Question New B650 Aorus Elite AX, Initially a red light on cpu that turns into a red light on the dram.

[Jotargo]

I would like to mention this is my first time building my own pc, I have consulted with a mutual who was experienced in computer building about this issue and they were not able to help out

Everything in this setup is completely newly purchased, whenever I boot the system for a split second the light is on CPU, but it immediately turns to DRAM and stays there. I am getting no display, and here is my list of specs

Originally I believed it was a faulty cpu, and that it was not registering the ram being there, but now im starting to believe both of my ram sticks may be faulty.

B650 Aorus Elite AX
Silicon Power DDR5 64gb (2x32)
AMD Ryzen 5 9600X
RTX 4070 Super
Crucial T3 Plus 1TB
Corsair RM750e
Montech Hyperflow

Heres a list of what I have done so far to fix this
ram is slotted correctly
I have tried every slot with each stick
power is wired correctly
I have reset cmos
I have returned and reordered the cpu

I am not sure what else I can try. I cant get into bios due to the display not booting, as I said before my next course of action will be to buy and install new ram.

 

[Lutfij]

Welcome to the forums, newcomer!

Silicon Power DDR5 64gb (2x32)
Got a link to the ram you're working with?
ram is slotted correctly
in slots A2 and B2?

B650 Aorus Elite AX
BIOS version for your motherboard? Speaking of motherboard's, did you inspect the socket for any bent or broken pins?

How are you cooling the processor? If the cooler needs you to mount with a couple of screws or tighten down, reduce the force applied on the mount and see if that helps with your POST process.

 

[Jotargo]

Got a link to the ram you're working with?
Here it is;
https://www.amazon.ca/dp/B0CLVCR3N4?ref=ppx_yo2ov_dt_b_fed_asin_title&th=1
in slots A2 and B2?
Yes
BIOS version for your motherboard?
Unable/unsure how to check as I am not getting any display.
did you inspect the socket for any bent or broken pins?
I did and it seemed fine.
How are you cooling the processor?
an AIO cooler
reduce the force applied on the mount and see if that helps with your POST process.
I just tried this out and nothing seemed to change.

 

[Lutfij]

Unable/unsure how to check as I am not getting any display.
Your motherboard has what is dubbed as Q-Flash Plus courtesy of Gigabyte. Follow this guide;

View: https://youtu.be/LrwP29lYQ-I

to flash the board's BIOS with the latest, taking note of your board's PCB version and sourcing the latest BIOS version from their support site;
https://www.gigabyte.com/Motherboard/B650-AORUS-ELITE-AX-rev-10-11/support#support-dl-driver

an AIO cooler
And what would the make and model of said AIO cooler be?

 

[Jotargo]

Your motherboard has what is dubbed as Q-Flash Plus courtesy of Gigabyte. Follow this guide;
I will try this out and get back to you on how it goes.
And what would the make and model of said AIO cooler be?
Montech Hyperflow 360, here is the link to it; https://www.amazon.ca/MONTECH-Hyper...pcontext&ref_=fplfs&psc=1&smid=A3DWYIK6Y9EEQB

 

[Jotargo]

Alright, after a bit I have finally gotten the time to try this out, and the computer seems to shut down on its own before it can update the bios. Atleast thats an educated guess, it runs for about a minute before shutting down, and I still have no display. Starting to believe this may be a motherboard issue.

 

[thestryker]

It shouldn't be powering up if you're doing the Q-Flash method. Someone else on the forums had a red memory light on a Gigabyte board with a 9000 series CPU and after a successful BIOS flash using Q-Flash it worked fine.

Does the light start blinking like it should when you're doing the flashing process?

Did you remove the CPU/Memory? (I don't think this should be necessary, but it might help should everything else fail)

 

[Jotargo]

It shouldn't be powering up if you're doing the Q-Flash method. Someone else on the forums had a red memory light on a Gigabyte board with a 9000 series CPU and after a successful BIOS flash using Q-Flash it worked fine.

Does the light start blinking like it should when you're doing the flashing process?

