Question White VGA LED on motherboard lights up once or twice a week (randomly) on boot. Tried 2 different GPUs. should i be worried?

[Bears133]

I've had this problem for a while now and can't seem to find any solution or help. I have an ASUS ROG strix Z390-E Gaming motherboard and a EVGA Geforce RTX 2070 Super XC Ultra Gaming. The card performs great, but once or twice a week (happens randomly really...) the white (VGA) led on my motherboard lights up when booting. According to my mobo user manual there is some issue with my GPU, but usually when I see that white VGA led I reboot and it goes away. Any idea what this could be? Should I be worried?

I thought it might be a defective GPU, so i bought another 2070 super to test it out and see if i still see that VGA led and i still do see it. I am not sure if the problem is with my motherboard or the 2070 super in general. I don't know if this will cause problems down the line, but this does not seem normal to me.

 

[QwerkyPengwen]

When the white led comes on, does it show orange lights before hand?

And also when it's white does it stay white?
Or does it go away after a second.
Does it keep your pc from booting up properly?

 

[Bears133]

When the white led comes on, does it show orange lights before hand?

And also when it's white does it stay white?
Or does it go away after a second.
Does it keep your pc from booting up properly?

I don't think I see an orange light before the white light. Usually all the LED's do a quick flash and then stay off. Here is a picture of my mobo user manual btw.

The LED turns on white and then stays on white the whole time. I boot into windows normally like any other boot and can use my PC normally. Everything works fine. The white LED just stays on the whole time until I reboot and then it goes away.

 

[QwerkyPengwen]

Ah ok. I see.
Do you have the iGPU enabled in BIOS?
Do you use the iGPU with a second or third monitor?

 

[Bears133]

Ah ok. I see.
Do you have the iGPU enabled in BIOS?
Do you use the iGPU with a second or third monitor?

I only have one monitor and I never messed with any iGPU settings in BIOS. Only changed fan curves and XPM settings for RAM. I checked and iGPU is currently disabled.

 

[QwerkyPengwen]

Well it's definitely a peculiar case.
I know that with my Asus Z170 I used to have white led would come on for only a second and go away and the white led was a good sign that all is well but according to your motherboard manual that's not the case.

However, even though it comes on and stays on you're not actually having any problems so it could just be a fluke. Maybe a bug that is fixed in newest BIOS update.

If it bothers you enough can update your BIOS and see if it fixes it.

If not then as I said you don't seem to be having any issues so can just probably ignore it or keep doing the PC restart you do whenever it happens at those random times.

 

[refillable]

Ahh... BIOS issues. The most common kind of issue in the PC building community it seems.

I wouldn't worry if nothing else is weird. Be sure to monitor temperatures, clocks, voltages, and performance. If it does no random things then I wouldn't worry.

 

[Bears133]

Well it's definitely a peculiar case.
I know that with my Asus Z170 I used to have white led would come on for only a second and go away and the white led was a good sign that all is well but according to your motherboard manual that's not the case.

However, even though it comes on and stays on you're not actually having any problems so it could just be a fluke. Maybe a bug that is fixed in newest BIOS update.

If it bothers you enough can update your BIOS and see if it fixes it.

If not then as I said you don't seem to be having any issues so can just probably ignore it or keep doing the PC restart you do whenever it happens at those random times.

This is my first PC that I built 1 month ago and I did updated the bios back then, so I believe I am on the latest version.

I also called EVGA tech support a while ago and they said it might be a false positive. Seems like I am the only one with this issue on the internet lol. Couldn't find help anywhere. Oh well, guess I'll just wait for the next bios update. Thanks!

 

[kiwao7]

i had the exact same problem on my asus rog strix z-390F with palit GeForce 1070(8gb). it worked 4 months, suddenly during playing far cry primevael i got bsod irql_less_or_equal. (bluesreen in loop, tried 100 restart) just mention it.

 

[Bears133]

i had the exact same problem on my asus rog strix z-390F with palit GeForce 1070(8gb). it worked 4 months, suddenly during playing far cry primevael i got bsod irql_less_or_equal. (bluesreen in loop, tried 100 restart) just mention it.

oh boy. What did you end up doing? Did you have a warranty with the manufacturer to get it replaced? Or did you fix the issue somehow?

