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ASUS P8Z77-V LK DRAM LED flashes once, beeps once

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  • Asus
  • Light
  • LED Monitor
  • DRAM
  • Motherboards
Last response: in Motherboards
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April 12, 2013 8:26:24 PM

Utterly clueless here, hoping someone can help me. :)  Here's what's happening:

I just built my first computer (listed all the components below). I get ready to set up the BIOS, and try to turn it on for the first time. The fans & associated LEDs come on, and it beeps once, but other than that, nothing.

I pop the case open and repeat. The green standby power LED on the motherboard comes on as soon as the I/O switch on the rear gets flipped on. Pressing the power button on the case turns all the fans and LEDs on, and causes the DRAM LED to light up briefly, then switch off and stay off. The motherboard speaker beeps briefly about the same time the DRAM LED does its thing.

After doing some research I learn that it might be a DIMM socket problem. So I pull the memory sticks out, and try all possible single-stick and dual-stick combinations. In one instance (of course I forgot the combination I was using, haven't been able to repeat it :(  ), instead of flashing once and then staying off, the DRAM light starts blinking. I hold down the MemOK button, and it runs through the tuning sequence, and then the LED lights up again and stays on, which according to the manual means it doesn't recognize the memory I'm trying to use.

More research. I look at the QVL in the manual for my memory sticks, and it turns out they're not on there. This makes me think that I simply need different RAM ... except that when I look at the online QVL to see what else I should get, the memory I'm trying to use is listed as one of the options. Furthermore, I came across a number of threads listing the same memory working with the same motherboard as a working build.

So as far as I can tell, it seems there are options:
#1: The DIMM sockets aren't working. (But presumably some of them are, otherwise it wouldn't have run through that tuning process the one time.
#2: There's something wrong with both sticks of RAM.
#3: Both the DIMM sockets and the RAM are fine, but the BIOS that the motherboard came with isn't compatible with the RAM I'm trying to use, which would explain why that RAM is not listed as an option in the printed manual, but is in the online list.

In other words, I have no idea what I'm doing, and I'm really hoping I can find out what's wrong so I can turn what is currently a fancy paperweight into something useful. :) 

Motherboard: ASUS P8Z77-V LK
CPU: Intel Core i5-3570K LGA1155
Memory: G.SKILL Sniper Low Voltage Series 8GB (2 x 4GB)
GPU: XFX AMD Radeon HD 7870
PSU: Rosewill HIVE Series HIVE-750 750W
HDD: Western Digital WD Black 1TB 3.5”
SSD: SanDisk SDSSDP-064G-G25
Optical Drive: LG Black 12X BD-ROM

More about : asus p8z77 dram led flashes beeps

a b Ĉ ASUS
a b V Motherboard
April 12, 2013 9:38:54 PM

Unfortunately, it could be option #3, but you have one of the few boards Asus ships without the BIOS flashback functionality which enables to update the BIOS with just the power attached to the motherboard and a USB stick with the new BIOS on it attached to the motherboard.

I would doubt it's a RAM socket issue. Any chance you can get a hold of at least one stick of DDR3 RAM from somewhere else and stick it in the new system to see if it will boot that way? Or you could go to the store and pick up some sticks on the QVL and return the old sticks (before the price of RAM really starts to go up)?
a c 150 Ĉ ASUS
a c 559 V Motherboard
April 12, 2013 10:03:34 PM

I suggest leaving only one RAM stick installed, removing the graphics card and connecting the monitor to the onboard DVI port, removing the SSD and leaving only the DVD drive and testing again. It should work. Single beep means all checked. The DRAM led is supposed to flash once (memory checked).
In the instance you mentioned (led blinking) I guess that the RAM stick was not properly inserted.
It might be a HDMI connection issue -low resolution not supported (if using HDMI).
Related resources
April 13, 2013 2:23:14 AM

alexoiu said:
I suggest leaving only one RAM stick installed, removing the graphics card and connecting the monitor to the onboard DVI port, removing the SSD and leaving only the DVD drive and testing again. It should work. Single beep means all checked. The DRAM led is supposed to flash once (memory checked).
In the instance you mentioned (led blinking) I guess that the RAM stick was not properly inserted.
It might be a HDMI connection issue -low resolution not supported (if using HDMI).


Tried this, and it finally got to BIOS! Then decided to experiment and see what components were messing things up. Fortunately, it worked with all but one. Unfortunately, it was the graphics card. :/ 

Currently trying to figure out if it needs some prerequisite software installed to work, or if it's a dud (one of the gold contacts for the PCI slot does look significantly different from the others, but for all I know that's normal). Thanks for helping me fix this!
April 13, 2013 3:56:09 AM

The slot you might be seeing is normal PCI, the one to put most graphics cards in is PCI-Express (or AGP if its older)
a c 150 Ĉ ASUS
a c 559 V Motherboard
April 13, 2013 7:03:39 AM

What's the board BIOS version?
HAve you tried inserting the graphics card in the white slot?
What power supply using? Does it provide the necessary PCIe power cables for the graphics card?
April 13, 2013 9:03:44 PM

alexoiu said:
What's the board BIOS version?
HAve you tried inserting the graphics card in the white slot?
What power supply using? Does it provide the necessary PCIe power cables for the graphics card?


Putting it in the white slot did the trick! Turned out the board's BIOS was the next-to-most recent one. Out of curiosity, what is the difference between the white PCIe slot and the light blue one ... or was the light blue one not a PCIe slot at all?

Either way, problems solved! Thank you everyone who posted!
a c 150 Ĉ ASUS
a c 559 V Motherboard
April 13, 2013 11:47:26 PM

Theoretically, there's no difference (both running at x16), but ASUS recommends using the blue one for better performance.
Now, why the blue one does not work? Faulty slot, or CPU socket bent pins, or graphics card not properly inserted.
If you are happy with the card running in the second slot, you can leave it as it is. I guess you don't intend using Crossfire.
Another option: reseat the CPU and inspect the socket for bent pins. Or RMA the board.
April 14, 2013 3:25:33 AM

On a lot of boards the second PCIE slot actually runs at x4 mode which is slower while the top slot one near the CPU runs at full x16.

Don't know why they do it like that, but you need to check the specs for that board on the makers website and it should say if both slots are full x16 or not.
a b Ĉ ASUS
a b V Motherboard
April 15, 2013 4:35:05 AM

Ed Robinson said:
On a lot of boards the second PCIE slot actually runs at x4 mode which is slower while the top slot one near the CPU runs at full x16.

Don't know why they do it like that, but you need to check the specs for that board on the makers website and it should say if both slots are full x16 or not.


There aren't any SLI boards (like the P8Z77-V LK) out there that are SLI-Ready with a second PCIe slot that runs in x4 mode. On this board, if the second PCIe 3.0 slot is populated, both slot 1 and 2 will run in x8 mode (x8/x8), if only the first is populated, it will run in x16 mode.

But, if the board's marked SLI-Ready, you can bet it's going to at a minimum have an x8/x8. If it has is marked crossfire-ready, you might still see something like x16/x4 (even though it's still not ideal for crossfire).

The fact of the matter is, PCIe 3.0 x8 slot will have the same bandwidth as a PCIe 2.0 x16 slot. Even the latest gen video cards haven't require more than this.
May 30, 2013 12:28:34 PM

This is probably a stupid question but did you remember to plug the power supply to your graphics card?
!