[SOLVED] B450 Tomohawk red lights

Sep 1, 2020
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When I turn my new gaming rig on the cpy red light lights up for a split second then the dram and the red backlight (behind it) stays on. Everything works fine in terms of getting on desktop and its speed but the ome issue is I tuink tye cpu fan/fans keep ramping up and ramping down every 30 seconde. Ive tryed changing the fan curve on msi ab but it still does it. Someone help! (Its extremely annoying)
 
Solution
He must have a thicc cooler idk what it was but considering mine is 68 on stock with fans running stock. Just to quickly check my cpu is running okay? If its running at 4.2 ghz and like 40% workload on dying light? Also I have the x version

So basically If I get the newly realesed 3070 would that pair well with my r5 3600x?
Even a 3600X is rated to boost to only 4.3Ghz so yeah, I think your CPU is running very well. 40% in a game isn't a very heavy workload so I can't say whether 68C is good or bad, especially if it's on the stock Wraithe cooler.

It's still boosting to 4.4Ghz in the middle of gaming action so that's a good thing. If the CPU starts getting into the high 70's/low 80's it will reduce boosting as Ryzen is...
It's normal for ryzen as it spikes temperature with boosts at idle. So set a flat fan curve that's barely audible up to about 65-70C, then start ramping it up from there.

I'm not sure the dram light staying on is good. Have you checked that DRAM are in the right sockets? and fully plugged in? What CPU are you running? Have you updated BIOS? You might do a CMOS reset if you haven't yet, before messing with fan curves.
 

Zerk2012

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It's normal for ryzen as it spikes temperature with boosts at idle. So set a flat fan curve that's barely audible up to about 65-70C, then start ramping it up from there.

I'm not sure the dram light staying on is good. Have you checked that DRAM are in the right sockets? and fully plugged in? What CPU are you running? Have you updated BIOS? You might do a CMOS reset if you haven't yet, before messing with fan curves.
The red backlight is just the LED on the back of the board.
https://encrypted-tbn0.gstatic.com/...q3ms8PnihdqWkAmS9Axn9StzbnJZblUHtxuQY_CcxIErw
 
Sep 1, 2020
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It's normal for ryzen as it spikes temperature with boosts at idle. So set a flat fan curve that's barely audible up to about 65-70C, then start ramping it up from there.

I'm not sure the dram light staying on is good. Have you checked that DRAM are in the right sockets? and fully plugged in? What CPU are you running? Have you updated BIOS? You might do a CMOS reset if you haven't yet, before messing with fan curves.
Hi thanks for your reply! None of the small lights stay on they only flash from top to bottom (cpu to the vga one) for a split second then stay off (while booting once) . The red backlight of the board stays on tho.
 
Also whats a cmos update would it reset any of my files or anything?
No it won't affect any files. What it does is resets all the customized settings in BIOS to default safe ones... even the ones you don't have access to in the settings screens. They can get tweaked into a strange settings when the BIOS gets updated. If no one did the CMOS reset then, now's the time to do it.

You can find the instructions for it in your manual, and where the pins are on the motherboard. You turn off the system, remove the little coin cell battery and short the reset pins for several minutes. Then put it back together.

You should do a reset anytime you update BIOS or if you've been messing with BIOS settings and aren't quite sure if you left it in an unstable configuration.
 

Zerk2012

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Also whats a cmos update would it reset any of my files or anything?
Those processors go up and down in speed. Your PC is working normal. The LED's come on then off when the board is going through it's self check then the back LED stays on.

EDIT I would buy a better cooler the stock ones are barely adequate (actually limit the boost speed a bit) and are loud anyhow.
 
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Those processors go up and down in speed. Your PC is working normal. The LED's come on then off when the board is going through it's self check then the back LED stays on.

