, a couple of things could have happened. They could be touching and shorting something out (unlikely), the one stick may have a cracked lead or three from being bent that much, or it may have just been being pushed off of some of the contacts in the DIMM slot (let's hope for this one). Try this; take the stick that was next to the cooler and put it in the other slot by itself. If that works, then it was probably just pushing the stick off the contacts. In any case, it sounds like it would be a good idea to modify that cooler.

[SinCrisis]

would just chopping off the heat sink that's extended too far work? Or is it safer to just get new ram that doesnt have such a tall heatsink?

[x88x]

Could you post a picture of the heatsink in place?

[Luke122]

Yeah, lets start with pictures. It might be as simple as leaving the ram out of that one slot, or even just bending some fins on the heat sink.

Pictures will answer it, so try to post as many as possible of the motherboard, ram, cooler, cpu socket, and placement of everything.

[SinCrisis]

Sorry for the really delayed responses, ended up going on spring break. Anyway, a friend is offering to buy my current rams off me and I'm ordering new ones with a smaller heatsink so it will all work out i think. Thanks for all your help guys.