Red LED Beneath Power Button

[LYMANDEL]

I recently purchased a MSI Gaming Desktop PC Codex Z2 A8NVL-484US. The system board is the MSI PRO 8B40-VC WIFIB840-VC WIFI 3Codex Z2 A8NVL-484US. The manual is seriously lacking what I need information on.
Below the power button on the system is a blue LED that is on when power is applied. Beneath that is a flashing Red LED. This pulsates at a constant steady rate whether data is being transferred or not. It also pulsates when Task Manager shows 0% Disk usage (See attached). Typically, an LED when transferring on any system should show this pulsating rapidly and be off when the system is idle.

What is the purpose of this Red LED being lit when nothing is going on?
Many thanks, any assistance greatly appreciated.
- LGLDSR73

 

[citay]

Nice one. And glad to help, of course.

Yes, technically XMP (Extreme Memory Profile) is overclocking, but officially sanctioned by Intel (and also adopted by AMD as A-XMP, although they later also came up with their EXPO alternative more specifically for AM5-based systems), and of course by the RAM maker.

With the XMP or EXPO profile (if you don't overdo it and get some RAM with an extremely high-speed profile), you are getting RAM that is certified by the RAM maker to be able to run at that frequency, and if you stay within reason, like DDR5-6000, you can usually assume that all the other parts of the memory system should also be able to do that. So you are mostly bringing the RAM up to its potential.

With RAM left on the default setting (not enabling XMP/EXPO), that setting will play it too safe for an adequate performance, because it would stay DDR5-4800 with loose timings. Now, I hear you ask, if it's like that, then why doesn't it run at DDR5-6000 out of the gate? Well, as we discussed, it's not just the RAM that dictates the speed, the whole memory system has to be able to do it. So the XMP/EXPO profile of the RAM is only a goal that can be reached in optimal conditions, not a guarantee.

If the RAM didn't first run at the safe default speed of DDR5-4800, but immediately at XMP speed, then with a stick of DDR5-8000 for example, there would be tons of systems where it would never be able to pass POST, since that's too fast for a lot of memory systems. That's why the RAM always runs at a slow speed first, so it can run reliably on any system.

The only question mark here is, why didn't MSI manage to make it work at DDR5-6000 out of the box, when you managed to do it in the end? Are they just lazy or incompetent? Or maybe they prioritize stability and don't want to do too much stability testing because of the higher RAM speed.

Anyway, about overclocking. Since just about everyone will enable XMP nowadays, it's not really considered overclocking in the traditional sense. RAM OC, what most people mean by that now is, manually trying frequencies beyond XMP to see what can be reached. Therefore I wouldn't call XMP overclocking. Simply because there's people who buy RAM with a certain XMP, and then actually try to make higher frequencies than even that XMP profile work, so that's the real overclocking. Of course, if looked at in isolation, XMP is overclocking, because it goes beyond the official specs of the CPU (which are deliberately kept low there, for reasons like liability). But it's completely automatic, and if you stay within reason, it should just work: Enable XMP, test a bit for stability, done.

 

[LYMANDEL]

Nice one. And glad to help, of course.

Yes, technically XMP (Extreme Memory Profile) is overclocking, but officially sanctioned by Intel (and also adopted by AMD as A-XMP, although they later also came up with their EXPO alternative more specifically for AM5-based systems), and of course by the RAM maker.

With the XMP or EXPO profile (if you don't overdo it and get some RAM with an extremely high-speed profile), you are getting RAM that is certified by the RAM maker to be able to run at that frequency, and if you stay within reason, like DDR5-6000, you can usually assume that all the other parts of the memory system should also be able to do that. So you are mostly bringing the RAM up to its potential.

With RAM left on the default setting (not enabling XMP/EXPO), that setting will play it too safe for an adequate performance, because it would stay DDR5-4800 with loose timings. Now, I hear you ask, if it's like that, then why doesn't it run at DDR5-6000 out of the gate? Well, as we discussed, it's not just the RAM that dictates the speed, the whole memory system has to be able to do it. So the XMP/EXPO profile of the RAM is only a goal that can be reached in optimal conditions, not a guarantee.

If the RAM didn't first run at the safe default speed of DDR5-4800, but immediately at XMP speed, then with a stick of DDR5-8000 for example, there would be tons of systems where it would never be able to pass POST, since that's too fast for a lot of memory systems. That's why the RAM always runs at a slow speed first, so it can run reliably on any system.

The only question mark here is, why didn't MSI manage to make it work at DDR5-6000 out of the box, when you managed to do it in the end? Are they just lazy or incompetent? Or maybe they prioritize stability and don't want to do too much stability testing because of the higher RAM speed.

Anyway, about overclocking. Since just about everyone will enable XMP nowadays, it's not really considered overclocking in the traditional sense. RAM OC, what most people mean by that now is, manually trying frequencies beyond XMP to see what can be reached. Therefore I wouldn't call XMP overclocking. Simply because there's people who buy RAM with a certain XMP, and then actually try to make higher frequencies than even that XMP profile work, so that's the real overclocking. Of course, if looked at in isolation, XMP is overclocking, because it goes beyond the official specs of the CPU (which are deliberately kept low there, for reasons like liability). But it's completely automatic, and if you stay within reason, it should just work: Enable XMP, test a bit for stability, done.

I think this is your answer here: "Or maybe they prioritize stability and don't want to do too much stability testing because of the higher RAM speed." In effect, lazy.

