I can't speak for your specific cooler but I have used Hyper 212 and corsair h 100 and both are unable to apply enough pressure to bend pins. With all that being said if your CPU was not installed correctly or the cooler was installed incorrectly then you might get bent pins. The little nuts or screws that you tighten on my coolers will bottom out before they apply to much pressure. Another words you can tighten all the way and it does not hurt the MB or CPU.

I have read were others have installed their CPU cooler wrong and damage the MB. You might could check your standoffs (the little nuts that attach your back plate to your MB. Some have or need a washer between them so as not to damage or scratch the MB.

What is your issue with your ram? Have you tried your ram in another computer? Have you tried swapping the stick you have in your computer now with the stick that is not in your computer? Have you tried using them in the other slots? Are you sure you are installing them in the right slots? Also are you sure they are seating correctly? Hope some of this helps.

Unlike Backfire1's H100, the screwdown mount of my Koolance block is able to apply too much pressure and apply it unevenly. I've had it happen.

Excess / uneven cooler pressure causing a socket pin to slide off it CPU contact and/or short to another contact can effect any pin on the CPU. That includes PCIe3 connections to video cards or DMI connections to the PCH (the Z97) which can screw up PCIe2, USB or SATA operation. Worst would be a short from a socket pin carrying power to a CPU contact that is grounded - nothing works and a motherboard VRM may blow out.

In other words, cooler pressure and bent pins in the socket are on the list of things to check for any mysterious failure.

Jeff

Something I thought about last night was -- I would think you would be able to see any bent pins. But that may be easier sad than done. Hope you figure out what is ailing your MB. Good luck and let us know what you figure out.

So this will be my final post on this subject and it is not a happy one. I got two new RAM sticks (crucial ballistix 16 gig) and had the same error 55 so I removed one of the sticks and system booted no problem. So I decided to try the other stick in the same slot and the tab that releases the RAM broke and now the RAM is stuck in the slot! So I have decided to leave it in place and just use 8 gigs. I am not going to go through the whole process of replacing the motherboard even though it is still under warranty and I have a spare 8 gig stick I cannot return. My system runs great on 8 and I do not want to go through another build just to have the same potential problem. I surrender. I am just gonna game and be happy I have a screaming PC. On to Far Cry 4!!!!

If I were you I'd rma the board and get a new one. Have you tried using a jewelers screwdriver to carefully open the broken latch and remove the dim? It sounds like the other slot is dead and there's no way I'd keep a bad board like that.

Having a block too tight cannot bend pins. The processor will come in contact with a part of the mount before the pins are bent completely down. I've worked on pins under a magnify glass and they are designed to be pushed down. It is kind of like they are spring loaded to the top so they make contact with the processor. It is possible to crack a processor from mounting the block to tight.. but with the size of the ihs on current processors, its not likely.

I just had error 55 due to my block not being tight enough. I had to remount about 4 times to get it. I am also running naked under a water block.

If you have bent pins you can try to repair them (if only a few). You should take the board out of the case. Use a magnify glass and a sewing/safety pin to bend them in the correct direction. They all go in one of two directions, so it is very obvious when one it out of alignment.

I do believe bent pins are not covered under warranty.

It reads code 55 probably due to failure to communicate to the memory controller on the processor.. this is just an educated guess.