[SOLVED] MSI B350 Tomahawk stuck on "VGA" EZ Debug LED, help?

[bergqui]

Recently tried to build my first pc...specs are as follows:

Ryzen 5 1600
MSI B350 Tomahawk Arctic
Corsair Vengeance LED 3200 2x8gb
Sapphire RX 580
Corsair CX550 PSU

I have tried numerous times to get it to boot up, there are 4 LEDs on the board labeled as "EZ Debug LEDs" in the order of CPU, DRAM, VGA, and BOOT. All fans and CPU LED will come on for a few seconds as soon as powered on then the light turns off, nearly 30-45 seconds later, the VGA light will turn on. I will get a display signal to my monitor with a "_" in the top left corner for maybe a second and then blank screen.

I have used one stick of ram, checked seating of GPU multiple times, cleared CMOS, used a different GPU, all with the same results.

I have seen multiple threads saying to update the BIOS and I would love to give that a shot but I do not understand how I could do that if I cannot even get to BIOS, any help would be greatly appreciated, I feel like I am running out of options and a bit defeated.

 

[alexoiu]

I have seen multiple threads saying to update the BIOS and I would love to give that a shot but I do not understand how I could do that if I cannot even get to BIOS, any help would be greatly appreciated, I feel like I am running out of options and a bit defeated."
You can't do it, without a supported CPU, therefore an option would be RMA-ing the board and asking for a BIOS update, or visiting at a local pc repair shop.

 

[Enrico_3]

Recently tried to build my first pc...specs are as follows:

Ryzen 5 1600
MSI B350 Tomahawk Arctic
Corsair Vengeance LED 3200 2x8gb
Sapphire RX 580
Corsair CX550 PSU

I have tried numerous times to get it to boot up, there are 4 LEDs on the board labeled as "EZ Debug LEDs" in the order of CPU, DRAM, VGA, and BOOT. All fans and CPU LED will come on for a few seconds as soon as powered on then the light turns off, nearly 30-45 seconds later, the VGA light will turn on. I will get a display signal to my monitor with a "_" in the top left corner for maybe a second and then blank screen.

I have used one stick of ram, checked seating of GPU multiple times, cleared CMOS, used a different GPU, all with the same results.

I have seen multiple threads saying to update the BIOS and I would love to give that a shot but I do not understand how I could do that if I cannot even get to BIOS, any help would be greatly appreciated, I feel like I am running out of options and a bit defeated.

I have the same problem. Did you find a solution?!

 

[joshparrish95]

I have this issue still, I've got a 1600x, MSI Tomahawk Arctic and 16GB Corsair Vengeance LED. I've tested 3 different GPUs and it still wont change. It's really irritating, I've RMAd my MoBo, CPU and RAM and they updated the BIOS for me, tested it, said it worked and sent it back.

I still get the same issue, I really don't get what's wrong and I'm stumped. Considering taking it to a local computer shop soon.

 

[defective bob-omb]

I have this issue still, I've got a 1600x, MSI Tomahawk Arctic and 16GB Corsair Vengeance LED. I've tested 3 different GPUs and it still wont change. It's really irritating, I've RMAd my MoBo, CPU and RAM and they updated the BIOS for me, tested it, said it worked and sent it back.

I still get the same issue, I really don't get what's wrong and I'm stumped. Considering taking it to a local computer shop soon.

Don't bother, I have the same board and an XFX RX 580 GPU.

I've kept up with their BIOS updates and that red light is still on. Try contacting MSI and let them know about the LED issue, because it honestly seems like fixing that LED problem is not on their 'To-Do' list.

EDIT: I should have been clear. The red LED continues even after the latest BIOS update.

When I built my new rig, I had trouble getting it to post. After many restarts I was finally able to get it to stay on long enough to get into the BIOS and update. After the first update I no longer had post problems. Though the VGA LED is still on (hell, I'm looking at it right now) my GPU works fine.

 

[Enrico_3]

I have this issue still, I've got a 1600x, MSI Tomahawk Arctic and 16GB Corsair Vengeance LED. I've tested 3 different GPUs and it still wont change. It's really irritating, I've RMAd my MoBo, CPU and RAM and they updated the BIOS for me, tested it, said it worked and sent it back.

I still get the same issue, I really don't get what's wrong and I'm stumped. Considering taking it to a local computer shop soon.

I wrote an email to MSI. This is what they told me:


Dear EnricoTolomio,

Thanks for contacti­ng MSI technical sup­port.

Regarding your conc­ern,this motherboard supports the CPU 16­00 since bios v1.0,it should can support this CPU.Please ref­er to the Support Li­st at MSI Website.

https://www.msi.com/­Motherboard/support/­B350-TOMAHAWK.html#s­upport-cpu

Would you kindly pl­ease refer to the su­ggestions below to troubleshoot the issu­e?

1) Unplug all the components and devices on the MB, and then reinstall the CPU,­RAM (one piece), VGA card and power supp­ly only.Please add some thermal gel on the CPU, and then rei­nstall the CPU fan correctly and tightly­.Be sure JPWR1 and JPWR2 are connected to proper ATX power supplies to ensure st­able operation of the motherboard. If th­ere are 6 pin or 8 pin Power Connectors on your VGA,please make sure they are co­nnected to power sup­ply。

2) Clear CMOS (How to clear CMOS, you could refer to the ma­nual)for a try.