Did you remove the CPU/Memory? (I don't think this should be necessary, but it might help should everything else fail)

It shouldn't be powering up if you're doing the Q-Flash method
It shouldnt? I felt as if the video implied that it should.
Does the light start blinking like it should when you're doing the flashing process?
Yeah, it flashes somewhat fast and doesnt slow down, just shuts off after a minute.
Did you remove the CPU/Memory?
I did do an attempt with removed memory and it seems to have not changed anything, I'll do an attempt with a removed cpu and memory later though.

 

[thestryker]

Does the light start blinking like it should when you're doing the flashing process?
Yeah, it flashes somewhat fast and doesnt slow down, just shuts off after a minute.

Gigabyte has poor overall documentation on this feature, but they do mention 2-3 minutes followed by a reboot. The third party information I've seen also indicates multiple minutes so I'm guessing it doesn't like the BIOS version or potentially the USB drive being used. Older implementations claim to require a USB 2.0 drive so the drive might be something worth investigating. You also might try one of the older BIOS versions right around when 9000 series support was added.

 

[RyzenDead]

Hey man, I read this thread whilst troubleshooting my own Aorus mobo disaster (caused by switching out a PSU). This motherboard is the most trouble I've ever had wtih hardware. I remember setting it up more tha a year ago and having the hardest time getting past de DRAM light. Here's a list of things I did to fix my current disaster that totaly bricked the PC and made me spend 3 days working it out.

1. Disconnect EVERY other hardware from your mobo except CPU, RAM, PSU (only 8 pin + 24 pin) and the MOBO itself. SO kinda like the guy in the youtube clip told you to do. This wil exclude any faulty hardware from your troubleshooting.

2. Make sure you are flashing the right BIOS, I flashed with BIOS rev 1.2 or something and I needed 1.0, the guy in the youtube clip pointed this out for me.

3. Place the RIGHT Bios rev for your mobo on the USB stick (fat32). Place the stick in your red bios usb slot on the mobo. THEN flip the switch on the PSU and the mobo starts up itself (no pressing a button on the board or your AIO required). It starts flashing an LED and finishes in a minute or 3. Then it didnt power itself down for me, neither did it shut off by pressing the power button, so for me it was a hard flip of the PSU switch to turn it off. Flip the PSU switch again and VOILA.

4. Still not working? Well, welcome to my world! Apparantly my mobo decided the new PSU (which shorted for some reason) was the love of its life. So, I did all the above with the old PSU and didn't get it to boot. After deciding to send back the new PSU I wanted to try all the above steps (after using the CMOS button) with the new PSU to check if it was really broken after shorting out (I got my precious files out of the PC earlier and backed them up so I dont give a rats behinds about the posibility of the hardware blowing up). And what would you know... The thing booted, switched from red PCU to DRAM to VRAM light and Kaching wing woo it just started windows from the allready installed M2 memory (which only holds the OS).

So in short: Strip down your PC (get everything OFF, all your fans and LED peripherals and HDD's and what not). Use the CMOS (unplug pc, press 10 sec, press power button 10 sec). Flash the mobo (make sure to download right version and revision number, go for newest BIOS which is 33 for me). Power it down yourself after it finishes flashing. Start up again and voila, it should work. If not, switch out some of your components with spare ones / borrow a friends RAM / PSU /whatever they have laying around or order new stuff and send it back if it wasnt the problem component.

My problem was a short in the PSU because of the GPU not being compatible and using the wrong PCIE cables (Chinese brand PSU and vanity cables that didnt come with the PSU). So even after frying my GPU and shorting out atleast my PSU I still managed to fix the PC. Judging by your statements I think your Mobo is absolutely fine. I messed up the wrong REV version of the BIOS and my PC decided it only wants to boot with the new PSU (old one works but wont boot my PC) which was causing the exact same behaviour you desribe.

Hope this helps, I made this account specificaly for this thread because I know how frustrating hardware troubleshooting can be and it cost me 3 days of troubleshooting boring diagrams of Mobo's and PSU's to figure out all the grounds and 12v connectors on the board and PSU (I think this is the most boring stuff in the world). So, yeah, hope this helped or maybe helps someone on the future troubleshooting this troubled mobo.