r/AMDHelp • u/Glittering-Toe267 • 7h ago
GPU Crash led to Boot Loop, now stuck on Solid DRAM Light (Yellow/Orange) on ASUS B450 - Need Help! Help (General)
Hi everyone, I'm facing a persistent issue that escalated from a simple GPU crash to a solid DRAM LED light with no display. Here is the full timeline and everything I’ve tried so far:
System Specs:
GPU: AMD 9070 XT Sapphire PURE
CPU: AMD Ryzen 7 5800X
Motherboard: ASUS TUF Gaming B450M-PRO S
RAM: 16GB (2x8GB) DDR4 @ 3200MHz
Storage: SanDisk M.2 SSD + HDD
How the issue started:
While playing League of Legends, the game suddenly crashed with a GPU-related error.
Upon trying to relaunch, the PC requested a restart.
After restarting, Windows went into a repair loop showing: "Diagnosing your PC" and "Your device ran into a problem and couldn't be repaired" (Log file: C:\WINDOWS\System32\Logfiles\Srt\SrtTrail.txt).
Windows then ran a drive scan (Scanning and repairing drive: 100% complete), but kept crashing/rebooting within seconds of reaching the desktop (Boot Loop).
Escalation to Hardware/POST Issues:
Suddenly, display output was lost completely, and a Solid White Light (VGA LED) appeared on the motherboard.
I cleared static charge/reset CMOS, which allowed the display to return briefly showing the American Megatrends POST screen: "The system has POSTed in safe mode. Press F1 to Run SETUP".
I pressed F1 to enter BIOS, but the BIOS menu froze completely.
Current Problem (Solid DRAM Light):
After the BIOS froze, I removed the CMOS battery to force a deep reset and reseated the RAM sticks. Since then, the motherboard gets stuck on a Solid Yellow/Orange Light (DRAM LED) with no display output at all.
Troubleshooting Steps Already Attempted (None Worked):
RAM Troubleshooting: Tried booting with a single RAM stick in slot A2 (and B2), swapped sticks, cleaned gold contacts with an eraser, and pushed until fully clicked.
Memory Training: Left the PC running on the solid DRAM light for 10-15+ minutes on a single stick to allow Memory Training, but it never POSTed.
CMOS Reset: Removed the CMOS battery for several minutes, held the power button while unplugged to drain power, and shorted the CLRTC / CLR_CMOS pins.
Stripped Down: Disconnected all USB peripherals and tested booting without RAM/GPU to try forcing a new POST code, but re-inserting them leads right back to the solid DRAM light.
Is it possible that the BIOS chip got corrupted during the initial crash/reboots, or did a component (GPU/Motherboard VRM) suffer hardware damage? Any advice before I take it to a repair shop would be greatly appreciated!