new LGA1851 build won't POST, DRAM light stuck on, please help

Question

Finished my first LGA1851 build last night and it won't POST. Fans spin up, the pump runs, but I get no display at all. The board is an ASRock B860 Steel Legend WiFi, paired with a new DDR5 kit and a midrange GPU. There is a small row of debug LEDs near the top edge, and the DRAM one lights up and just stays lit while the others go out. I already pulled the GPU and reseated it, and I rechecked both the 24-pin and the CPU power. What is the actual order I should work through here, and how do I read these LEDs before I start assuming something arrived dead?

calibration_guy · Accepted Answer

That light just means where it stopped, it doesn't mean anything's dead. Most no-POST cases are seating or power, not hardware. Reseat both sticks until they click, then try a single stick in the slot your manual lists first. Give the first boot a few minutes to train memory. Pricier boards add Q-codes, but the LED plus the manual is enough here.

burninWorrier · Answer

Pretty sure that first-boot training on a new DDR5 kit runs long enough that people yank parts before it finishes.

alexc · Answer

been there, spent an hour convinced id killed the cpu and it was just RAM