"Anyway, about overclocking. Since just about everyone will enable XMP nowadays, it's not really considered overclocking in the traditional sense. RAM OC, what most people mean by that now is, manually trying frequencies beyond XMP to see what can be reached. Therefore I wouldn't call XMP overclocking. Simply because there's people who buy RAM with a certain XMP, and then actually try to make higher frequencies than even that XMP profile work, so that's the real overclocking. Of course, if looked at in isolation, XMP is overclocking, because it goes beyond the official specs of the CPU (which are deliberately kept low there, for reasons like liability). But it's completely automatic, and if you stay within reason, it should just work: Enable XMP, test a bit for stability, done."
Very well put and everything you wrote is an excellent summation of OC.

Thanks again. Just curious, what do you do for a living?
Best,
Lyman

 

[citay]

Self-employed IT administrator, building PCs, repairing them, keeping them running. So my schedule isn't fixed for the most part. When I have spare time in between, I check here every once in a while to see if I can help someone. My motto is, knowledge you don't share is dead knowledge.

 

[LYMANDEL]

Self-employed IT administrator, building PCs, repairing them, keeping them running. So my schedule isn't fixed for the most part. When I have spare time in between, I check here every once in a while to see if I can help someone. My motto is, knowledge you don't share is dead knowledge.

Indeed it is, pass it along. You sure have helped me!
Best,
Lyman

 

[LYMANDEL]

Self-employed IT administrator, building PCs, repairing them, keeping them running. So my schedule isn't fixed for the most part. When I have spare time in between, I check here every once in a while to see if I can help someone. My motto is, knowledge you don't share is dead knowledge.

Good morning <yawn> I hope all has been well. The WD SSD came yesterday. It took a week from Amazon. I was watching the Tracking all week and it was not moving to "Shipped". I called them and the guy tells me "Oh. We ran your credit card through but never moved the 'Approved' to Shipping. I lost it. He said it would ship in 24 to 48 hours, meaning it would not even ship until the day it was due to arrive. After our 'talk' he assured me it would arrive on Friday and it did.

One thing Amazon has been doing lately and I see this more and more on Social Media, is pushing out the arrival date. People are sick of getting emails saying "We're sorry, but your Order will not be arriving today. It will be arriving the following day". I had one Order last week that was pushed out 2X. I did get a $25 Gift Card out of it though.
Have a great weekend!
Lyman

 

[citay]

Yeah, they are trying to cut costs here and there at Amazon. Longer shipping times if you're not a Prime member, higher overall value required to be eligible for free shipping if you're not a Prime member, now they said they're gonna reduce the return window for some goods (at least here in Germany). However, once you complain about something, they can be still quite accommodating. That also has a downside though, as there have been scams where users return expensive hardware to Amazon for a refund, after having opened the package and having swapped it for a much cheaper/older/defective, but similar-looking part, see here. Hopefully it can be tracked back to the culprit later, but that sort of stuff seems to happen mostly on Amazon.

 

[LYMANDEL]

Yeah, they are trying to cut costs here and there at Amazon. Longer shipping times if you're not a Prime member, higher overall value required to be eligible for free shipping if you're not a Prime member, now they said they're gonna reduce the return window for some goods (at least here in Germany). However, once you complain about something, they can be still quite accommodating. That also has a downside though, as there have been scams where users return expensive hardware to Amazon for a refund, after having opened the package and having swapped it for a much cheaper/older/defective, but similar-looking part, see here. Hopefully it can be tracked back to the culprit later, but that sort of stuff seems to happen mostly on Amazon.

Hi! Nonetheless it is aggravating....don't say it'll be here tomorrow and then push it out twice. People doing things like that is just wrong, it's theft.
With the new WD SSD I am getting transfer rates of 1.14GB, so absolutely no complaints.
Have a great weekend and thank you again for all of your help!
Best,
Lyman

 

[citay]

Try with CrystalDiskMark, the two uppermost tests will test the linear read and write speeds with data from the RAM. Because any test you do manually, you will have a hard time reaching the maximum advertised transfer rates, depending on the other (source) SSD's speed, and the file sizes especially. You can only reach maximum thruput with big files from a very fast source, or copying back from the new SSD to a very fast target, like the RAM. This is what such benchmarking software will do.

 

[LYMANDEL]

Try with CrystalDiskMark, the two uppermost tests will test the linear read and write speeds with data from the RAM. Because any test you do manually, you will have a hard time reaching the maximum advertised transfer rates, depending on the other (source) SSD's speed, and the file sizes especially. You can only reach maximum thruput with big files from a very fast source, or copying back from the new SSD to a very fast target, like the RAM. This is what such benchmarking software will do.

Thank you, Sir. I will give that a try now.
Best,
Lyman

 

[LYMANDEL]

Good afternoon (actually, late evening where you are).
A question for you, Sir. As I mentioned to you awhile back, this MSI system is sporadically losing connectivity. I am currently hardwired but should the LAN Port drop dead I'd need the Wi-Fi. It is not a Router issue. I have 13 other devices online 24/7 that do not drop. MSI sent me a replacement Antenna and the issue persists.
Can you recommend a Wi-Fi Card? 6e is fine.
You have a solid handle on what you are doing, hence I am not even going to post this publicly.
Thank you!
All the Best,
Lyman

 

[LYMANDEL]

MSI...they are too much. The system was missing two tiny screws from the System Board, which they are sending me. When I put in the WD SSD I noticed that rather than 7 screws to secure additional cards, they had only put in four. Photograph is here. I began purchasing MSI System Boards a year after they launched; they've gone downhill, IMHO.
Thanks again,
Lyman