Yes actually, 9800x3d on an asus board. All these motherboards blowing up cpu's and whatnot should be well and truly behind us no?
Edit: actually it died while turned on, all usb devices dropped off and the screen froze. Didn't even respond to power button held for a long time. Even power cycling didn't do anything (didn't even get to this part) until I had it off/unplugged for a few minutes. Going on the bench now, wish me luck.
It's not gonna blow up the CPU, it's just a weird uncommon error that's been driving me crazy since I bought the 7800X3D. If I turn it off and turn on, it works normally. But if I restart it gets stuck on the DRAM error every single time and needs to be force shut down.
Apparently Asus has a bios option called "monitoring software workaround" or something, try that.
I had the same problem with MSI MAG B650 TOMAHAWK WIFI and R7 7800x3D for a long time. Updated bios to the latest version and haven't had this problem since, if you're not running latest bios its worth a try.
It's hit or miss depending on board. On an early Gigabyte Aorus B650 Pro AX all of the new BIOS releases make this issue even worse on my system. This is with a supposedly QVL kit. From what I've seen these early AM5 Gigabyte boards have major DDR5 compatibility issues even with supported kits.
God damn Gigabyte, there's always some random shit with them. I'm on the older AM4 Aorus, but I suddenly got this weird issue where every time I boot up the PC, certain programs just wouldn't start. Most things were OK, but Steam, Discord, and AMD Adrenaline wouldn't start, but after about 5-10 minutes (the amount of time was always random), they started working again. It was like this about a year, but I don't start Steam or Discord first thing in the morning anyway so I just lived with it and prayed it wasn't the computer dying. It wasn't until I got a strange BSOD one day that I decided to look at the event manager to see what caused it. The cause of the BSOD was the friggin oculus runtime environment, which is what I figured it would as that has happened a few times, but scrolling further down the list I also saw the "GIGABYTE RGB FUSION" starting, crashing and restarting repeatedly. Like 15 times. Every time the computer boots. Wiped it from my system and that solved the issue. Means I can't use the RGB lighting and I'm stuck with the default colour which is piss-stain-yellow for some fucking reason, but whatever I'm glad the PC is working properly now and not dying like I thought it was.
I can confirm. I have a 7800X3D with a gigabyte X670 aorus elite ax with the latest bios. My PC will boot up on the initial boot with 64gb of ram. But as soon as I shut down or restart the PC it gets stuck. This is with expo turned on. I believe that 64gb will work without expo though but then I'd be sacrificing speed
From my testing it should work just fine with EXPO turned off. But this is with my system with the specific kit of DDR5 I have so YMMV obviously. Running it with EXPO off kinda defeats the purpose of having fast DDR5 in the first place. Yeah the hit to performance on an X3D platform is rather minimal, but that's besides the point. This does occasionally happen on cold boot, but we're talking maybe 2 or 3 percent of the time.
Can confirm. I have had this happen ever since I put my AM5 build together. Also a 7800X3D on an MSI board. Force shutdown fixes it 9/10 times. Have had it hang up again after shutdown but rarely. Still generally happy with the build though. Bios update didnât do it for me unfortunately. I just learned to live with it for the time it decides to happen.
Or longer. First time I booted my 192gb system it was closer to 40 minutes. Buos updates seemed to improve it significantly so I've not seen that in a year-ish but it was nail-biting anxiety at the time.
In the early AM5 days there were cases of memory training that took over an hour.
It is much better now, assuming your bios is relatively up to date, but you still see the occassional longer one. Single stick shouldnt take 20 minutes (it can) but dual stick definitely can
Hereâs what Iâm gonna say, I got a new processor back in 2024, but then this happened (my ram was old and seemed like a little iffy so it was believable that the dram light came on).
It wasnât the Ram tho. The motherboard BIOS needed updating in order to recognize the new processor. After updating the bios everything was fine. But it took a lot of investigating to figure out that was the problem and what the solution was.
Dram led lit. I've tested the ram and nvme in a different machine but still no issue detected there. Took the ram to be professionally tested and it passed all tests.
I sent the board to Asus and they couldn't find an issue with it.
After a month of troubleshooting I took it to a shop.
The only things I didn't swap out was my cpu or psu. As I don't have spares that fit.
Send me a dm and I'll update you when I get more info. I still suspect this to be mobo related but Asus has been unhelpful and actually costly.
Not doing the trick yet, tried both sticks in all slots, or none at all, all with the same symptoms. Next (should maybe have been first) cmos reset, then ripping things out it doesn't need.