EDIT I would buy a better cooler the stock ones are barely adequate (actually limit the boost speed a bit) and are loud anyhow.
Yh but my old pc was just stable and no constant fluctuation during idle. This its like rly annoying lke really. every 15 seconds. its in my right ear constantly. going vrrrrrOOOOOOOmmmmmmm ....... vrrrrrOOOOOOOmmmmmmmm ..... vrrrrOOOOOOmmmmm


EDIT: fixed it. my minimum processor statewas on 100% lowered it to 30% in power plan and its fixed it
 
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Yh but my old pc was just stable and no constant fluctuation during idle. This its like rly annoying lke really. every 15 seconds. its in my right ear constantly. going vrrrrrOOOOOOOmmmmmmm ....... vrrrrrOOOOOOOmmmmmmmm ..... vrrrrOOOOOOmmmmm


EDIT: fixed it. my minimum processor statewas on 100% lowered it to 30% in power plan and its fixed it
I gave you the right 'fix', and how to set a fan profile so it's not pulsing. That fixed it by breaking it..but whatever.
 
In what way is it breaking it?
Ryzen processors use much faster power CPU throttling to save energy, and boosting to raise processor to maximum clock speeds in order to process lightly threaded workloads quickly and get back to a deep-sleep state and save energy. It makes these transitions up to 100 times a second, which is much much faster than Windows' native power management routines can achieve. This is probably what makes Ryzen technology so special, as much or more than the 7nm process.

By leaving the minimum processor power state at 99% it will use Ryzen's power management. But to get full advantage you need to set up the system correctly, if you haven't. If you haven't yet, install the latest AMD chipset drivers for your board... which will install and select an AMD Ryzen Balanced power plan. Just use it, no changes.

Also set up BIOS: AMD Cool n quiet to ENABLED, Advanced C States to ENABLED, Processor CPPC to ENABLED and CPPC Preferred Cores to ENABLED.

But also set up the fan profiles as I described earlier: a flat fan curve that's barely audible up to about 65-70C CPU temp, then start ramping it up from there.
 
Sep 1, 2020
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Ryzen processors use much faster power CPU throttling to save energy, and boosting to raise processor to maximum clock speeds in order to process lightly threaded workloads quickly and get back to a deep-sleep state and save energy. It makes these transitions up to 100 times a second, which is much much faster than Windows' native power management routines can achieve. This is probably what makes Ryzen technology so special, as much or more than the 7nm process.

By leaving the minimum processor power state at 99% it will use Ryzen's power management. But to get full advantage you need to set up the system correctly, if you haven't. If you haven't yet, install the latest AMD chipset drivers for your board... which will install and select an AMD Ryzen Balanced power plan. Just use it, no changes.

Also set up BIOS: AMD Cool n quiet to ENABLED, Advanced C States to ENABLED, Processor CPPC to ENABLED and CPPC Preferred Cores to ENABLED.

But also set up the fan profiles as I described earlier: a flat fan curve that's barely audible up to about 65-70C CPU temp, then start ramping it up from there.
I will try it after my online class. It fixed the annoying fans but as u said I'm probably affecting is performance negatively
 
I did havd the fan curve flat up to 65 degrees but it was still doing the pulsing despite it
Download and install HWInfo64. It's free.

Once installed, look for a Sensor readout called CPU Die (average). There's also CPU (Tctl/Tdie). Tctl/Tdie will be pulsing up and ramping down as the processor boosts, it's the instantaneous readout of the highest sensor at the moment. CPU die (average) is a moving average of the sensor readings that gives a very good idea of the CPU's true thermal state.

What is the (average) reading? since it always shows the true thermal state of the CPU that's what you want to try and keep low when the processor is at low useage. If it's high (65-70C or higher) with nothing open then you either have a cooling problem or there's a process working the CPU hard that you don't know anything about. There are some utilities that do that: Corsair's Link or iCue (whatever) is famous for it.

Also, how high are the Tctl/Tdie pulsed readings going?

