OC Formula Z170 Red Light near RAM always on
Printed From: ASRock.com
Category: Technical Support
Forum Name: Intel Motherboards
Forum Description: Question about ASRock Intel Motherboards
URL: https://forum.asrock.com/forum_posts.asp?TID=4076
Printed Date: 22 Jul 2025 at 5:46am
Software Version: Web Wiz Forums 12.04 - http://www.webwizforums.com
Topic: OC Formula Z170 Red Light near RAM always on
Posted By: VanPurren
Subject: OC Formula Z170 Red Light near RAM always on
Date Posted: 22 Dec 2016 at 8:27am
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I'm having an issue with my OC Formula motherboard, the red light near the ram ( the 3 light setup, lowest light in placement) keeps staying solid after post, no errors or inability to boot just solid red light on. Whenever I reboot and go into my bios if I go to my ram and manually change the setting from auto back to its specific speed and save changes the light goes off, then comes back after another reboot. The ram I have is Corsair Vengeance LPX http://www.corsair.com/en-us/vengeance-lpx-16gb-2x8gb-ddr4-dram-2666mhz-c16-memory-kit-black-cmk16gx4m2a2666c16" rel="nofollow - * rated at 2666. I have the XMP Profile on, I've tried it with both the profile on and off, settings set to Auto or manually setting them to XMP, DDR4 2666, and 100mhz to 133mhz and I can't figure out whats going on, sometimes the light comes on with auto, sometimes it comes on with manually setting the values. Going in to bios and changing nothing (for instance if I change it to DDR4 2000 then right back to DDR4 2666 and resave and boot, the light goes off but returns again after another reboot.) I can't figure out what the actual issue is and couldn't find anything about this specific light in the user manual. |
Replies:
Posted By: parsec
Date Posted: 22 Dec 2016 at 11:01am
I'm not 100% certain which LED you are referring to, I'll explain why in a moment, but I believe you mean the LEDs in this area of your board:  They would be item 8 in the picture above, correct? They are called the POST Status Checker LEDs. This description is from section 2.9 in your board's manual: Post Status Checker Post Status Checker (PSC) diagnoses the computer when users power on the machine. It emits a red light to indicater whether the CPU, memory, VGA or storage is dysfunctional. The lights go off if the four mentioned above are functioning normally. Note that there are four PSC LEDs, while you wrote three in your post. You said the lowest LED is on. I'm not sure which LED is actually on. The lowest of the four is the storage/Boot LED, and the third one is the VGA LED. The memory/DRAM LED is the second from the top. Please check again and let us know which LED is on. I know they are small and difficult to see. Also, I am using your board's manual as a reference, since I don't have your board, and sometimes there are differences between the manual and what is printed on the board. The picture of your board on its information page seems to show four LEDs in that location. http://www.asrock.com/mb/Intel/Z170%20OC%20Formula/" rel="nofollow - http://www.asrock.com/mb/Intel/Z170%20OC%20Formula/ ------------- http://valid.x86.fr/48rujh" rel="nofollow"> 
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VanPurren wrote:Posted By: VanPurren
Date Posted: 22 Dec 2016 at 11:32am
Yeah sorry about that (I have terrible eyes apparently lol) I'm talking about what would be item 8, and you are right it is actually the 4th light not the 3rd which confuses me even more since changing my ram settings turns it off for me on certain reboots. I haven't seen any error codes or anything for it while the light is on either and am currently in windows with the light on. |
Posted By: parsec
Date Posted: 22 Dec 2016 at 1:33pm
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No problem, just want to be 100% certain what is happening. So it's the storage/BOOT LED that remains on. Curious that it will shut off sometimes after changing the memory settings. Your link to your memory did not work, please try again or if you know the full model number, please let us know what it is. Apparently you don't have any disappearing drives in the PC? Do you have any problem entries in Device Manager? Do you have any USB flash drives or external drives connected to the PC? What drives do you have in that PC? Your board has both Intel SATA ports, and four SATA ports provided by the ASMedia chipsets. Do you have any drives connected to the four SATA ports at the bottom of the stack of SATA ports on the left side of the board? Those are the ASMedia SATA ports. What is the SATA mode set to for each of the two SATA controllers? The default values? Do you have any type of dual booting OS installation? Anything that is somewhat unusual about your OS installation? Do you use the Fast Boot option? The third LED is VGA, anything not quite right with your video source? ------------- http://valid.x86.fr/48rujh" rel="nofollow">
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Posted By: VanPurren
Date Posted: 22 Dec 2016 at 2:00pm
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Fixed the link from newegg to corsair's site but for text reference the kit model is CMK16GX4M2A2666C16 I sometimes have an old external connected via usb 2.0, but I've stopped plugging it in entirely recently and the issue was happening without it being plugged in. No problem entries in Device Manager I have two internal drives: kingston SH103S3120G (boot drive ssd) western digital WD30EZRX-00D8PB0 No dual boot OS setup, standard win 10 pro install, also fastboot is on but I've only had it on recently, issue has occurred with it both on and off. SATA mode is default value currently since I got closer and checked it's definitely the 4th light, not the third, vga is setup fine and haven't had any video issues I can think of. My two drives are plugged into: SATA 3_0 (Kingston SSD) SATA 3_2 (Western Digital HDD) |