DRAM Light On/No Display — Asus TUF Gaming B550M-Plus

[dylanreadel]

I am looking for help with my recent build:

 

• Asus TUF Gaming B550M-Plus Mobo
• Ryzen 7 3700X CPU
• Corsair H115i RGB Platinum CPU Cooler
• Asus Strix GTX 1080 GPU
• 2x16GB 3200MHz DDR4 Corsair Vengeance Pro RAM
• Corsair RM850x 80Plus Gold PSU
• Corsair Crystal Series 280X Micro ATX Case

 

Upon booting up the PC for the first time, all the RGB lights and fans turned on, but there was no display output. I eventually noticed that the DRAM Q-LED indicator was lit up orange on the motherboard.
 

I immediately looked up what this meant and checked the mobo manual. It seems the most common problem is improperly seated ram or bad ram. I tried reseating the ram in every configuration including 1 stick at a time in every slot. I also tried brand new ram that is going into a separate PC and the DRAM light remained on.

 

Other solutions I tried include checking to see if the RAM slots were clean, clearing the CMOS, ensuring all power cables were plugged in correctly, and finally rebuilding the PC entirely to make sure the CPU was properly seated and no pins were broken. Everything seems to be fine and to be honest this isn’t my first rodeo with PC building, however, I’m no expert. I have seen online that the problem is usually the RAM, can sometimes be the CPU (that’s where the RAM controller is), and sometimes can be the motherboard. 
 

The motherboard is still within the return window and still under the repair warranty. Does anyone have any last solutions, or should I return the mobo and purchase a different one? 
 

UPDATES:

 

I flashed the bios with the newest version from a USB using the bios flashback button and drive on the rear I/O, but this didn’t change anything. 
 

I removed all drives including a fresh m.2 nvme, but this didn’t change anything. 

[Guest]

Maybe try boot without any drives plugged in and see if anything changes. My DRAM light was on too and it only made it to BIOS like 5% of the time, turns out it was a faulty NVMe drive (which was brand new along with the motherboard) and now it works perfectly since I got rid of the drive.

[dylanreadel]

On 12/9/2020 at 7:10 PM, RAINMAKER04 said:

Maybe try boot without any drives plugged in and see if anything changes. My DRAM light was on too and it only made it to BIOS like 5% of the time, turns out it was a faulty NVMe drive (which was brand new along with the motherboard) and now it works perfectly since I got rid of the drive.

Well I have to say this got my hopes up because I have a brand new m.2 nvme drive on this board that I kind of forgot about because it’s under the GPU, and consequently I hadn’t thought of taking it out. Unfortunately, taking it out and disconnecting all my drives didn’t change anything, but thanks for the tip, I’m sure it’ll help someone else! 

[knikiforuk]

Hey, did you ever end up resolving this?  I'm having the exact same problem!  I've tried taking out all of the RAM, video card and m.2 NVMe drive with no luck.

[knikiforuk]

Turns out I was trying to use firmware for the B550-plus when I have a B550m-plus *facepalm*

[TylerSP]

Hi knikforuk I used to use a Core 2 System purposely flashed with a BIOS from a similar board and the same chipset for better OC support. It might be possible for you to reverse the process by loading up the USB stick with the correct BIOS for your board and trying to flash it again. If it is out of warranty and all else fails it might be possible to use soldering to remove the bios chip and get a new one with working firmware and get it soldered on. Otherwise it might be time to call your motherboard vendor.

 

dylanreadel, can you verify that the ram works in another system? Perhaps ask a friend with a compatible motherboard? if it is possible see if you can have a friend validate the motherboard if your friend successfully validates your ram. Remember to validate the memory you'll need your friend to run 2 passes of memtest without errors. if it fails RMAing the ram will possibly fix your problem.

 

Both of you, let me know if this was helpful, and good luck guys!

[Duen]

Did you ever solve this issue? I have the same board and the same issue. I've tried with other RAM sticks, another CPU, GPU, PSU, without storage connected, 3 different monitors, flashing the BIOS, but nothing gives me image on the screen and DRAM light stays on.

What I can assume happened is that a single bent pin on the first CPU might've shorted the board. I managed to fix the pin and the CPU was installed without issues, but I didn't get any image displayed. Could this kill the motherboard?