Asus Motherboard Red Cpu and Dram LED

TheHow NotTo · Oct 25, 2014

I have recently attempted to build my first pc, unfortunately I have run into a few problems. First let me start off by saying I wanted this to be a basic streaming pc that could be upgraded later when I got the money to do so. Whenever I start it up the fans and lights all turn on but their is no signal going to the monitor, the cpu and dram led flash (alternating between the two)
I checked all the connections took everything apart and put it back together with just the bare minimum (1 stick of ram, cpu and cooler, ssd only, and the optical drive) and still got the same thing.
Here are the specs:

Tower/Chassis: NZXT SWITCH 810 White
Cpu: Intel Core i7-4790K 4.1 GHz
Motherboard: ASUS Z97-PRO
Ram: Corsair Dominator Platinum 32GB
Psu: NZXT HALE90 V2 1200W
SSD: Samsung 250GB SSD

I do not have a gpu yet but I do plan on getting one, If I can get this to work

I am also new here so I don't know what you all need to know for sure.

13thmonkey · Oct 25, 2014

do you have a memory test button that will test various memory settings?

TheHow NotTo · Oct 25, 2014

Their is a MemOk button

13thmonkey · Oct 25, 2014

and if you press it?

TheHow NotTo · Oct 25, 2014

It restarts and does the same thing

13thmonkey · Oct 26, 2014

hmm, mine used to cycle through testing various ram settings and then would start, sometimes, I dread bios updating. if you press mem ok with only couple of sticks. Also can your board cope with 8GB sticks at all?

TheHow NotTo · Oct 26, 2014

I honestly would not know. I can always try with 2 sticks. I look at the numbers displayed on the board and it has the standard installing cpu and stuff like that but then it gets to the ram and briefly flashes the code for ram incompatibility. Is their a way to reset an overclock on ram or not? Im sure that is one of the problems.

13thmonkey · Oct 26, 2014

Have you tried OCing it then?

CMOS reset will do that, there might even be a button for it.

So are you able to get into BIOS then?

TheHow NotTo · Oct 26, 2014

I didn't overclock them, I bought them that way. I did try a CMOS reset but I probably didn't do it right ._.
I have yet to get into BIOS.

TheHow NotTo · Oct 26, 2014

So I went and wrote down all the Q codes that are displayed on the board and this is what I got (in order of how they are displayed)
00
21
33
35
37
3E
3A
3C
39
9F
40
58
then it goes back to 00 and does it all again. I looked these up and the only one that sounds wrong is the 58 which according to the motherboard manual and it says "CPU self test failed or possible CPU cache error"

13thmonkey · Oct 27, 2014

is your cpu on the approve list for your bios revision? Can't see how it can't be.

TheHow NotTo · Oct 27, 2014

I checked on their site and it said that it was ok.

frag06 · Oct 27, 2014

Have you made sure the RAM is correctly seated? Sometimes it takes a lot of force before it clicks in properly.

Try different RAM slots if everything is seated correctly and see what happens. If the CPU POST light is on, try removing and reseating it as well.

Does the CPU POST light blink when there is no RAM installed?

Try removing the CMOS battery for 10 - 15 mins. It shouldn't take that long to reset the BIOS, but may as well be sure it is reset.

TheHow NotTo · Oct 27, 2014

without ram in the Q codes displayed are 00, 13, 15, then FE. It essentialy does the same thing though (starts up fans, then cpu light flashes then the dram light flashes) and I have updated the bios though usb bios flashback, I have tried removing the CMOS battery, I have moved the jumpers ext. I am getting worried I may have gotten a bad part.

13thmonkey · Oct 28, 2014

something is dead, probably CPU, as you'd unlucky to have so many faulty memory sticks.

TheHow NotTo · Oct 28, 2014

As it turns out I got sent the wrong RAM. Had a few people look at it and that's what they said so sending it back and getting different ram. Thanks anyway!

13thmonkey · Oct 28, 2014

hmm, wrong in what sense? too high a voltage?

frag06 · Oct 28, 2014

TheHow NotTo :

13thmonkey :

I would like to know as well. Pretty much any RAM should be compatible with that board.

I don't think any RAM (available for sale) runs over 1.65V, which is fine with a 4790K. Unless it was defective, I'm not sure what he means.

TheHow NotTo · Oct 28, 2014

I ordered the CMD32GX3M4A1866C10 version of the ram. According to the manual it only supports CMD32GX3M4A1866C9. The timing of the ram I ordered was incompatible with the motherboard I have.
A friend and I did some trial and error runs with it and found out it was the problem. When we take out the ram the Q-code displayed is FE. And since that is displayed it means the cpu is working but the ram is not/not being picked up by the board.

frag06 · Oct 29, 2014

TheHow NotTo :

Hmm, that is very weird. Almost any RAM should work with your board, including the RAM you have. The RAM listed as compatible in the manual is just RAM that Asus tested themselves, and they can't test every stick out there.

13thmonkey · Oct 29, 2014

^+1, very odd that CL10 didn't work but CL9 does.

TheHow NotTo · Nov 18, 2014

Ok sorry for being gone for so long, I was waiting for the new and proper ram. So I put all the ram in and I get these codes in this order. I labled them with what the mauel said but im not 100% as some of them are not listed (ie 21 is not in the book)

00 - not used
21 -
33 - cpu-post memory initialization
35 - cpu-post memory initialization
39 - post-memory system agent initialization is started
37 - post-memory system agent initialization is started
38 - post-memory system agent initialization is started
3e - post-memory PCH initialization is started
3a - post-memory system agent initialization is started
13 - pre-memory cpu initialization is started
15 - pre-memory sytem agent initilization is started
00 - not used

Also still no signal on the monitor and no post.

Jaysen · May 14, 2015

I've got the same problem, except...

I have an ASUS Z97-A USB 3.1 with a Intel Core i5-4590 3.3GHz and corsair Vengeance Pro 16GB (2 x 8GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1866 (CMY16GX3M2A1866C9R)

Everything was working fine for about 2 weeks. Then one day, out of the blue, it wouldn't boot up. I opened the case and saw that the DRAM and CPU LED's where flashing alternately. The manual says that if there is a fault that the LED will be steady, not flashing. Flashing indicates either the boot process or that MEMOKAY is testing various settings. Well, I haven't messed with any settings. So, the only thing that changed before the failure is regular software patches. Maybe a patch to the ASUS MB monitoring software changed?

mbenson12235 · Jul 5, 2015

frag06 :

I had the same issue with my motherboard but the cpu led does not blink after taking out the ram.

13thmonkey · Jul 5, 2015

mbenson12235 :

frag06 :

I had the same issue with my motherboard but the cpu led does not blink after taking out the ram.

It would be best if you tried the things in this thread and then started your own thread.

Asus Motherboard Red Cpu and Dram LED

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