New build constantly restarting, every second or so. What could be causing it?

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Bailey has sent me an RMA for the board :)
I was willing to send all the components back, but I explained that I didn't know whether it was the board, CPU, or RAM, explained everything I've tried and he said that it sounds like a motherboard problem.
 
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Well...I got the replacement motherboard, but...things still aren't quite right.

This time it boots up into BIOS with no problems (with video output too!), but only if I don't have the sticks of RAM in slots 1 or 3.
I can boot with a single stick in either slot 2 or 4, or with both sticks in those slots, but if I put a stick (either of them) in either slot 1 or 3, it tries to boot for about 15 seconds (with no video output) and then restarts.
I've tried each stick in every slot, and every possible combination of both.
 
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Motherboard: Gigabyte Z87-D3HP Intel Z87 (Socket 1150) DDR3 ATX
RAM: Kingston HyperX Beast 8GB (2x4GB) PC3-19200C11 2400MHz Dual Channel Kit (KHX24C11T3K2/8X)
 
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Hate to say it, but if with a single ram stick in one of the slots works fine, but the same stick in a different slot doesn't work, it seems like there still is something wrong with the board!
 
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Got the Bios updated, but unfortunately no luck, same problem when the stick's in slots 1 or 3, whether on its own, or along with the other stick in any other slot.
Made sure the CPU cooler was only tightened loosely.

So...another faulty motherboard? :/
 
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I have not come across it myself, but I have read before that some coolers can cause issues such as ram slots not working if the cooler is screwed down too tightly. If its screwed in as tight as you could get it with a screwdriver then try undoing all 4 screws by 1/4 of a turn and see if it makes any difference.
 
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Yeah, made sure that I've only screwed the fan down lightly.
Reset the CMOS, no change.
Haven't installed the OS because I haven't even hooked up a drive yet. Running with just the motherboard, CPU+Fan, RAM, and GPU.
Didn't want to start building/setting up properly until I knew the motherboard was working properly.
 
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it isnt a case of only two slots on the board work at speed x is it? It shouldnt be, since the ram should be getting detected as lower speed until you set it higher anyway, but maybe worth setting the timings manually at rated, and if that doesnt work, 1600mhz cas 11
 
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The last thing I would try before considering exchanging would be to hook up a HDD and Disk drive. get your hands on a version of Ubuntu and burn the ISO to disk. You can use ubuntu as a Live CD so you dont need to install it to the new PC.

Stick the disk into your new rig and get into the bios and choose to boot from CD.

I had a similar problem once before, the Bios was set to automatically pass errors in boot up and it kept rebooting when it was looking to boot the OS. The Bootmgr was corrupt so it couldn't boot and reset all the time.

Good luck
 
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