3950x Dram error after windows update (stuck in a boot loop)

[Nicolabus]

Hi everyone!

I recently bought all the component for my first workstation, taking my time and safe measure (anti static wrist strap) yesterday I started to build it.

Finished, double checked everything, I booted the system for the first time and I entered the bios. Here I checked that all the component were recognized and found that the 2x ram stick were a little bit slower than they are, so I just clicked on "XMP", it found the right memory and i just saved. Made a Usb windows installer and Installed windows 10 Educational.

Everything worked just fine so one of the first thing i tried in windows was to activate bluetooth and pair my keyboard and mouse without a great success: it paired but i couldn't use it.

So I plugged a ethernet cable and just went to update windows. The system found 3 update, downloaded them and started to install. When they finished to install it asked for a restart of the pc, so i just clicked and everything went wrong.

 

The screen went black, the system entered a sort of "boot loop" (every of the component seems to work, start the fans but never boot), Dram red led is on and there is an error code "4d".

I'm not more able to boot (screen black, no input), I can't access the bios (tried clicking delete key but nothing happens). It seems like I can't do anything.

 

Since than I tried to:

- Consulted the manual + forum

- Check that every cable was connected

- Re-seated the Ram (tried first with 1 stick in every slot, than with the other one, and with both at the same time)

- Checked the Ram (pins seems fine, the only thing I noticed is that when i power the system the rgb of the ram light up a bit slower, maybe 5 seconds)

- Unmounted everything and rebuilded outside the case

- I checked the 3950x CPU and the pins are perfectly ok, thermal paste re-applied and mounted aio (I even tried to loosen up a bit the aio)

- Tried to boot without GPU, Ssd M.2, Usb Keyboard or mouse but nothing change

- I tried to reset the cmos pushing the button on the MB and I even took out the cmos battery for 10 min

- My MB has a dual bios switch: I tried to start the system with every combinations but nothing..

 

 

These are the components:

- Amd Ryzen 3950x

- Aorus x570 Master (Rev.1.0)

- G.Skill Trident z rgb (2x 16gb, 3600) -> this was positioned in the A2, B2 ram slot

- Cooler Master ML360r aio

- Msi RTX 2080ti gaming x trio

- wd black sn750 gaming (500gb, M.2)

- Corsair RM850

 

I used pcpartpicker and tried my best to search components that had no issue of compatibility.

 

Now: 

It's a killer rig and I worked so much for being able to buy it and now I just don't know what to do.

What's strange for me it's that everything worked just fine until the windows update, no errors, no red led.

How can I procede?

 

1) in theory Dram led = ram problem right? I don't know anyone that has build a pc so I cannot ask someone to lent me his ram to test it

2) On the motherboard it's displayed a error code "4d", but on the manual it doesn't exist.. is it possible it is D4 (PCI resource allocation error. Out of Resources)?

3) Can that be just be a defected motherboard? Or it could be the cpu or ram that failed?

4) Is it a windows problem? faulty drivers? Update?

5) Should i try to flash a new bios? I can't access the bios but I think can use "Q-Flash +" and a usb stick (I read that I have to empty every ram slot, cpu and just connect the 24pin cable, is it right?)

 

6) [in case] I think I can just return the component as defected. If that's the case is it safer that i return just the motherboard, just the ram sticks, just the cpu or the three together? I still have 2 weeks for the return policy and it would be a big mess if for example the problem wasn't the motherboard but the cpu or the ram...

 

Thank you everybody for the help, sorry I really don't know what to do, I hope i was detailed enough..

Have a great weekend everyone

N.

[Nicolabus]

Has anyone had the same problem? How did you solve it?

[Arttu89]

Quote

1) in theory Dram led = ram problem right? I don't know anyone that has build a pc so I cannot ask someone to lent me his ram to test it

Technically it means that's where the MB failed to initialise within the boot process, but doesn't necessarily mean it's the RAM sticks, might be a MB issue as well as a memory controller issue on the CPU.

Quote

2) On the motherboard it's displayed a error code "4d", but on the manual it doesn't exist.. is it possible it is D4 (PCI resource allocation error. Out of Resources)?

 I've had a look through the manual for that board there are other fault codes that have a digit first and a letter second, it's possible that 4d is a code that Gigabyte uses for some QC within the factory, but they don't expect it to come up once the customer gets the board, you could try writing to Gigabyte support describing your issue, they might be able to tell you something we can't.

Quote

3) Can that be just be a defected motherboard? Or it could be the cpu or ram that failed?

It could be either of the three or a combination of those, without having extra hardware to cross check it's difficult to tell.

Quote

4) Is it a windows problem? faulty drivers? Update?

BIOS initialises before the system, so even if the system installation was corrupted somehow it would boot up to system initialisation, but not restrict you from getting into the BIOS. If I understood your explanation correctly you tried booting the PC without any drives connected and you still weren't able to get into BIOS setup.

