Question VGA light on but PC boots and works fine ?

[simplul]

VGA light on mobo

I am running an 8700k @ 4.8ghz
1080ti x2
32gb ddr4 ram
asus rog maximus hero
full watery coolery
PC is about 5 years old and never had issues till a couple of months ago

I am unsure on how to go about it, I have also booted it with and without SLI etc and it boots fine with and without, but then the next day after I play around with the cards, it ends up having a problem again, since the cards are stuck in by a loop, I can't really take them out without dissecting my computer (which I don't feel comfortable doing, nor do I have time right now). I have tried reinstalling drivers with clean installs using DDU in case it's a driver side issue.

Any assistance would be greatly appreciated! 😊

 

[Eximo]

You don't actually mention what the problem is.

It boots with the VGA light on? Or are you saying that sometimes it won't boot and is showing a VGA light?

First thing I would do is attempt to re-seat the cards. Over many heat cycles you can develop an intermittent connection.

Dual 1080Ti is probably worth an upgrade anyway. Sell each 1080Ti while they still have some value. Probably not too many recent titles where you actually get to use SLI anyway, so you are really running a single 1080Ti for the most part.

8700K is also about due. Could potentially find a used 9900K to give it a little boost.

 

[simplul]

You don't actually mention what the problem is.

It boots with the VGA light on? Or are you saying that sometimes it won't boot and is showing a VGA light?

First thing I would do is attempt to re-seat the cards. Over many heat cycles you can develop an intermittent connection.

Dual 1080Ti is probably worth an upgrade anyway. Sell each 1080Ti while they still have some value. Probably not too many recent titles where you actually get to use SLI anyway, so you are really running a single 1080Ti for the most part.

8700K is also about due. Could potentially find a used 9900K to give it a little boost.

Oops, deleted the bit regarding the problem. Started a couple months back, started getting 3 beeps on startup and never checked my mobo because it would always boot up fine after the beeping, recently decided i'd dtry figure out what's going on and stuff with my gpus/ram and noticed that the VGA light was constantly coming on whenever my pc started booting with beeps. When i've done some messing about inside such as pushing the cards in more incase they came loose or unconnecting their cables/sli bridge it can boot fine but then the next time after, it boots with the vga light again.

Regarding reseating, it's kinda something i'd be unable to do without dissecting my pc due to the cards being within the loop... I would like to upgrade, but i'm not going to have the funds to do that anytime in the near future... i know most titles currently make no use of sli, but dumb me when I bought this didn't think about it and thought it'd be a worthwhile thing.

 

[Eximo]

I had SLI GTX 580 and GTX 980, switched to a single GTX1080 when Epic basically announced their rendering UE4 engine wouldn't support SLI out of the box.

All have been water cooled. Though the GTX580 were each AIO cooled due to lack of blocks when I switched to water.

Looks like 1080Ti range between $150 and $175 with a few exceptions. Might be able to ask a little more if you include the waterblocks. 11GB VRAM is a huge advantage in selling it now vs when 12GB cards become more typical in a few years. Why I never sold the GTX980 4GB, the 1060 6GB was basically the same or better. One ended up in my Nephew's computer, so that worked out.

RTX4070 for $600 wouldn't be a bad choice, and wouldn't cost you an arm and a leg once both cards are sold. While you are troubleshooting you can take one out and try and sell it, or simply list the pair and get it sold. Wouldn't be too bad to pick up a new GPU in a retail store or get 1 or 2 day shipping so you don't have any downtime.

 

[simplul]

I had SLI GTX 580 and GTX 980, switched to a single GTX1080 when Epic basically announced their rendering UE4 engine wouldn't support SLI out of the box.

All have been water cooled. Though the GTX580 were each AIO cooled due to lack of blocks when I switched to water.

Looks like 1080Ti range between $150 and $175 with a few exceptions. Might be able to ask a little more if you include the waterblocks. 11GB VRAM is a huge advantage in selling it now vs when 12GB cards become more typical in a few years. Why I never sold the GTX980 4GB, the 1060 6GB was basically the same or better. One ended up in my Nephew's computer, so that worked out.

