Question No ram detected, no display.

Jan 22, 2023
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I replaced a motherboard and cpu last night and I've have been troubleshooting ever since. The motherboard uses the power led to indicate the issue. It says there is no ram detected. All the fans come on, gpu and AIO cooler all running. I have run through ever possibility I could think of. I've built a lot of PCs in the last 7 to 8 years but I've never been this stumped.
  • Checked each stick of ram in dual, single, and all four slots in every configuration possible
  • Wiped the ram down with isopropyl alcohol to make sure they were clean. (yes I made sure they were dry before putting them back in)
  • I've cleared and reset the CMOS twice now in case I didn't actually get a good reset the first time
  • I've double checked that my ram is in fact compatible with my motherboard
  • Plugged in the extra CPU 4 pin power connector
  • Tested each stick of ram individually and then all 4 together in a seperate pc to confirm they all work
  • Reseated the cpu twice and double checked that there are no bent pins on my motherboard (I have a pair of jewelers magnifying glasses specifically for this)
  • The cpu doesn't have integrated graphics but I tried to see if I could get a display out of the motherboard hdmi anyways (getting desperate)
  • Put the GPU into a seperate system to make sure it was working (desperate)
  • I've tried to run it off of only one storage device (very desperate)
  • Last resort pulled every out of the case went to bare bones and jumped it with all 4 sticks of ram one at a time, then dual, then quad, and still no dice
The only thing I have not tried and cannot try is flashing the bios. The mother board doesn't need have the ability to flash without getting into the bios system. I would attempt to use the motherboard in the other pc and test it that way but it's a different chipset and I only have the one LGA 1700 chip on me right now. I'm thinking the motherboard was DOA. The peripherals do not power up along with the rest of the components which seems odd. Every time I've had failure to display in the past my peripherals would come on with the rest of the components.

Specs:
  • Asus Prime Z690M-Plus D4 (MoBo)
  • Intel I7 13700KF (CPU)
  • 4 sticks of 8gb Corsair Vengeance RGB Pro 3200mhz (Ram)
  • Corsair RX750Watt (PSU)
  • EVGA 3060Ti FTW (GPU)
  • Corsair H100i water cooler with the LGA 1700 bracket kit (AIO)
  • Booting off a Crucial 1TB SSD with windows already on it. (Storage)
  • Corsair Crystal series case
 
Yeah, I also think it might b your motherboard. It might b that the motherboard is using an older BIOS version, upgrading the BIOS might be necessary to support the RAM sticks. Otherwise, chances are it was DOA like you said. I double-checked the compatibility and everything seemed fine. It might also be worth trying to boot up from a new SSD with a fresh install of Windows. It could be that the preferences you had set up in your previous system can be messing with your RAM.
 
Yeah, I also think it might b your motherboard. It might b that the motherboard is using an older BIOS version, upgrading the BIOS might be necessary to support the RAM sticks. Otherwise, chances are it was DOA like you said. I double-checked the compatibility and everything seemed fine. It might also be worth trying to boot up from a new SSD with a fresh install of Windows. It could be that the preferences you had set up in your previous system can be messing with your RAM.
Yeah I think that'll be the next step before buying a new mobo. I replaced the CMOS battery and no dice either. This will be the last time I ever attempt a build with a mobo that doesn't have a manual bios flash option.
 
Hahaha yeah, I can imagine. Either way, lmk if using a fresh windows install helped🙌
Alright well I think I've figured out my issue but it's yet to be tested. So the motherboard requires a bios update like you said to recognize the ram when using a 13th gen cpu, hence the ram detection issue. Only problem is there's no bios flash on this mobo so in order to update the bios you have to use a 12th gen processor to get the computer to post. In the mobo pamphlet it acts as though you can flash off a USB by just plugging it in while the pc is on and the Asus EZ flash will do it for you even without a display. But what it failed to mention is that also for whatever reason requires a compatible 12th gen processor to be installed. So I'm going to either find a 12th gen processor to borrow or return the motherboard and get one with a bios flash feature. Really quite annoying that a Z series motherboard doesn't come with that feature.

TLDR: Mobo has no bios flash feature w/o 12 gen cpu. 13th gen is not compatible until mobo is flashed. Good ol' Asus Catch 22.