Possible problem with motherboard RAM slots after cleaning PC

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adventuregam157402df

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A few days ago I decided it was time to clean my PC a little, so I used compressed air to blow the dust out. However, when I tried to turn the computer back on, the DRAM LED on the motherboard stayed on, and my screen was stuck with no signal. According to the manual the DRAM LED means something is wrong with the RAM itself, however the RGB on the RAM was lighting up as usual. In fact, everything was working as usual. The only problem was the DRAM LED remaining on, and the monitor not having any signal. I’ve tried reseating the RAM countless times with no results, and I even had a friend lend me some of his older RAM to try, which didn’t work either. After looking around online I saw someone mentioning a possibly faulty RAM slot, and now I’m wondering If this could be the case.

It’s been over a year since I built my computer, and it’s been running perfectly fine up inntil now. I have even cleaned it once already, and I had no issues that time.

Motherboard: MSI MPG B550 Gaming Plus
RAM: Corsair Vengeance RGB Pro
 
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Can you list the rest of your components too, like CPU, GPU and PSU model? Where did you blow the compressed air onto, just pointing into the case in general, or going into every crevice from up close?
 
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citay said:
Can you list the rest of your components too, like CPU, GPU and PSU model? Where did you blow the compressed air onto, just pointing into the case in general, or going into every crevice from up close?
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GPU: RTX 3070
CPU: AMD Ryzen 5 3600 XT
PSU: Corsair TX750

I mainly blew air on the PSU, CPU and fans, altough I did blow a little on some more dusty spots on the Motherboard
 
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Hmm ok. Pretty solid components. What you can try is a BIOS update using the Flash BIOS Button method:

1. Download the latest BIOS file for your board and extract it. https://www.msi.com/Motherboard/MPG-B550-GAMING-PLUS/support
2. Rename the BIOS file to MSI.ROM, and save it to the root of your USB flash drive / USB stick (not in a subfolder). FAT32 formatting is a must for the USB flash drive.
3. Plug the USB flash drive that contains the MSI.ROM file into the Flash BIOS Port on the rear I/O panel.
4. With the PC off, press the Flash BIOS Button, and the LED starts flashing for about 5-7 minutes.

The Flash BIOS Button method is quite picky about the USB stick. In fact, the old and cheap USB sticks with small capacity seem to work the best for that method, read here or here. You need to find a USB stick / pen drive that the board likes. It needs to flash for about 5-7 minutes and then it will reboot. Anything drastically different (under a minute of flashing, or over 10 minutes of flashing) and the flashing didn't work, so you can abort and try with the next USB stick.
 
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citay said:
Hmm ok. Pretty solid components. What you can try is a BIOS update using the Flash BIOS Button method:

1. Download the latest BIOS file for your board and extract it. https://www.msi.com/Motherboard/MPG-B550-GAMING-PLUS/support
2. Rename the BIOS file to MSI.ROM, and save it to the root of your USB flash drive / USB stick (not in a subfolder). FAT32 formatting is a must for the USB flash drive.
3. Plug the USB flash drive that contains the MSI.ROM file into the Flash BIOS Port on the rear I/O panel.
4. With the PC off, press the Flash BIOS Button, and the LED starts flashing for about 5-7 minutes.

The Flash BIOS Button method is quite picky about the USB stick. In fact, the old and cheap USB sticks with small capacity seem to work the best for that method, read here or here. You need to find a USB stick / pen drive that the board likes. It needs to flash for about 5-7 minutes and then it will reboot. Anything drastically different (under a minute of flashing, or over 10 minutes of flashing) and the flashing didn't work, so you can abort and try with the next USB stick.
Click to expand...
I’ll see what I can do. I have a single USB stick with around 32GB, however downloading anything on i might be a little tricky since I don’t have a proper spare computer, but I’ll see if I can figure something out.
 
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RachelGomez16199153502cb said:
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Alan J T
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Thank you for the instructions, however I’ve already tried this multiple times. Neither the RAM or the RAM slots look damaged, however one of them is clearly the culprit since the DRAM LED keeps staying on. I don’t have any spare RAM to try either, outside of some old RAM a friend gave me, however I believe they didn’t work because they were too old for the Motherboard itself. The main thing about all this is that the RGB on the RAM does turn on when I try to boot it up, which I’ve been led to believe is a sign that it works as it hasn’t turned on when I’ve had problems with this in the past.
 
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fatedust said:
How long does it stay on? Have you tried to clear CMOS first, boot your PC and wait for a few seconds? Maybe it's doing memory training and I think AMD usually has quite long memory training time when compares to Intel.
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Before I cleaned the PC it would barely stay on at all, but now it stays on forever, which according to the manual is a problem with the RAM. The main thing is, since the RGB on the RAM does light up when I turn on the PC (which I’ve been led to believe is a sign it works as intended), I’m not sure what the problem actually is.
I haven’t tried messing with CMOS/BIOS yet, mainly because I’m a little scared to do much inside the PC after this has happened, but also because I don’t fully understand how that could break because of compressed air.
 
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Try the BIOS update using the Flash BIOS Button method, there's not much risk in that, exactly because you have that Flash BIOS Button. It will call a small subroutine on the board whose only job is to force-flash the BIOS in case of problems.
 
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