AM5 PC startup behavior is unusual.
AM5 PC startup behavior is unusual.
I completed assembling my new gaming/work PC about a week ago. The system features a Ryzen 7 7800X3D, 64GB DDR5 RAM at 5600MHz, an RTX 3080 Ti graphics card, an MSI B650 M-PRO motherboard, a 1000W power supply unit, and two 2TB Kingston NVMe drives. It functioned flawlessly until yesterday when I noticed the RAM was only operating at around 4000MHz. Realizing I hadn’t enabled the XMP profile in my BIOS, I tried turning it on. After accessing the BIOS and activating XMP, the PC abruptly shut down and refused to boot. The motherboard showed a red light on the CPU and a yellow light on the DRAM, and it didn’t boot into BIOS at all. After an hour of stress and half an hour of research, I discovered the AM5 chipset isn’t compatible with XMP profiles. I then flashed the latest BIOS update and removed the CMOS battery, restoring the board to factory defaults. This resolved the issue—now I can boot normally without the XMP setup. Instead of relying on the BIOS profile, I manually set my RAM frequency to its maximum. This change introduced a new behavior: the PC first lights up with the motherboard displaying a red CPU light and a yellow DRAM light, then after a minute or two, all fans kick into full speed before restarting and booting correctly. While I’m glad it works now, I’d prefer a stable startup without this intermittent red-light sequence.
P.S. I verified the motherboard’s compatibility beforehand, following the installation guide for RAM placement.
It likely involves about 64GB of RAM with the boot indicator lit and the CPU light active during memory training. The process usually takes 1-2 minutes on a system with that configuration, and it matches the boot duration you’re hearing. For MSI boards, AM5 boards tend to boot slower, especially with memory training on B650 Tomahawk. RAM slots 2 and 4 are correct for the CPU in this setup.
Slots 2 and 4 on the CPU were used, but no memory training was applied before I changed the frequency. It began doing it once I increased it to 5600mhz.
It might not require additional training if the base speed RAM was initially calibrated and memory context restoration is enabled. There could have been a previous setting where XMP was activated or CMOS was reset, causing the system to shut down. Your PC typically needs about 50-55 seconds to boot each time, and memory training is necessary for stability. The XMP profiles you mentioned might have been resolved by adjusting your DOCP timings.
Review the memory context restore feature. It seems to be the probable cause of the increased boot time. Since this is your first MSI board, look for the context restore option in the BIOS settings.
It seems to be related to overclocking settings, likely focusing on memory configuration.