Bad ram slot on 17 inch 2011 MBP

[KevinRightWing]

I have (2) 8gb sticks of ram that I typically have used in my machine. However, while both sticks appear to be in good shape, one of the ram slots appears to be bad as evidenced by the continual loop of 3 beeps upon start up. When I put one of the sticks in the slot that appears to be ok, everything boots up as normal.

Can I put (1) 16gb ram stick in the working slot or is the max that one slot will accept is only 8gb?

Thank you!

 

[Fishrrman]

I'd just let "the bad slot" be, and put a 16gb DIMM into the "good" slot.
It should still run fine.

Just wondering...you probably already did this, but...
Have you tried "swapping the DIMMs around" to see if BOTH DIMMs give the "3 beeps" in the bad slot?