I can't run my RAM in dual channel mode

[SickBeast]

Hey guys I'm hoping you can help me out.  Last night I transferred my computer over to a new case.  When I was done it wouldn't turn on.  I didn't know what was wrong, however after troubleshooting the problem I determined that my computer could boot with only one stick of RAM installed.  Then after I fooled around with it some more I discovered that I could run the RAM in single channel mode without issue.

Do you guys know what could cause this?  There was some dust in one of the slots at one point and I did have a stick plugged into that slot.  Could that have shorted it out?  Also one of the sticks got bumped by one of my water cooling hoses.  Does this sound like physical damage?  Do I need a new motherboard?  Is there anything else I can do?  I tried clearing the CMOS and I cleaned out the RAM slots with alcohol but it's still not working. :(

Stuff like this is totally annoying, and would always piss me off when I was constantly building new boxes in focus group.

Probably not what you want to hear:

http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.asp...6820231719

Send newegg Canada $45 for that 8GB stick, go enjoy the weekend. Not much money, and only 2-3% performance loss if you have dedicated graphics.

Why chase it for $45 when you can even sell your current RAM to offset the tiny cost?

If you must you might see if current RAM is sketchy with current mobo and you were just lucky before, update bios, stop OCing, set all to factory defaults, definitely don't over volt, try RAM in another box and MEMTest, try different RAM in this box and MEMTest, etc, etc,etc.....

Or just spend the $45, sell your RAM, and if it doesn't work for guy you sell to, apologize and refund.

Thanks for that.

I'm wondering if it could also be my CPU socket. I managed to get thermal paste in my CPU socket about a year ago. I was able to clean it out using alcohol and a small brush but I'm wondering if there is still some caked in there and when I moved everything around maybe it messed things up again.

Right now I have 2x8gb sticks for 16gb total RAM. If the performance hit is only 3% I guess I can live with that. I will watch for a deal on a new motherboard. What a pain!

I have tried resetting my BIOS to the defaults and it still doesn't work.

It seems strange to me that two of the slots are not working. How could I have damaged two of them? It doesn't make sense. Everything looks good visually.