VGA light on Gigabyte B350m

Longbow3 · July 8, 2020

A few weeks ago I was browsing on chrome and all of a sudden my computer just shut down. I assumed my power outlet was acting up and walked away, when I came back I couldn't get the computer to turn on, I would press the power button and no lights would come on and no fans would spin. At first I thought something went bad with my power supply, I borrowed one from a friend and hooked it up to my system. The computer still wouldn't turn on with the new power supply. I suspected my video card was bad because it is the oldest part in my build and I got it second hand (GTX 960). When I unplugged the power supply from my Gtx 960 and pressed the power button on the front panel the system will turn on, the fans come on and the motherboard lights come on, I tried again with my original power supply but left the graphics card unplugged and the system worked turned on. However I can't get any signal to my monitor (using a VGA connection) and a new light in the bottom right of the motherboard also comes on, it's labeled as VGA on the motherboard and in the manual. All the motherboard manual says is that the light indicates something is wrong with VGA. I am pretty sure that the GTX 960 went bad and shocked something on my motherboard because nothing will spin or light up when the graphics card is plugged into the power supply. I have tried changing the PCIe slot of the graphics card but still nothing comes on.

I have not gone as far as resetting my cmos or removed my CPU from the socket because I don't want to do irreversible damage. Do I just need to replace my motherboard or is there another easier solution? Any advice is greatly appreciated.

If it matters here are my system specs

Motherboard - Gigabyte B350m

CPU - Ryzen 5 1600x

RAM - 2 ballistix 3200mHz 4GB sticks

GPU - GTX 960 2GB

Power supply - Corsair CX550m

Storage - seagate 1TB HD and a 256 GB SSD (some cheap one)

OS - Windows 10

WaggishOhio383 · July 8, 2020

What you are describing is simply what happens when a graphics card goes bad. If you have a faulty GPU in your system, your PSU will shut off to avoid damage. If you take out the GPU, the computer boots fine. The reason you aren't getting any video out without the GPU is that your CPU does not have integrated graphics. You will need to replace your GPU in order for your computer to function properly again. The VGA light simply means that there is something wrong with your graphics card (in this case it means that there isn't one inserted). There is nothing wrong with your motherboard at all. Just get a new GPU and your PC should be back to normal.

Longbow3 · July 10, 2020

On 7/8/2020 at 4:52 PM, WaggishOhio383 said:

What you are describing is simply what happens when a graphics card goes bad. If you have a faulty GPU in your system, your PSU will shut off to avoid damage. If you take out the GPU, the computer boots fine. The reason you aren't getting any video out without the GPU is that your CPU does not have integrated graphics. You will need to replace your GPU in order for your computer to function properly again. The VGA light simply means that there is something wrong with your graphics card (in this case it means that there isn't one inserted). There is nothing wrong with your motherboard at all. Just get a new GPU and your PC should be back to normal.

Great thank you so much, Its been awhile since I researched all my parts so I forgot some important details.