Hey there, I found this thread on a web search and wanted to chip-in to OP's experience. I have the same board. When I originally built it I also noticed that the manual's memory configuration did not work, but putting the sticks alongside each other did. I too also get the LEDs that flash on the board's 'EZ Debug' spot. One is CPU the other is memory. The manual states that a solid light means there's a problem, but I can't see what flashing lights means.

Now I encountered that about 2 years ago when I built the thing, fixed it with the above solution and just moved on with my life. However, the other day I decided to double my RAM. I bought the exact same pair of sticks from Corsair, same timings and everything. But when I installed these new sticks, I ran into the no-op issue where the 2 LEDs on the board were flashing again and BIOS would not boot.

I can't offer any help yet but that the board or possibly the run of boards we have just may be defective.