You can also use Ryzenmaster to get the average readings, but it doesn't give the instantaneous readings. Unfortunately, all BIOS's seem to use an instantaneous sensor reading to control fans so that's why they pulse if you don't set a good fan control curve. Don't let the fans get to an annoying speed before about 80C. Tjmax for Ryzen CPU's is 95C so never 100% before 90 or 95C.

And lastly, another thing you can do is instead of following CPU temperature to control the fans, follow VRM temperature as it directly follows CPU load. But it's also a bit slow to respond so you have to raise fan speed a bit early in the rise, especially a CPU fan. But at least there will be no pulsing.
 
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Sep 1, 2020
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Download and install HWInfo64. It's free.

Once installed, look for a Sensor readout called CPU Die (average). There's also CPU (Tctl/Tdie). Tctl/Tdie will be pulsing up and ramping down as the processor boosts, it's the instantaneous readout of the highest sensor at the moment. CPU die (average) is a moving average of the sensor readings that gives a very good idea of the CPU's true thermal state.

What is the (average) reading? since it always shows the true thermal state of the CPU that's what you want to try and keep low when the processor is at low useage. If it's high (65-70C or higher) with nothing open then you either have a cooling problem or there's a process working the CPU hard that you don't know anything about. There are some utilities that do that: Corsair's Link or iCue (whatever) is famous for it.

Also, how high are the Tctl/Tdie pulsed readings going?

You can also use Ryzenmaster to get the average readings, but it doesn't give the instantaneous readings. Unfortunately, all BIOS's seem to use an instantaneous sensor reading to control fans so that's why they pulse if you don't set a good fan control curve. Don't let the fans get to an annoying speed before about 80C. Tjmax for Ryzen CPU's is 95C so never 100% before 90 or 95C.

And lastly, another thing you can do is instead of following CPU temperature to control the fans, follow VRM temperature as it directly follows CPU load. But it's also a bit slow to respond so you have to raise fan speed a bit early in the rise, especially a CPU fan. But at least there will be no pulsing.
I'm not sure what it was that fixed it. Whether it was the amd cool and quiet or cc whatever u called it (lol) my minimum state is 99% and the pulsing is gone altho its a little noisier (which I'm not bothered with) also I'm checking the readings on my cpu now and its going from 3.7 to 4.4 like randomly on random cores and like its boosting while idle? Is that what ryzen does?

Just a more off topic thing why does it say my ram mhz is 1600 is that my mhz just divided by 2. Why is it laid out like that?
 
...Is that what ryzen does?
...
Yes it is. boosting one core at a time at idle to 4.4Ghz is expected for a 3700X. The thing people don't seem to realize is Windows10 is never actually idle though. There are upwards of 100 background processes running all the time, so one or two popping up and taking CPU resources is a regular thing. And that's in addition to the ones that are always running for things like internet, audio and display drivers, etc. They're light, usually just one or a couple threads, so the processor can boost to maximum clock and get it taken care of and get that core back to a deep sleep and stop using power. But then another pops up...and so on.

And yes, the RAM is DDR, meaning double data rate. So double the RAM clock speed to find the actual transaction rate: 1600Mhz*2 means 3200Mtps RAM speed. People usually refer to it as '3200Mhz' but that's technically wrong.

EDIT: try lowering the flat-line fan speed to make it quieter or less annoying. If you're monitoring the AVERAGE temperature in HWInfo64 you may be surprised how low it stays in low-useage situations. But when it starts averaging above 65 or 70C you really do want the fans to kick it up. If you're using the stock cooler, even though it's pretty good a super-quiet after market cooler can makes a difference.
 
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Yes it is. boosting one core at a time at idle to 4.4Ghz is expected for a 3700X. The thing people don't seem to realize is Windows10 is never actually idle though. There are upwards of 100 background processes running all the time, so one or two popping up and taking CPU resources is a regular thing. And that's in addition to the ones that are always running for things like internet, audio and display drivers, etc. They're light, usually just one or a couple threads, so the processor can boost to maximum clock and get it taken care of and get that core back to a deep sleep and stop using power. But then another pops up...and so on.

