What does the red light mean on the bottom right corner of my mother board

Danny_C

I have a b450 Aorus pro Wi-Fi and when I went to turn it on the first time a red light in the bottom right corner of the mother board appeared. The red light is above the words CPU but I don’t know if something is wrong with the CPU or the DRAM because it blinks between two lights if that makes sense.

PowerSpec_MikeW

@Danny_C

It's trying to initialize the CPU/DRAM and failing. Probably wouldn't be getting that far if your 8 pin CPU power wasn't connected. Very possible it's DRAM related. I'd test with 1 stick of RAM installed. Clear CMOS if it fails and try once again. What CPU?

Danny_C

I have a ryzen 5 4500

PowerSpec_MikeW

@Danny_C

That's a pretty new CPU. You need BIOS F62 as a minimum: https://www.gigabyte.com/Motherboard/B450-AORUS-PRO-WIFI-rev-1x/support#support-cpu

That's most likely you're issue. Lights are telling you that it initializes the CPU and then goes to RAM and loops. Most likely that means it's dying initializing the onboard memory controller. You're going to need an older Ryzen processor to flash the BIOS with. I don't see any flashback feature on that board to flash without a CPU unfortunately.

Danny_C

So is the only way to fix it to get a older CPU. Can I not just update the bios or can I just get a newer mother board?

PowerSpec_MikeW

@Danny_C

You need a CPU old enough to POST so that you can flash the BIOS. The BIOS' that support this CPU are all from January/February. Even if you get a newer board like a B550, it's a luck of the draw. The store does offer a service to update the BIOS for you.

The CPU seems to be the problem. It's an older architecture(Renoir - Zen 2), but they've changed something that I'm assuming requires a micro code update. If you're looking to change a component, I'd swap the CPU for a Zen 3. Maybe a 5600X or 5600G.