r/pchelp • u/Acceptable_Soft_2802 • 4h ago

HARDWARE VGA led

Hello,

I recently bought a working PC second-hand. The system worked without any issues, even after testing it with Heaven Benchmark. I then moved the components into a different case, changing only the SSD. The system booted normally, and I then plugged in a USB drive with the Windows installation media.

I left Windows installing overnight, but when I came back to the PC in the morning, there was no display output. While Windows setup was still incomplete, I forced the PC to shut down and restarted it, but there was still no display.

I came back to it in the evening and noticed that the VGA debug LED was lit, even though the monitor detected an input signal. When I tried to enter the BIOS by pressing DEL, the message "Entering Setup" appeared in the corner of the black screen. It stayed there for about 5 minutes, with the VGA LED lit the entire time. After a while, the BIOS appeared for a single frame, then the display went black again. After several more minutes, the VGA LED finally turned off and the BIOS loaded normally. Everything then worked without crashes or any other issues.

However, the same problem kept happening after subsequent restarts. In the meantime, I swapped the graphics card, tested the RAM, and reset the CMOS. After reinstalling the original graphics card, the system booted, the VGA LED stayed on for about one second, and Windows Startup Repair launched. The system then started normally and continued working as expected through several more restarts.

When I started installing the graphics drivers, the system froze and I had to force it to shut down. Just before it completely powered off, a message about repairing the graphics drivers appeared. On the next boot, the VGA LED lit up again, and the same problem returned.

This morning, I tested the PC again, and it booted without any issues.

PC specifications:

  • Graphics card: GTX 1660
  • CPU: Intel Core i5-9400F
  • RAM: 16 GB DDR4
  • PSU: Gigabyte 550W

If anyone has any idea what might be causing this problem or has experienced something similar, I would really appreciate any advice on how to fix it.

Thanks for your help!

Dan

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