New PC doesn't even get to the BIOS

pentarctagon wrote: The RAM should also be fine, since it's just the 2x8 variant of the 4x8 CMK32GX4M4B3200C16 RAM that's listed as officially supported on the motherboard's info page, and just in case I've put a single DIMM into each of the 4 RAM slots, but nothing changed.

Do you have a PC speaker to connect?

How many times have you let it reboot before you power it down? Mine usually takes six restarts if the RAM timings are incorrect before it trains itself again and boots. If you're turning it off before six restarts I'd let it go for a little while longer and see if it eventually boots.


Edited by TooQik - 04 May 2017 at 7:59am

pentarctagon wrote: I recently finished putting together a new PC (part list here), but when I turn it on, it just goes into a reboot loop.  Nothing appears on the screen at any time, even the BIOS.  The screen is plugged into the GPU, and I know the GPU itself works, since it was in a different PC for the last couple months and was working perfectly.  The RAM should also be fine, since it's just the 2x8 variant of the 4x8 CMK32GX4M4B3200C16 RAM that's listed as officially supported on the motherboard's info page, and just in case I've put a single DIMM into each of the 4 RAM slots, but nothing changed. I guess I'm just not sure what else to look at now.  I assume there's either a problem with the motherboard or the CPU, but it doesn't seem like there's any way for me to get more information about what's going wrong.

The board is not passing POST, and failing early on if you get no video signal to the monitor. With Ryzen systems, that is usually a memory problem.

We've seen cases where one "model" of memory from manufactures like Corsair will have different memory chips in them, depending upon the production run. Samsung memory chips work best with Ryzen, Hynix can too but are not as readily compatible.

You should be using the A2 and B2 slots for your memory. Since you've tried the memory in different slots, try one or both DIMMs in the A2 and/or B2 slots, but clear the UEFI/BIOS before trying to start the PC again. If the memory is new you cannot be certain that it does not have a problem.

The POST beep speaker option is disable by default in the UEFI/BIOS, so even if you have a POST beep speaker connected to the board, you won't get any beeps until that option is enabled.

Sorry to ask, but just to check, you have both the 24 pin and 4/8 pin CPU power cables connected to the board?

Ryzen POST/startup is very slow, particularly the first time you use a Ryzen board. The AMD Advanced Boot Training option in the UEFI/BIOS is set to five or six attempts before it gives up, so let the board go through the on-off sequence until it stays running. I know that is painful to watch, welcome to Ryzen.    If the board continues the of-off sequence past six or seven times, then something else is wrong. It is possible your memory is not compatible, just a warning not to dismiss that.

You can check the UEFI/BIOS version in your board with the sticker on the BIOS chip. That chip is just above the PCIE1 slot, to the right of the audio outputs on the IO panel.

parsec wrote: pentarctagon wrote: I recently finished putting together a new PC (part list here), but when I turn it on, it just goes into a reboot loop.  Nothing appears on the screen at any time, even the BIOS.  The screen is plugged into the GPU, and I know the GPU itself works, since it was in a different PC for the last couple months and was working perfectly.  The RAM should also be fine, since it's just the 2x8 variant of the 4x8 CMK32GX4M4B3200C16 RAM that's listed as officially supported on the motherboard's info page, and just in case I've put a single DIMM into each of the 4 RAM slots, but nothing changed. I guess I'm just not sure what else to look at now.  I assume there's either a problem with the motherboard or the CPU, but it doesn't seem like there's any way for me to get more information about what's going wrong. The board is not passing POST, and failing early on if you get no video signal to the monitor. With Ryzen systems, that is usually a memory problem. We've seen cases where one "model" of memory from manufactures like Corsair will have different memory chips in them, depending upon the production run. Samsung memory chips work best with Ryzen, Hynix can too but are not as readily compatible. You should be using the A2 and B2 slots for your memory. Since you've tried the memory in different slots, try one or both DIMMs in the A2 and/or B2 slots, but clear the UEFI/BIOS before trying to start the PC again. If the memory is new you cannot be certain that it does not have a problem. The POST beep speaker option is disable by default in the UEFI/BIOS, so even if you have a POST beep speaker connected to the board, you won't get any beeps until that option is enabled. Sorry to ask, but just to check, you have both the 24 pin and 4/8 pin CPU power cables connected to the board? Ryzen POST/startup is very slow, particularly the first time you use a Ryzen board. The AMD Advanced Boot Training option in the UEFI/BIOS is set to five or six attempts before it gives up, so let the board go through the on-off sequence until it stays running. I know that is painful to watch, welcome to Ryzen. Ouch   If the board continues the of-off sequence past six or seven times, then something else is wrong. It is possible your memory is not compatible, just a warning not to dismiss that. You can check the UEFI/BIOS version in your board with the sticker on the BIOS chip. That chip is just above the PCIE1 slot, to the right of the audio outputs on the IO panel.

Yes, the motherboard/CPU power cables are plugged in.  If I unplug the motherboard power, then nothing turns on when I hit the power button.  If I unplug the CPU cable(with the motherboard cable plugged in), then the fans/etc turn on, but it doesn't go into the reboot loop.

The BIOS version on the label is P1.40.  Which is nowhere near recent, given the version of Asrock's website is 2.50.  That does make me wonder if the RAM support listed on the website is for a version of the BIOS later than the one that actually gets shipped.

Dogmifier wrote: I'd lay bets it's the memory... I have eVGA part 8GX-D4-3200-MR (2x8GB, 3200MHz) RAM and it's finicky.. can't get it past 2666...(which is ok, because honestly don't think I'll get much better performance out of 3200...).... Do you have any other DDR4 to try?

I have another machine with some of this RAM.  I'll pull a stick out and try that then.

So... it turns out the problem was that I wasn't pushing the RAM *quite* all the way in.  Though, for anyone interested, running the RAM at 3200 has been stable so far.