Solid red on the EZ Debug LED

[relaxation]

Hello, I've picked up an MSI PRO B660-A DDR4 motherboard, G.Skill 32GB kit of 3200 RAM, and Scythe Fuma 2 rev.b off of amazon but an intel 12500 second hand that was advertised as working was delivered today (looks immaculate on the underside) and so far all I have achieved after the power is applied are the following; fans spin up and the EZ Debug LED flashes red and for a split second it will change to orange then back to red and stays solid, or more uncommonly it will flash red, orange, red, then reboot and be solid red, and I've allowed it to stay that way for 5 minutes before cutting power.

 

A keyboard, monitor connected with a DP cable to the igpu, and I've also had an GTX960 attached in other attempts today (I'm using said keyboard, monitor, and gpu to write this post), but no logos ever displayed.

I've swapped PSUs, different brands of 1 stick of RAM, different mounting pressures for the heatsink, reseating the cpu, and made sure the instructions from MSI were correct (cpu pcb is keyed to only install one way, no triangles on the socket), clearing the bios, reseated all the cables multiples times (EPS, 24pin, cpu_fan), and reseated the ram into different slots as well.

I've read the README , the MSI post , and checked the socket for bent pins but it appears to be fine to me.

I'm thinking I have to run to a store and swap CPUs to rule out any compatibility issues with firmware (which I cannot seem to flash without a working cpu), is there something I missed?

[SpookyCitrus]

It's either the bios firmware isn't up to date enough to work with the 12500 or the CPU is dead and you got scammed. I would try updating the bios firmware first personally.

[CommanderAlex]

8 minutes ago, relaxation said:

but an intel 12500 second hand that was advertised as working was delivered today (looks immaculate on the underside)

They can always be dead internally. A red POST LED is a CPU error so I would start there and swap out the CPU for a new CPU to see if anything changes since you have already done everything I would try to do. 

[relaxation]

I could return the cpu within 30 days to the seller if it was defective, microcenter wants $30 for them to update the firmware with an appointment 

checked repair shops more local to home, $199 to perform the firmware upgrade 

[relaxation]

Drove an hr, waited 3 in microcenter to perform the firmware update (during 4090s launch day), 12500 was in fact dead, sent it back with a copy of the microcenter receipt and the refund appears to be going ahead, but I had picked up a nicely priced 12400 (secondary market again) and it's up and running for 24h.

 

after it was confirmed running I had a chance to swap the ILM. I had reseated the heatsink so many times I was aware of the uneven contact in the middle of the cpu, after I had affixed the unit with new paste I backed off the screws to pull up the heatsink and I thought suction or dried paste was holding it but after twisting and lifting the heatsink it was such a clean spread I was impressed.

 

a few quirks with the default options with the motherboard, secure boot enabled and almost all options to wake from sleep were disabled 

 

anyway, thanks guys. and good luck to any of you people from the future reading this.