I recently reinstalled Windows on my PC and during the setup, I haven’t installed the AMD chipset drivers yet—only the AMD graphics drivers are installed so far. When I power on my PC, the DRAM LED lights up and it doesn’t POST if I try booting with one RAM stick in either the A1 or B1 slots. But interestingly, if I insert two RAM sticks in the A2 and B2 slots, the PC posts fine and boots into Windows without problems. I have 4 RAM sticks total, all working previously, so I’m confused why the first channel slots (A1 and B1) don’t work now. I haven’t reseated the CPU yet but plan to do that soon. I also updated the BIOS to the latest version. Could missing AMD chipset drivers after the Windows reinstall be causing these weird DRAM issues, or is something else likely at fault? Should I expect installing the chipset drivers to fix the RAM slot problems? Any insights or advice would be really appreciated!
3 Answers
Actually, chipset drivers live inside Windows, so if your PC isn’t posting and the DRAM light is on, that’s happening before any drivers load. The BIOS and hardware handle that stage entirely, so missing chipset drivers won’t cause POST failures like no display or RAM detection issues. The reason your PC only posts with RAM sticks in slots A2 and B2 might be related to motherboard or CPU memory channel configurations, especially when using four sticks. Many boards are finicky with all four slots populated and sometimes prefer 2-stick setups for stability. You might want to check if your CPU and motherboard officially support 4 RAM modules running at once at your RAM speeds, and whether any memory profile like XMP or EXPO is enabled causing instability with 4 sticks.
I had a similar weird RAM issue after a Windows reinstall, but it turned out to be a loose CPU socket connection that affected some RAM channels. Before blaming drivers, make sure everything like the CPU, RAM sticks, and motherboard are firmly seated. Also, test booting with all sticks removed and add them back one by one to spot any faulty module or slot. The chipset drivers definitely won’t control RAM detection at the POST stage but are good to install once Windows is up for proper hardware management. So don’t skip them eventually, but don’t expect them to fix no POST issues related to RAM.
To add on, since you mentioned the PC won’t post with just one stick in A1 or B1 but works in A2 and B2 slots with two sticks, I’d guess there’s a hardware or BIOS level issue rather than a Windows or driver one. Drivers don’t kick in until Windows loads, and you’re not getting that far. Clearing the CMOS is a good troubleshooting step if you haven’t already. Also, reseating the CPU and checking RAM seating and slot cleanliness can help. Sometimes one RAM slot can start acting flaky due to mechanical or electrical issues. The fact that BIOS was updated recently means you should double-check BIOS memory settings or try restoring BIOS defaults just in case some setting got tweaked.
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