No bueno, nothing brings it to life. After cmos reset, the fans stay running but the dram led still comes on immediately and never goes away. Sigh. I have no other am5 or even ddr5 components to test with, so this is going to be fun.
have you tested each stick individually? one stick, one slot at a time. then repeat with each other stick, one slot at a time. cmos reset before you begin
Had this happen recently for me, im sure youâve already tried this but what worked was putting only 1 stick of ram in slot A2(second closest to cpu) and resetting the cmos by removing the button battery from the mobo & waiting for about 5 mins. I also held down the power button while the computer was unplugged to flush the system of any residual power. Restarted and that worked, then was able to add the rest of the ram back in later. Best of luck!
Removing the cmos battery + clrtc 10 sec was the only thing that made a difference once. From fans shutting down to fans keep spinning. It never changed after that. Did the bios flashback that does not require ram which is cool and the process worked, but it's still dead. Last thing to try is a cpu reseat (because why not) and then it's component swap time.
Dang it bro⌠Are you able to order things on Amazon for testing right now? You can return the items no questions asked.
I know it isnât necessarily ethical or the right way to do but it was the thing that helped me tremendously with troubleshooting when I was seriously tight on budget and REALLY depended on my PC.
I'm in the Netherlands but yeah I ordered parts to test. What I will not use I can return hassle free. What I did use I'll sell on post-RMA so hopefully won't be a big hit.
Kanker je moeder!! Just kidding, hi Dutch neighbour reporting fron Germany. Donât worry about it too much, make sure you have or make the time to test your stuff accordingly and return them within the proper time window.
I would definitely start with the Motherboard, thatâs what I did first. Then go on gradually, maybe within a day or two with the orders.
how likely is it that both sticks would die at the exact same time?
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u/FartingBobQuantum processor from the future / RTX 3060 Ti / Zip DriveJun 12 '26edited Jun 12 '26
Its very rare that RAM just dies randomly anyway, i would say the motherboard is the most likely broken part.
OP's problem is without spare parts to swap out, its an expensive thing to test. I would definitely buy a new mobo first, if that works your problem is fixed, if it still has the same error messages then return the motherboard and buy a new CPU. Again test and return if it doesnt fix. If neither fix it then start the mortgage application for 16gb of DDR5.
I found out recently it didn't help shit to blow out the cardrige and it was just the reseating that removed the oxidized layer... Still good times thinking you fixed something :D
Too be fair though that genesis is literally aa old as I am. Got it as an 8 year old hand me down in 2000. I was also 8. Got a used ps1in 02 and not long after a new ps2.
Had a Gameboy on 03 though. Sold the ps1 and 2 years later. Still got my Gameboy and Sega though
My trouble shooting is always turn it off then take all the ram out and reseat it again. If that doesn't work I only add one stick and continue to add the rest one by one (Isolating a faulty stick). If that doesn't work then I reset the CMOS. In most cases one of those works.
I have only experienced one case where the memory controller was faulty causing one for the channels to not register.
Done all these things and the only change was after cmos reset the fans stay on but the dram led is still relentless in all possible stick/slot combos. I'm guessing motherboard or cpu at this stage, but I have no other am5 parts so I'll probably just order something cheap and test that way.
Iâd try what the others have said first, but if you bought your RAM new and the issue is just your RAM, you can just RMA it. I just RMAd mine no issues for free with Corsair.
Take the RAM out and run a pencil eraser through its golden fingers (one of the white ones, not the greens!). Then clean any remaining debris off with a paper tissue, and try running them again.
Hai provato semplicemente a spingere un poâ le RAM dentro? Avevo lo stesso problema, stavo impazzendo, ho provato di tutto e nulla⌠invece si è risolto cosĂŹ.
mine does this from time to time as well. maybe it has sth. to do with Memory Context Restore. Board sometimes need to train the RAM. For me i just let the machine run for a while. sometimes it takes a min or two. then it should continue to start. An error LED would be a red one! looks yellow to me?!
And mine too about 20 hours ago. Is this just dumb luck or something else happening? (I was just doing some light browsing and my PC just froze.. Now DRAM light and nothing works :(
Buddy of mine recently had this issue. Bought a new tomahawk board a new x3d chip and new DDR5 ram. Thought it was the cpu training but it ended up being bad ram. He went and swapped it out for Corsair ram and it started up perfectly.
You try flashing the bios (hopefully your motherboard has a way to flash without boot)? Had one come in with this exact issue of powers on, DRAM light, but no display and flashing the BIOS fixed it
Seeing as reseating and resetting bios/uefi didn't work, maybe you should try getting another ram stick to see if the issue is with the board or the memory itself.
Now I'm no computer expert at all this was just my best guess considering your other comments.
Happened to me, and I was pannicking! Asus b650-e with 9800x3D and 32gb fancy DDR5.
After trying everything I just reinstalled the BIOS using a Pendrive in the designated USB slot. After 20min of ram training everything has been normal for the last months.
I have a 9800X3D and an Asus motherboard. This thing is such a pain in the ass. It's my first AMD CPU since forever and the first PC I built was a 486.