Quote

5) Should i try to flash a new bios? I can't access the bios but I think can use "Q-Flash +" and a usb stick (I read that I have to empty every ram slot, cpu and just connect the 24pin cable, is it right?)

It's definitely an option, although I'd try writing to Gigabyte support first. There's an instruction on how to use Q-Flash Plus in the manual for your MB. You only have to remove the CPU, but it also works if everything is removed from the MB. Given the amount of issues you were getting, if you get to doing that, I would probably do it without anything attached to the mobo.

Quote

6) [in case] I think I can just return the component as defected. If that's the case is it safer that i return just the motherboard, just the ram sticks, just the cpu or the three together? I still have 2 weeks for the return policy and it would be a big mess if for example the problem wasn't the motherboard but the cpu or the ram...

My gut feeling would be that something happened on the mobo after the reset, you'd have to be very unlucky for all three components to fail.

Quote

How can I procede?

The couple things I would do (not necessarily in this order):

   1) Take it apart and then:

      - put just the CPU and RAM in

      - ensure both the 24-pin and 8-pin power connectors are properly connected to the mobo (for sake of mind plug both 8-pins in)

      - turn it on without a GPU and see how far you get on the LEDs and error codes alone

If the errors on the mobo don't appear at that point, start adding things one by one and turning everything on after each component you attach ie add 2nd RAM stick and check to what point it boots, then add the GPU and connect a monitor and see if it boots to the BIOS, if it fails after connecting the GPU try moving the GPU to a diffrent PCI slot and retry. Occasionally a bad PCIe slot can cause odd boot behavior aswell.

   2) If at all possible try cross checking the components with known working parts, maybe any of your friends has a similar enough system and they'd be willing to borrow you at least their RAM or maybe you could take your system to their place and check your parts in their computer.

   3) Make sure all the slots and sockets are clean and no dust accidently got anywhere

   4) Write to Gigabyte tech support with an explanation of your issue, see if they can give you any advice on how to procede.

   5) If after the above points you still can't find the issue then return/RMA the parts that you think are most likely to be causing the problems you have.

[Nicolabus]

On 12/22/2019 at 1:52 PM, Arttu89 said:

Technically it means that's where the MB failed to initialise within the boot process, but doesn't necessarily mean it's the RAM sticks, might be a MB issue as well as a memory controller issue on the CPU.

 I've had a look through the manual for that board there are other fault codes that have a digit first and a letter second, it's possible that 4d is a code that Gigabyte uses for some QC within the factory, but they don't expect it to come up once the customer gets the board, you could try writing to Gigabyte support describing your issue, they might be able to tell you something we can't.

It could be either of the three or a combination of those, without having extra hardware to cross check it's difficult to tell.

BIOS initialises before the system, so even if the system installation was corrupted somehow it would boot up to system initialisation, but not restrict you from getting into the BIOS. If I understood your explanation correctly you tried booting the PC without any drives connected and you still weren't able to get into BIOS setup.

It's definitely an option, although I'd try writing to Gigabyte support first. There's an instruction on how to use Q-Flash Plus in the manual for your MB. You only have to remove the CPU, but it also works if everything is removed from the MB. Given the amount of issues you were getting, if you get to doing that, I would probably do it without anything attached to the mobo.

My gut feeling would be that something happened on the mobo after the reset, you'd have to be very unlucky for all three components to fail.

The couple things I would do (not necessarily in this order):

   1) Take it apart and then:

      - put just the CPU and RAM in

      - ensure both the 24-pin and 8-pin power connectors are properly connected to the mobo (for sake of mind plug both 8-pins in)

      - turn it on without a GPU and see how far you get on the LEDs and error codes alone

If the errors on the mobo don't appear at that point, start adding things one by one and turning everything on after each component you attach ie add 2nd RAM stick and check to what point it boots, then add the GPU and connect a monitor and see if it boots to the BIOS, if it fails after connecting the GPU try moving the GPU to a diffrent PCI slot and retry. Occasionally a bad PCIe slot can cause odd boot behavior aswell.

   2) If at all possible try cross checking the components with known working parts, maybe any of your friends has a similar enough system and they'd be willing to borrow you at least their RAM or maybe you could take your system to their place and check your parts in their computer.

   3) Make sure all the slots and sockets are clean and no dust accidently got anywhere

   4) Write to Gigabyte tech support with an explanation of your issue, see if they can give you any advice on how to procede.

   5) If after the above points you still can't find the issue then return/RMA the parts that you think are most likely to be causing the problems you have.

Thank you very much! I tried everything you posted but at the end nothing changed.. So I'm just returning the Motherboard and I'll see what happen.

Again thank you for the help!

Have a great day!

N.