HP Z440 not even booting with one stick of ram?

[69420ballin]

hello so sorry if this seems kind of rushed. I was cleaning my gpu (Asus dual rx 480) yesterday and when I put it back into the PC it didn't boot and I was greeted with 6 beeps. reseated the gpu and then it changed to 5 beeps? reseated all the ram and I was still getting 5 beeps on startup when I just decided to leave one dimm in slot 3 and it started booting until it stopped doing anything and I got the 6 beeps error again. tried moving the gpu to the x8 slot but that was still happening. decided to clear the cmos and it worked (probably because the fan speed changed) and it "booted" but I would get no display while also getting no errors even on both DP and HDMI. i tried putting the other 2 sticks back too and that gave me the 5b error and now it won't boot with one single stick in slot 3, pretty sure the problem isn't the gpu lol because it gave me a display output and there's no physical defects but I don't have a spare system to test it with (the 3 dimms were in all the black slots except slot one because that one is physically broken and I know this config works because I've been using it for a year with no issues {well, until this happened}

one other thing to note is that I can't get into the bios with my current monitor which is a va 165hz Samsung g5. it would usually just show some zoomed in oprom thing and it would just boot but pressing f10/esc on startup never did anything)

[DGroves · Accepted solution]

ram must be installed using the correct type ram the correct capacity the correct slots() in the correct load order

HP service manual: (page 75)

https://h10032.www1.hp.com/ctg/Manual/c04823811.pdf

for the z440 (page 76)

If you install DIMMs of different sizes, load them in order of size,

starting with largest in Dimm 1

and finishing with the smallest in the last loaded DIMM slot

the motherboard Dimm slot load order is listed below

Rear of MB   /   Front of MB

2-6-4-8   "CPU"   7-3-5-1

The HP Z440 workstation utilizes a 4-channel memory architecture, supporting up to 8 DIMMs (Dual Inline Memory Modules). This allows for a maximum of 128GB of DDR4 memory, with configurations of 1, 2, or 4 DIMMs per channel. For optimal performance, the HP Z440 should be populated with DIMMs in all 8 slots or all 4 slots (one DIMM per channel). 

Here's a more detailed breakdown:

• Memory Channels: The Z440 features 4 memory channels. 
• DIMM Slots: The motherboard has 8 DIMM slots. 
• Optimal Configurations:
  • 4 DIMMs (one per channel): Populating all 4 white slots or all 4 black slots will enable all 4 channels and provide the maximum memory bandwidth. 
  • 8 DIMMs (two per channel): Populating all 8 slots in a matched set will also enable all 4 channels and maximize bandwidth. 
• Unsupported Configurations: Using only 2 DIMMs will result in dual-channel mode, which reduces maximum RAM transfer rates. The Z440 does not support configurations with 3 DIMMs. 
• Memory Speed: The maximum memory speed supported by the Z440 depends on the specific processor and BIOS version,

[69420ballin]

heyy dgroves THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR YOUR RESPONSE!!! i totally forgot about this post but i got my gpu repaired by some random guy for 20$ (i think he swapped a capacitor) but yeah everythings going good now!! my 3 sticks of ram are working in the 3 black slots that arent slot one so yeah. again, i appreciate your answer so much but there was nothing wrong with the ram!! gonna label this as solved now, THANKS!! (also everything works perfectly well in triple channel if you use slots 3, 8 and 6. i've yet to find a way where you can use 4 sticks of ram without having access to slot one (since its literally broken) BUT I HAVE HOPE AND MY SPARE DIMM'S GONNA BE PUT TO USE ONE DAY!

[SDH]

Just a thought...

A number of us have "repaired" such issues by transplanting in a recycled Z440 motherboard bought off eBay, currently going for $50.00 USD including shipping in US. The Z440 workstations can all run the v3 and v4 HP-approved processors. That project takes about an hour and a supplemental beer.