I just finished building a PC with a Ryzen 9 9950X, RTX 5070, 32GB of DDR5-6000 CL30 memory, a 2TB SSD, and an MSI X870E Gaming Plus WiFi motherboard. I double-checked all the connections before powering it on. The fans, AIO, RAM, and GPU all appeared to start normally, and the monitor was connected to the graphics card over HDMI.
During the first boot, a message asking for a Y/N response briefly appeared and then disappeared before I could answer. I repeatedly pressed Delete to enter setup, but the display eventually went blank. The monitor keeps detecting and losing the HDMI signal every few seconds. The system has been sitting like this for about an hour. I also couldn't shut it down normally with the power button.
I know DDR5 memory training can take several minutes on a first boot, but an hour seems excessive. The motherboard's diagnostic LEDs were initially off. After eventually forcing the PC to shut down and restarting it, the green boot LED came on, indicating that no boot device was found or the boot device failed. The SSD is installed securely. I later managed to enter the BIOS by connecting the monitor to the motherboard's HDMI output and pressing Delete repeatedly. Is this expected for a new build, and what should I check next?
2 Answers
The green boot indicator usually means the motherboard completed its basic hardware checks but couldn’t find a bootable operating system. If this is a brand-new SSD, that may be completely normal because Windows or another operating system hasn’t been installed yet. Once you can enter the BIOS, check whether the SSD appears in the storage or NVMe section and confirm that the CPU and memory are detected.
Since the 9950X has integrated graphics, testing from the motherboard video output is useful. If that produces a BIOS screen while the RTX 5070 output does not, reseat the graphics card, check its power connector, and verify the monitor cable and input selection. Once the system is stable, update the motherboard BIOS and install the operating system from a USB installer; the green boot light will remain on until a bootable drive is available.
I eventually reached the BIOS after connecting the monitor to the motherboard’s HDMI port and repeatedly pressing Delete. I’ll check whether the SSD is listed there.