Screen goes dark, motherboard orange LED appears
Screen goes dark, motherboard orange LED appears
I recently assembled my initial computer using these parts: a Samsung 980 PRO 1TB M.2 SSD, an Asus ROG STRIX B550-F GAMING WIFI II, MSI GeForce RTX 3070, Ventus 3X 8G OC LHR, AMD Ryzen 7 5800X, Cooler Master Hyper 212 Black Edition, Cooler Master MWE Gold 850, and a full modular V2 PSU from PCs. For roughly a month, I experienced no problems. Suddenly, my system began to malfunction. I encountered three main issues: 1. A BSOD displaying the error code KERNEL_SECURITY_CHECK_FAILURE. This unexpected crash occurred while browsing Chrome; after restarting, I ran sfc/scannow and the problem resolved. 2. My screen froze during a PDF read, and upon rebooting, the BIOS recovery prompt appeared instead of automatically launching BIOS. 3. The most common crash happened when viewing my desktop—screen went black, keyboard and mouse lights dimmed, and an orange LED on the motherboard lit up, indicating a DRAM fault. After restarting, everything worked fine. I’ve completed a stress test on my GPU and CPU, which appear normal. I’m currently running a Windows memory diagnostic for RAM, but it often freezes when pressing F1 or Esc. Additionally, the VGA LED continues to glow even when the PC is powered on, though I haven’t faced any VGA-related issues. I’ve updated all drivers and confirmed my BIOS is current. I’m unsure whether the crashes stem from software or hardware problems. As a complete newcomer to PC troubleshooting, I hope someone can help identify the cause.
EDIT: I discovered my CPU supports up to 3200MHZ memory, whereas my RAM is 3600MHz. Could this discrepancy be contributing to the instability?
Restarts to Dram led implies possible RAM issues. In practice, a 5800x usually handles up to 3200 without problems. However, results may vary. If your RAM runs at 3600MHz, consider lowering it to 3200. Test stability at 3200; if it works, adjust SoC voltage to see if 3600MHz is achievable. Avoid exceeding 1.2V as per AMD guidelines—though I wouldn’t go beyond 1.15V just for safety. Increased voltage raises temperatures, so always verify those parameters before making changes.
I appreciate that! I'll take your time and do some research. I haven't worked with RAM frequency changes before, so it's going to require some investigation. Others I talked to mentioned similar problems could stem from software issues, and my hardware seems okay. If my RAM were severely bad, they suggested it might cause more crashes. In the logs, I noticed a VSS error with code 8193 that triggered a shutdown. Maybe addressing this first would help avoid needing to replace my RAM.
I have more experience with hardware than software and you seem to be facing more problems. Your issues range from simple restarts to more serious crashes. It’s likely another factor is involved. If I were you, just verify in Task Manager that RAM is actually running at 3600MHz. If it isn’t, the problem probably isn’t there. If you can’t see the performance section at the top of Task Manager, click for more details at the bottom right. Then look at the "performance" tab at the top and click on memory, expanding it if needed. The top-right box should show the current speed. Let me know your findings. I use a similar Asus board and can guide you through adjusting RAM speed easily. That way we can eliminate guesswork.
Thank you for your patience. After checking the task manager, it showed RAM running at 2133MHz. I reviewed the logs for any crashing errors linked to RAM, but none were found. Raising the frequency to 3200MHz seems reasonable; it’s possible your parts are fine and the VSS error is the issue. Let me know if you’d like more guidance!