My friend was having overheating issues with their PC, possibly due to a clogged AIO cooler or a failing pump, as it was idling between 85 to 90C even in the BIOS. I suggested they switch to a TT Peerless Assassin 120 air cooler for easier maintenance. After they installed the new cooler, the PC refused to boot and showed a DRAM light on the EZ debug tool. We went through standard troubleshooting steps: testing each RAM stick in every slot and resetting the CMOS. Eventually, only slots 3 and 4 worked, and we lost one RAM stick in the process. The PC had booted perfectly fine a week earlier, but the overheating prompted the cooler change. The backplate was installed carefully, and the CPU wasn't removed. Now, the PC boots, but I'm puzzled about how changing the CPU cooler could cause these issues with the motherboard. I haven't suggested reseating the CPU or loosening the cooler mounting yet, as it might be too tight. Has anyone else faced similar issues? Any insights or help would be greatly appreciated. My friend is disappointed since the initial problem was just overheating; now they have more complications.
2 Answers
It sounds like the motherboard battery might be dead. I recommend resetting the CMOS by turning off the PSU, holding the power button to drain residual power, and removing the battery. If they’re removing the cooler, make sure to apply fresh thermal paste, too. It's possible the previous thermal paste didn't spread correctly or the wrong hardware was used.
I recently had issues with my motherboard not running XMP settings. It was stuck at 2133MHz due to a corrupt BIOS. A quick flashback solved it, so I'd suggest checking the BIOS if you haven't already.
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