The Ryzen 3800X shows a solid orange LED during startup.
The Ryzen 3800X shows a solid orange LED during startup.
Hello and welcome! The New Year is here, and I hope it brings you good fortune. A while back I shared on this forum my experience with a slow boot issue on my new system. After some digging, I discovered the root cause was related to memory training for the Ryzen 3800X (and generally with Ryzen CPUs). The symptoms were clear: during startup, a bright orange LED would flash briefly, followed by all fans spinning at full speed—CPU, GPU, and everything. Then a red LED appeared, indicating CPU activity, which would last a few seconds before switching to white (VGA) and finally green. This sequence happened quickly, usually within 15 to 20 seconds, which is typical for the BIOS timing I’m using. Once inside Windows, everything functions perfectly—gaming, editing, work, streaming all work smoothly.
Here’s my setup:
- GPU: Evga 2070 Super XC Gaming
- CPU: AMD Ryzen 3800X
- SSD: Samsung 970 Evo 1TB
- Motherboard: Asus X570 Tuf Wifi
- RAM: 2x16GB G.Skill Trident Z Neo F4-3600C16D-32GTZNC
- PSU: Corsair RMX 750 (2018)
- BIOS: Updated to latest version
- CMOS cleared and fresh Windows installed
I used the XMP profile for RAM, but couldn’t get it to adjust automatically. I tried installing on slots 2 and 4, not 1 or 3. Before switching CPUs, I had a replacement from Amazon, but I haven’t tried it yet since I’m not sure if it’s faulty. Fast boot is enabled, and the issue seems random but recurring—sometimes I turn off my PC and wake up to this problem. During the day, when I reboot or restart, fans stop spinning and the orange LED disappears. The BIOS time now lands around 10-11 seconds, which feels more reasonable for me.
Some of you might suggest that a boot time of 20-25 seconds is fine since everything works well once in Windows. But given how much I invested in this system, understanding these details is important. Thank you all for your support!
It looks like you've already made many adjustments to speed up startup. The 20-25 second boot still feels a bit long compared to other builds, which tend to be around 10 seconds or less. If you were aiming for faster times, consider testing the 3800x variant and adjusting the RAM timing slightly more relaxed. Double-check that the recommended RAM slots are indeed 2 and 4 (though 1&3 or 1&2 are also possible). It’s possible you haven’t fully reviewed the manual yet. If this doesn’t help, you might just need one more tweak to get there.
Thanks, I’ll give the other CPU a shot! Just a fun question—should I reapply thermal paste once I switch back to the original one? And honestly, it’s possible there’s a small oversight, so I’ll retry all the steps again. Probably just a minor detail after all. 😊
You might need to accept slower boot times and post startup compared to what you expect. Stronger motherboards generally require more time than basic ones. For instance, my ASUS Prime Pro X470 booted quickly, while the Crosshair VII and my old laptop started Windows before my PC fully powered on. I don’t know why, but NVMe storage can also lag behind SATA SSDs during startup. It may relate to the sequence of events during POST. Do you have any SATA drives installed? People have noted slower or strange behavior when using higher-numbered ports versus lower ones. Also, are there any external drives connected? Regarding memory training, do your RAM timings default to Auto? Setting them manually in BIOS could help. I mean adjusting the settings rather than overclocking.
It's suggested to wipe down everything and apply fresh thermal paste each time. However, if you're only changing for testing, you might be okay—just keep an eye on the temperature. If it goes beyond your usual range, clean it off and reapply! Good luck, and share the fix if you find it useful for others.
Hello, I currently don't have any SATA drivers installed on my PC. I also don’t have any external drivers available (just keyboard and mouse). Maybe I’ll give up eventually or wait for a BIOS update, but as long as the system runs it’s still a workable setup. Regarding RAM, I’m not very experienced, so I’m a bit hesitant about experimenting, but I’ll try anyway! Thanks, and feel free to share any solutions you find.