 

[kiwao7]

oh boy. What did you end up doing? Did you have a warranty with the manufacturer to get it replaced? Or did you fix the issue somehow?

This is work in progress. First the manufacturer send me a win 10 home usb(which they should have send me together with the new pc). didnt work. Since the original nvme was an intel 660p(1TB), i tried a new nvme Samsung evo plus (1TB). didnt work either. Manufacturer said it was possibly main board or graphic card.
I have warranty, so i let you know when pc is up and running again, and what caused this problem.

 

[Bears133]

This is work in progress. First the manufacturer send me a win 10 home usb(which they should have send me together with the new pc). didnt work. Since the original nvme was an intel 660p(1TB), i tried a new nvme Samsung evo plus (1TB). didnt work either. Manufacturer said it was possibly main board or graphic card.
I have warranty, so i let you know when pc is up and running again, and what caused this problem.

Thanks man. This is what terrifies me the most about building a new PC. Having some random unheard of issue thats hard to solve. I'm still very new to this, but a few people suggested using a Display Driver Uninstaller (DDU) and reinstall the drivers. I haven't tried myself because I'm afraid of getting stuck in safe mode, but it might be worth trying. Good luck!

 

[kiwao7]

Still have to wait some days before i receive the repaired computer. I have got a message from the manufacturer that they have give me a new Asus 2060 OC instead of the Palit 1070, and they have also replaced a faulty CPU I5-9600k (with integrated graphics). Since i had igpu turned off, i have no clue what caused both the CPU and the graphic card to break down at the same time. i am no expert, but my best guess is that i had a faulty CPU from the beginning (hence the white vga light stayed on after post from time to time). So in your case it can be not an issue, anyway it can also be a warning that your CPU need to be replaced.

 

[Bears133]

Still have to wait some days before i receive the repaired computer. I have got a message from the manufacturer that they have give me a new Asus 2060 OC instead of the Palit 1070, and they have also replaced a faulty CPU I5-9600k (with integrated graphics). Since i had igpu turned off, i have no clue what caused both the CPU and the graphic card to break down at the same time. i am no expert, but my best guess is that i had a faulty CPU from the beginning (hence the white vga light stayed on after post from time to time). So in your case it can be not an issue, anyway it can also be a warning that your CPU need to be replaced.

Even if it is brand new? I have the i7-9700k and got it like 2 months ago

 

[kiwao7]

Unfortunately yes. All parts was brand new, cpu included. After 4 months it crashed completely.

 

[Bears133]

Oh man, Idk what to do now. I bought my CPU at microcenter, but didn't get any extended warranty with them. I think I only have manufactures warranty. Do you think I should replace my CPU now or just wait it out and hope for the best?

Did you have any warning signs or weird behavior from you PC leading up to the day you get that bluescreen? For example did you see the white LED more frequently than before? Did your PC do weird stuff when the white LED was on? etc.

 

[kiwao7]

Oh man, Idk what to do now. I bought my CPU at microcenter, but didn't get any extended warranty with them. I think I only have manufactures warranty. Do you think I should replace my CPU now or just wait it out and hope for the best?

Did you have any warning signs or weird behavior from you PC leading up to the day you get that bluescreen? For example did you see the white LED more frequently than before? Did your PC do weird stuff when the white LED was on? etc.

I had no more warning signs or weird behaviour [not more than usual, ] until the
pc crashed completely.
To answer your question what to do, is entirely up to you.
In any case i suggest you do frequently backups if you have important files. My consern is that IF my faulty cpu was the reason why i needed to replace the graphics card too[i still cant understand that], i would recommend to replace the cpu asap.

I dont have any knowlegde of micro center and how good their support is(can you contact them for a replacement?) Mayby you can make a new post in the forum in cpu section, asking for advice what to do with a faulty cpu and warranty at microcenter.

I am really sorry that i cant help you with a good answer. Anyway, i wish you all the best
and hopefully a fast solution.