I had the same issue, no single stick (out of the 4 I had worked in any slot to boot my evga 790i). If he has the same issue as me where using one did not work, then he can't flash the new spd if he can't boot, kind of a catch 22 unless he has a friend or another ddr3 motherboard. I ended up buying a cheap $135 (yeah, cheap... I got 4gb ddr2 1000 for the same as that 1gb 1066 kit) ddr3 kit just to boot and set voltage in order to boot the cellshocks. I'm sure though, that if you do not want to go that route, you should be able to get these updated through RMA no? Of course this could take a while...
