SuperMicro X10SAE defective RAM slots? 4 beep no post.

[wasserware]

Hi All - this is my first time posting here and glad to come across such a vibrant and engaged community! So I embarked on a journey to finally upgrade my 10 year old NAS system running ubuntu with FreeNAS!

My hardware specs are below:
RAM - 2X MEM-DR380L-HL02-EU16
Mobo - X10SAE with latest bios
CPU - Xeon® E3-1265L

I finally had a chance to put the system together last night but unfortunately I was greeted with four long beeps and no post upon powering up. This was following Supermicro's recommendation of populating the blue RAM slots. Further reading only revealed that it might be a RAM problem so I started testing the RAM one stick at a time, starting from the RAM slot farthest again from the CPU. The motherboard will not post when RAM is installed in slot DIMMA1 and DIMMA1 (two slots closest to CPU) but works fine with with slots DIMMB1 and DIMMB2 populated. I've been running memest86 in this configuration for the past 24 hours to see if there are any issues.

Could it be that the RAM slot is defective? The seller is sending me a replacement board ASAP so hopefully the replacement board works fine :)

 

[Darren Myers]

It is very possible its the slot, if you tested DIMM A in the problematic slot (we'll call it slot A) and it doesnt post, but you then test the same DIMM in slot B and it posts then yes i would come to the conclusion it is the slot.

 

[DrKK]

I've never heard of a brand new SuperMicro board having a bad DIMM slot out of the gate. Was this used equipment?

 

[wasserware]

I've never heard of a brand new SuperMicro board having a bad DIMM slot out of the gate. Was this used equipment?

Yep got this on ebay and its a used board. The seller is sending me a replacement board and he has tested it with all 4 slots populated. The best thing is he said I do not need to return the defective board and I can use it for something else :) I've tested the board with memtest86 for 48 hours and the two working slots are fine.

 

[Ericloewe]

Given the specific slots, I assume it's one of the address signals that does not work properly, due to the DIMMs seeing it float, which can cause all sorts of fun things.
It could be a CPU issue (oddly specific but possible), bent pin (surprisingly common) or less visible motherboard defect.