The A1 and A2 slots are malfunctioning.
The A1 and A2 slots are malfunctioning.
I currently own an Asrock B250m Performance and chose to replace the i5-6500 with an i7-6700. Prior to the change, I used two RAM modules in the A2 and B2 slots. After the upgrade, I discovered that the A1 and A2 slots stopped functioning (dual channel is unavailable due to their proximity to the motherboard). When I reinstalled the i5-6500, the same issue persisted—A1 and A2 remained non-functional. A monitor would fail to receive a signal when using either slot, but working in B1/B2 or both B1/B2 allowed normal booting. I attempted various troubleshooting methods such as re-seating the CPU, inspecting pins, and resetting CMOS, yet no improvement occurred. It’s important to note that both RAM sticks remain operational and function correctly in the available slots. I’ve also experimented with unconventional approaches, like booting with one stick in B2 while another was inserted during startup, or using BIOS settings to check DRAM details. However, when exiting BIOS, the monitor still receives no signal. I’ve tried booting directly from Task Manager and observed only the B2 slot showing up, yet CPU-Z reports 16 GB of RAM in single-channel mode. The most puzzling incident was a successful boot with A2 and B2 initially, followed by a crash after benchmarking (using CPU-Z and hardwaremonitor). TL;DR: The two closest slots to the CPU are non-functional; any solution or performance impact if I used B1/B2 remains unclear.