I'm putting together my first gaming PC and I've run into some issues. My parts list is all compatible according to the site I used. After finishing the assembly, when I powered it on, both the CPU and DRAM debug LEDs lit up red, indicating a POST failure. Here's a quick rundown of what I've done so far: things are plugged in correctly, the fans and lights turn on, but the CPU cooler fan doesn't spin at all. After letting it sit for over 15 minutes, I removed the RAM and even switched the slots, but still no luck. I also took out the GPU to clear the way for troubleshooting. I'm curious if the RAM frequency could be an issue since it's not on the motherboard's QVL, even though I know people use similar sticks successfully. Plus, I've read that an overtightened CPU cooler could cause detection problems, but I was careful during installation. This is my third weekend trying to get this to work, and I'm feeling stuck. Any insights would be really appreciated!
2 Answers
Check for any bent pins on the CPU socket first, that's a common issue. Also, do consider updating the BIOS using the flashback feature. Even if your BIOS is fairly recent, there can still be improvements or fixes that might just resolve this issue.
It sounds like your CPU connection might be the culprit. If both the CPU and DRAM LEDs are on, that usually means the motherboard is having trouble detecting the CPU first before moving to the DRAM. I’d recommend reseating the CPU and making sure it's seated properly. You might also want to try using only one stick of RAM in the DIMM1 slot to rule out RAM issues.
Thanks for the tip! Is that the typical behavior for ASRock debug LEDs? I always thought if the CPU wasn't detected, it wouldn’t even attempt DRAM initialization. What should I be careful about when reseating the CPU?
I will inspect the socket. But I'm curious, if my motherboard already has version 3.10 installed, which is beyond the required versions for my CPU and RAM, how would a BIOS update help?