3) If the problem still persists, please change the RAM wi­th different RAM slot to check again.


Thanks for your coo­peration in advance!

Best Regards,

MSI Technical Suppo­rt Team

I managed to solve the problem by disconnecting every pci card from the motherboard. Then I resetted CMOS by short-circuiting the two pins with a screwdriver for 10 seconds (follow the instructions provided by your motherboard manual) and the situation changed a bit. At that point I was able to enter the bios and update it. Remember to wait at least 30 seconds from the moment you press the power button. Then Windows 10 install program started from the USB with no issue.
If it doesn't work, try the other hints MSI provided. Ciao!

 

[joshparrish95]

Well I have the BIOS updated thankfully. I don't have it in a case, it's just set up on the box to test it. I literally only have the CPU, one stick of RAM and my GPU plugged in.

I bought another set of RAM purely for testing and tried that too, still nothing.

I thought my old PSU was failing so I bought a Corsair RM650x to replace it and same issue.

Gonna have a proper look tonight and if not, I'll be taking it to my local computer shop to see what they think.

If not, I may replace the MoBo and see what happens. Maybe pay the premium and get the ASUS Maximus VI.

 

[bergqui]

Well, I'm back. After going through an RMA on the first board, I tried an ASUS Prime x370 Pro board, I would make it to the splash screen and it would say "press del or f2 to enter the bios" and then it would freeze and I would never be able to make it to the bios screen. I then got an RMA for that board. I decided it was just a faulty board the first time and bought another MSI B350 Tomahawk. I am back to square one now. VGA LED remains on, I get a small "_" in the top left corner and then nothing. I have reseated CPU, RAM, GPU, tried everything. I get no beeps or anything. I feel as though I have just wasted all of my money and my sanity.

Any tips on what I could do to get some sort of progress? Seeing as I made to splash screen on a different board and then it freezing, I have no clue what could be the issue. Is it BIOS related at this point?

 

[rusty_anvile]

OK, so I had a very similar problem and came to the weirdest solution I've ever heard of, I'm not even sure how I thought of doing it, so what I have is the b350 mobo, a R7 1700 and a GTX 1070, and the exact same problem was happening to me, so I tried resetting my bios by shorting the cmos thing, but that didn't work, so I tried taking out the battery and putting it back, that also did nothing, so I tried to see if for some reason I could get my monitor to receive input from the mobo itself because of the "GPU" failure the mobo was showing in the led's, so I take out the HDMI cable from my GPU and put it into the HDMI in the mobo and it goes to bios but the monitor that's HDMI cable I moved didn't work, just like if it wasn't plugged in (I have 2 monitors and I had left one plugged into the GPU) so I decided to see if plugging the HDMI cable back into the GPU would still be broken and to my surprise it worked and let me in like nothing had happened.

 

[Floflow]

I have the same issue with B350M mobo. The weird thing is my mobo works well with a different gpu, and my gpu works well with a different mobo...

My config:
AMD Ryzen 5 1600
MSI B350M Gaming Pro
Ballistix Sport LT 8Go DDR4 2400 MHz
Nvidia GTX 960

 

[big_jew_2001]

I have the same issue with B350M mobo. The weird thing is my mobo works well with a different gpu, and my gpu works well with a different mobo...

My config:
AMD Ryzen 5 1600
MSI B350M Gaming Pro
Ballistix Sport LT 8Go DDR4 2400 MHz
Nvidia GTX 960

This is going to sound really weird, but I had the exact same problem (though with a different mobo,cpu,gpu)

Tried pulling ram sticks. Tried with and without video card. Then out of frustration I hit my case's led color changing button. Then hello windows.

Maybe It was just coincidence, but after hitting reset and nothing, then hitting LED color change button and it booted into Windows, I thought I would share lol.

I hope this helps someone

Edit: after shutting down to rearrange my water cooling it did it again. Turns out I just had to keep hitting reset until it posted. LED color light had nothing to do with it.

 

[brettrandallbennett]

I have the same issue with B350M mobo. The weird thing is my mobo works well with a different gpu, and my gpu works well with a different mobo...

My config:
AMD Ryzen 5 1600
MSI B350M Gaming Pro
Ballistix Sport LT 8Go DDR4 2400 MHz
Nvidia GTX 960

This is going to sound really weird, but I had the exact same problem (though with a different mobo,cpu,gpu)

Tried pulling ram sticks. Tried with and without video card. Then out of frustration I hit my case's led color changing button. Then hello windows.

Maybe It was just coincidence, but after hitting reset and nothing, then hitting LED color change button and it booted into Windows, I thought I would share lol.

I hope this helps someone

Edit: after shutting down to rearrange my water cooling it did it again. Turns out I just had to keep hitting reset until it posted. LED color light had nothing to do with it.

Wow this ended up working for me. New build with Ryzen 3 1200, GTX 1050 Ti, MSi Gaming Plus X370. Issue was CPU and DRAM fault lights would flash, extinguish then GPU would lit for a few second, then fail to boot light. Tried different GPU slot, one stick of RAM, reset CMOS, plugged HDMI into GPU, ran without GPU. Hit reset and "hello windows" Thanks!