And yes, the RAM is DDR, meaning double data rate. So double the RAM clock speed to find the actual transaction rate: 1600Mhz*2 means 3200Mtps RAM speed. People usually refer to it as '3200Mhz' but that's technically wrong.

EDIT: try lowering the flat-line fan speed to make it quieter or less annoying. If you're monitoring the AVERAGE temperature in HWInfo64 you may be surprised how low it stays in low-useage situations. But when it starts averaging above 65 or 70C you really do want the fans to kick it up. If you're using the stock cooler, even though it's pretty good a super-quiet after market cooler can makes a difference.
Would the ryzen 5 3600 (non x) still do the boost thing? I put the fan curve flat up to 75 but I have the flat high enough that the fans arent turned off (750 rpm both fans, 1k cpu fan) now it only raises when I'm gaming and then when I go back to desktop it goes silent again (literally no sound). Its like the default setup doesnt take into consideration the noise it makes as its just going for maximum efficiency.
 
Would the ryzen 5 3600 (non x) still do the boost thing?....
Yes it will...but I'd expect it to boost to it's max rated clock or 4.2Ghz. But then, I've also been reading that the 7nm process is maturing very nicely and people are getting much better boosting than the early silicon did. If you have a 3600 and it is hitting 4400, then you've got some pretty good silicon!

Don't be worried about that either. Everything is controlled by the boosting algorithm. So long as you've left it in stock settings it will always keep the processor 'safe'...that is, it will always maintain a balance of core temperature, voltage and frequency that's safe. That's why it will boost at idle to the max clock, but as it gets hot with heavy use the boosting frequency, and voltage, gets lower and lower. Possibly to no higher than the BASE clock with is 3.6Ghz for a 3600, same as a 3700X.
 
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Yes it will...but I'd expect it to boost to it's max rated clock or 4.2Ghz. But then, I've also been reading that the 7nm process is maturing very nicely and people are getting much better boosting than the early silicon did. If you have a 3600 and it is hitting 4400, then you've got some pretty good silicon!

Don't be worried about that either. Everything is controlled by the boosting algorithm. So long as you've left it in stock settings it will always keep the processor 'safe'...that is, it will always maintain a balance of core temperature, voltage and frequency that's safe. That's why it will boost at idle to the max clock, but as it gets hot with heavy use the boosting frequency, and voltage, gets lower and lower. Possibly to no higher than the BASE clock with is 3.6Ghz for a 3600, same as a 3700X.
Yh while playing dying light even with max fans on I cant get my temp below 69 degrees celcius. all my cores run on 4.2 to 4.4
 
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69C in mid game isn't bad; that game must not present a heavy processing load on the CPU. That's typical, most games are lightly threaded much more limited by the GPU.
Ik but I was watching this guy with a 2600 getting 53 degrees in it and he was still outperforming me with the same graphics card and settings
 
Ik but I was watching this guy with a 2600 getting 53 degrees in it and he was still outperforming me with the same graphics card and settings
if your 3600 is regularly boosting 4.2-4.4Ghz during game play it's not the CPU that's the cause of it. Way too many variables to compare like that. What kind of cooling does he have? and you?

Have you worked on optimizing memory yet? tweaking memory for low latency and high clock speed can make a significant difference in some game titles.
 
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if your 3600 is regularly boosting 4.2-4.4Ghz during game play it's not the CPU that's the cause of it. Way too many variables to compare like that. What kind of cooling does he have? and you?

Have you worked on optimizing memory yet? tweaking memory for low latency and high clock speed can make a significant difference in some game titles.
He must have a thicc cooler idk what it was but considering mine is 68 on stock with fans running stock. Just to quickly check my cpu is running okay? If its running at 4.2 ghz and like 40% workload on dying light? Also I have the x version

So basically If I get the newly realesed 3070 would that pair well with my r5 3600x?