(tldr and SO-compliant question is: in a two-stick package, is the conditional probability of {second-ram-stick-is-defective} given {first-is-defective} significantly higher, or is a defective motherboard more likely?)
more background: I cant get to bios.
my mobo has 4 ram slots and I have 2 ram sticks. Ive tried most of the 20 unique combinations of ways to install them, (including each for all single slots and the recommended A1-B1 configuration, and A1-A2) and all give the same error: super short red cpu led that goes off, then a persistant yellow DRAM led. I hooked up the mobo speaker and got long short short repeating which means "no memory detected"
I just cant imagine that both sticks would be defective. Is this more likely, or is this probably the mobo?
mobo: ASUS ROG STRIX Z370-E GAMING LGA1151 RAM: TridentZ GSKILL DDR4-3000 (PC4-24000) 2x16gb cpu: i7-8700k
none have been/can easily be otherwise independently tested without bringing it to a shop. All parts are new and were shipped from Amazon.
***Update 2-24 bought new ram actually on the QVL, 4 sticks this time. got the ram LED again :(. no beeps this time. if I remove 2 of the ram sticks (from the 2A and 2B slots, as indicated), leaving 1A and 1B in, I get the same led and beeps as before.