RTX4070 for $600 wouldn't be a bad choice, and wouldn't cost you an arm and a leg once both cards are sold. While you are troubleshooting you can take one out and try and sell it, or simply list the pair and get it sold. Wouldn't be too bad to pick up a new GPU in a retail store or get 1 or 2 day shipping so you don't have any downtime.

I'm a baby when it comes to playing with a watery coolery bs system tbh and don't really want to take something out of the loop without knowing what i'm doing, and upgrading isn't an option as i do not have the funds for it now or in the near future. is there anyway to know which card is the issue without removing it from my loop at all or means to troubleshoot this issue? I would love to upgrade my system, but i simply can't do it anytime soon, even if selling my current comps... in short, it beeps at me, vga light is on but my pc works perfectly fine once it boots up after the beeping.

 

[Eximo]

Implicitly run without SLI, swap which GPU is the 'Anchor' and use that as the primary. You also need to swap the monitor cables.

You could try disabling the GPUs in device manager one at a time.

Might be able to get away with unplugging the power to one of them, you will need to move your monitor cables to the one that still has power.

Maybe you could force x16 mode on the first PCIe slot which would disconnect the other one. (I have never tried this, not sure if it is even possible)

I take it you didn't build the loop then?

If it is soft tube really isn't all that difficult. Unplug and open up the system. Get some towels or paper towels, cover up as much as you can. Find the lowest point in the loop (or look for a drain valve that might have been installed), Typically with a drain valve you would have another fitting with a tube on it for draining. Without one, you kind of just have to wing it and try to catch the water when you take off a tube or unscrew a cap (thus the towels) If things get wet, you just have to wait a while for things to dry out. For the most part just soaking up any spillage is usually sufficient, but if something gets really soaked you should wait a day or two.

You can remove a GPU from the loop easily enough once drained, then just reconnect everything to the remaining GPU. Most GPU blocks are bi-directional these days, but even the ones that aren't can run with backwards flow, just a little more restriction, but you would be reducing restriction anyway by removing a whole GPU block.

If it is hard tube, then you might have a problem if you don't have any spare tubing or fittings and tools. Sadly a lot of people that sell custom water cooling don't do much for the end user for loop maintenance, saving themselves $50 in parts and a little labor to make the loop more friendly.

 

[simplul]

I am running without SLI, how would I choose which is the primary one in use? I have swapped cables and tried connecting one to both of the cards in hopes that whichever one doesn't work, wouldn't produce a picture... Alas, both produce a display without issues. I tried unplugging the cables to one, but when I boot, it asks for me to re connect the card. I shall try the rest; I didn't build the loop, I bought the PC custom made how I requested with hard tubing, not thinking about the future at all when I bought it 5yrs ago.

 

[Eximo]

5 years. Might actually need to re-paste the GPUs. Could have some hot spots causing issues on boot up.

Certainly should have drained the loop about 2 or 3 times by now. You might also have gunk built up in the water blocks.

How are your temperatures? Anything above 60C on a water cooled GPU is cause for concern. (Well, depending on radiator size, but if they put two 1080Ti in there, probably going to be some serious radiators)

 

[simplul]

Yep, I know. I've been wanting to get around to it a few times, but I never knew how and/or have also been too busy with other tasks to find time to actually figure out where to drain my system and flush it and such.

My temps are fine, max they hit is 57c under load, I ran heaven benchmarking a few times and nothing went above 57c, idle sits around 37c as well. I do have 2 big radiators for my system, but maybe I shall end up trying to drain my system and flush it through when I get the time soon. Once drained I can at least take the cards out and play around with them and see if there's any issues with the PCIe ports or the cards themselves. I don't really get on my PC too much lately, so it's one of those where it just always gets ignored when I do use it as it works fine after booting, but it does require solving. Thanks for your suggestions and help too