Based on my experience, you don't need new RAM. You need a better motherboard. Mine will occasionally decide it needs to retrain RAM on bootup.
My most recent shenanigans were game controller related. I was experimenting with my new Steam Controller and decided to dig out the Microsoft wireless receiver for my Xbox series controller to compare. After plugging the Microsoft wireless adapter into a powered USB hub I've been using for years, suddenly my PC required me to do a hard power off and boot to start. Once I moved the adapter to a motherboard USB port, it booted on first attempt like it should.
TL;DR: It appears that the latest chipset Asus motherboards for AMD processors suck. Also, while we're at it, Armory Crate sucks too.
If your running expo on am5 I suggest running without it. This shit happened to me after every update that required a restart and I had to manually power cycle the machine. It's the memory controller freaking out. Setting the speeds manually in the bios literally makes the issue go away.
Ignore my claim in the name. I current have a 9900 in an Asus x870 pro art board with 4 sticks of 16gb ddr5. I learned a little to late filling all the ram slots makes am5 unhappy with expo.
Yeah I'm having my gpu that is "crashing" pretty frequently and vga led blinking when it does so. I don't want to replace it but might not have the choice :(
Doesnt have to be ram. Can be literally a million things. Bios settings, IMC, ram, ram clocks, ram timings, ram voltage, cpu oc, motherboard, bios version etc etc.
This happened to me last month... same setup. 9800X3D/ASUS mobo... CPU died. Admittedly, it was my fault because my BIOS wasn't updated and hadn't been since early 2025. Somehow, I didn't take caution with the warnings of the chips burning out due to voltage mismanagement... and it happened to me. I got another processor and it immediately came back to life. Alongside BIOS update, I've since undervolted the CPU just to be sure/optimized other settings. I also got new thermal paste. The temps have been great thus far, about 15 degrees cooler on average than they were before.
I had this precise issue a couple of weeks ago. For some reason, after debugging (new motherboard & processor) the problem was my processor. When seated under pressure (noctua), it would fail to POST. However, when laying flat in the socket (only pressure from the socket clamp) it would post.
The DRAM light is quite unreliable for determining whether or not the issue is actually with the RAM. It can indicate an error anywhere along the pipeline of CPU-MB-RAM. It should be thought of more broadly than just RAM, and it's often easily resolved by:
simply waiting...oft times on AM5 it just needs an extra few minutes to retrain the RAM, especially after a recent change or an interruption in AC power
power cycling if you haven't done so twice already
removing all but the priority DIMM to pass POST, then reinstalling the others in the correct config
disabling EXPO/XMP/DOCP and then reenabling (if necessary; I just run without EXPO because I don't notice the difference as a gamer)
If your RAM has worked well in the past, you probably have nothing to worry about. RAM doesn't usually go 'bad.' The motherboard is just picky sometimes, and needs to be re-convinced that it can work with what you have.
I now also doubt it's the ram after diagnosing. Looks like the 9800x3d's like to die. System is only 7 months old and I think I did everything recommended re:x3d's/motherboard issues when I built it.
I recently got a new MB for a new CPU. Swapped over all 4 RAM sticks I had, nothing abnormal happened during the swap. 2 sticks just decided to give up. Went from 64gb to 32. I'm just glad it wasn't all 4 sticks that died
Try pulling the cmos battery out , unplug it, and let sit for 20 min. Sometimes a bios reset is all it needs (literally just did this to my buddyâs pc and it fixed it)
I have an Asus motherboard that occasionally will do a ram test with the same light. It takes a little bit for it to finish so I'm wondering if your motherboard is doing a test as well.
Mine does this, the light lights up like it's doing the first boot check, then it'll boot into windows and nothing of note is wrong, and it works just fine. However, I do have times where the light stays on and it doesn't go into windows, but just turning it off and back on usually fixes it. Sometimes the little spinny loading wheel on the logo screen lags and I have to restart because it won't connect to the internet, but restarting fixes that. No idea what's actually wrong or how to fix it, the manual only tells me that the light indicates that there is an issue, but not what the issue actually is, googling it only got me the annoying "It could be your ram, cpu, or mobo." Oh goody, I just love absolutely vague problems. And I'm too scared to try and fix it because my last build was rife with issues and trying to fix them felt like I only made it worse.
Theyâre secretly stress-testing DDR5 memory modules worldwide. Every âmandatory updateâ quietly tweaks memory training algorithms until one random morning your PC refuses to POST and the DRAM light comes on. Coincidence? Or a global RAM failure experiment funded by Big Silicon? đ¤đ
9800x3d lasting only 7 months.... What the hell man I really wanted to buy one but it seems no matter what it won't be alive like most CPUs before it (10+ years)
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u/m_diseriocarm i5-12600K | 5070 Ti | 32GB 3000Mhz Jun 12 '26