Question CPU Red Led, DRAM Orange Led, Freeze Randomly happening on boot.

Nov 1, 2023
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The following lines explain the issue I faced a few months ago, it is very important for the context of the issue I'm facing now :

|||||||||||||||| MARCH 2 2023 ||||||||||||||||

I have had this PC for almost 2 years now everything was working perfectly fine :
CPU : Intel I7-11700k
GPU : Zotac RTX 3070ti

RAM : 2x8G 3600Mhz to whom I added another exact same 2x8G 3600Mhz a month ago
MoBo : MSI Z590 Plus
SSD(OS : Win10) : Samsung 980 Pro 1Tb M.2 nvMe
HDD : Seagate Barracuda 7200rpm 1Tb
SSD : Crucial MX500 250Gb
PSU : Corsair CX750M

One day I pushed my power button expecting windows to boot, and nothing happened, instead I had the Windows Boot screen (the loading dots thing) frozen, I thought it was weird, so I tried troubleshooting, so I restarted and entered bios to access to the troubleshooting reboot menu of windows, there I verified the OS files, tried a few things, safely ofc, and when it rebooted, it worked.

I thought I had fixed it, but 2 days after I got the same thing happening, so I thought I'd do the same thing, but this time after I forced shut down and turned the pc back on, there was nothing.
The GPU was on, fans were running, aaaand that CPU Red Led (attached file) was lit too.

So I googled it, and tried those steps :
CMOS Reset
- PC booted once after that, but after I went into the bios to get my old settings back (resize bar and xmp merely), the issue came back

CMOS battery replacement
- PC booted after again, 2 times, then after putting BIOS settings back, cpu red light came back again.

Cleaned the whole PC (physically), changed thermal paste, checked if there was anything wrong with the CPU's Socket, or if there was any pin that was broken, everything was clear and clean, did a CMOS reset as I was cleaning everything.
This time I did NOT tweak BIOS to check if it was the source if my problems.
It booted, once, then I restarted it to test it, annnd it didn't boot, but this time, IT WAS THE DRAM ORANGE LED. So removed all the ram I had except one, and put it on the first slot, dram led was still on, so I tried with another RAM stick, still on the same slot, and it booted.

Expecting it to fail again, I made a save of all the files that were on the nvMe on my HDD just in case, then performed a clean reinstall (Win10), (the windows installer froze 2 times and I had to restart it, worked on third try), everything worked fine so I put the RAM back in, it worked again, so I kept updating drivers and had to restart a few times for that, and as expected, it failed after 2 or 3 restarts as I was updating everything. CPU Red Led again.

I honestly don't know what to do anymore, so I have several questions, but the two main ones are these :
- What is possibly going on ?
- How can I fix that, if I can ?

Anybody can help me with that please ?

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I tested the RAM, it doesn't seem to be faulty.


2 months after that, in June 2023, I had the i7-11700k replaced with a new (same) one, and the motherboard changed to a MSI MAG Z590 TOMAHAWK WIFI.

Everything worked fine since then... until this morning November 1 2023.
I had the motherboard displaying the CPU Red led once, DRAM Orange led once, and it froze on BIOS instruction screen during boot once.
It booted after a few tries, and I am currently saving my files, I expect my PC to start failing again. Of all sources I checked, I haven't seen anyone that managed to fix that issue. It appears to happen on Z590 chipset motherboards mostly, but seeing how it disappeared for a long time after changing the CPU, it might come from it too, I don't know.

Can anybody tell me where that issue comes from, and/or how to fix it please ?
 

Lutfij

Titan
Moderator
Welcome to the forums, newcomer!

RAM : 2x8G 3600Mhz to whom I added another exact same 2x8G 3600Mhz a month ago
Might want to look at the PCB revision on both ram kits and if they are identical. Corsair is notorious for sourcing their ram IC's from various vendors/OEM's in favor of favorable prices. What might look like the same ram kit with a heatspreader, underneath there are differences in construct.

PSU : Corsair CX750M
How old is the PSU in your build? Have you tried working with another reliably built 850W PSU sourced(borrowed/not bought) from a neighbor or friend?

MSI MAG Z590 TOMAHAWK WIFI
Your motherboard has a Flash BIOS button, use that option in conjunction with steps listed in your manual;
Page 54, Updating BIOS with Flash BIOS Button

How are you cooling that CPU?
 
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Nov 1, 2023
2
0
10
Hello, and thank you for your help and warm welcome !

How are you cooling that CPU?
I am using a tower cooler with a fan. On another note, I used to regularly check the CPU's heat this summer when playing games that were really CPU bound, it never went over 80°C.

PSU : Corsair CX750M
How old is the PSU in your build? Have you tried working with another reliably built 850W PSU sourced(borrowed/not bought) from a neighbor or friend?
It's around 1 year and a half old. I bought it around August 2022. I didn't note it in the first message, sorry, but I did try another PSU : NZXT C850, new from amazon (the packaging was amazingly well done haha), YET the issue still happened after I tested it out, so I sent it back.

RAM : 2x8G 3600Mhz to whom I added another exact same 2x8G 3600Mhz a month ago
Might want to look at the PCB revision on both ram kits and if they are identical.
IMG_20230302_032752__01.jpg.10fc64b6e1532bbbe944bd7cdb3d1275.jpg

Only the Ver.XX changes right ? Is it bad ?

MSI MAG Z590 TOMAHAWK WIFI
Your motherboard has a Flash BIOS button, use that
I'll do that manipulation ASAP, what is it going to do for my issue ?

Again, thank you so much for trying to help !