GTX 1060 No PCIe Power

[Kodeplay10]

Looking for potentially very technical troubleshooting assistance.

 

I have an ASUS GTX 1060 6GB graphics card, a Gigabyte x470 Aorus Gaming 7 WiFi motherboard, and an EVGA Supernova 750 G3 power supply. This is a three-year-old custom-built system that has had no issues before. No parts have been replaced. Only additional RAM has been installed (four months ago, no issues). The other PCIe slots are not populated with any adapters or the such. Nothing has been tuned or purposely overclocked.

 

I am having PCIe power issues with this card. It has two LEDs near the 6-pin connector that normally lights up the solid red LED when it is not powered (but the PSU is plugged into the wall and switched on) and lights up the solid white LED when powered.

 

TL;DR: I had to take out my graphics card and put it back in order to work on other areas of the board. As I finished, I plugged in the PCIe power to my graphics card (proper side of cable), with the system turned off but the PSU accidentally switched on. I heard a click (fairly certain it was not a sparking sound) but the LED turned red and stayed red. No flashes. Did I possibly short my graphics card or PSU? How likely is it to damage either components when plugging in PCIe power while the system is off but PSU is switched on? Can the card be dead and still shine a red LED? Photos of the card and connections are attached at the end of the post. As I am in a time crunch, I cannot perform very intensive troubleshooting at the moment such as ordering in new parts.

 

More Detailed Report for In-Depth Troubleshooting:

Spoiler

I was recently cloning my NVMe boot drive to another NVMe SSD. Because one of the two M.2 slots is annoyingly located under the PCIe x16, I had to remove my graphics card to install the new SSD into the M.2a (which I now realize is the faster one, but that's off topic).

 

Now, I had just come home from a long and tiring drive, so without thinking very hard, I kept my system powered off, but the PSU was switched on when I pulled out the 6-pin from the GPU. The LEDs switched from white to red, and I unseated the graphics card.

 

I installed the SSD, reseated the graphics card, and plugged in the 6-pin, all while the system was off but the PSU was switched on. The red light turned white upon connection, and I powered on the PC and did my cloning work. The system was on for approximately 45 mins before I finished my operation and powered it back down.

 

Then, I decided to take out the graphics card again to take out the M.2 SSD. I did this because I did not have the standoff for screwing in the SSD installed, and I wasn't comfortable with leaving it sort of hanging there, even if the graphics card was pushing it down, keeping it parallel to the board. So I unplugged the 6-pin from the graphics card (again, system powered off but PSU switch on), removed the card, uninstalled the SSD, and reseated the card. Here's where I think the issue began.

 

After reseating the graphics card, I went to plug in the 6-pin PCIe power. As I did before, I held onto the white plastic shroud, with a stabilizing index finger on the edge of the PCB, with one hand while plugging in the power with the other. Since it is a tight fit, I always wiggle the connector left and right a bit as I plugged it in. The light went from red to white just as before. However, this time, when I finally plugged it in all the way and heard a click, the LED suddenly switched from white to red.

 

I am fairly certain I heard a click sound. Not a spark. I did not see any flashes of light. But now, no amount of unplugging/replugging the power, reseating the card will turn the light white. When powering the system on anyway, the monitor expectedly displays the 'power down and connect the PCIe power' message. I thought I possibly snapped a pin, but upon inspecting both the power connector and the cable, they both looked fine. (Photos attached.)

 

How likely is it that I shorted the card? It's still displaying a red LED instead of nothing. Can the card be dead and still shine that LED? Peeking into the card with a flashlight, I don't see any burn marks around the capacitors I could see. I am not comfortable with removing the plastic shroud to get a better look. Removing the card and slotting it into a different PCIe slot (x8) still resulted in a red LED. Using a different VGA cable did not solve the issue.

 

Or could it be the PSU? Is it possible to kill all the VGA connections on a modular PSU but not the rest of the connections? (Because the rest of the system can power on, spin its fans, and post.) Swapping around the power connection on the PSU side to one of the other five modular VGA did not solve the issue. (And no, I did not plug in the 6+2 pin side to the PSU.) Using a different VGA cable did not solve the issue. Blowing out the connector and cable head on both ends (PSU and card) with compressed air did not solve the issue. Switching off the PSU, unplugging it, removing the card, pressing the power button on the case a few times, before reversing those steps and powering on the system again did not solve the issue.

 

Since the Ryzen 2000 desktop CPUs do not have integrated graphics, I essentially cannot use my desktop. (I still have access to a copy of my data and a much weaker laptop to work on.) With a big deadline coming in one-and-a-half weeks, I cannot perform very intensive troubleshooting at the moment, such as ordering in new parts or driving a few hours to salvage my old desktop for parts to swap in and troubleshoot.

 

Clarification to what I said in my detailed report: I might be mistaken that my system was technically able to 'post.' It powers on and goes straight from a black screen to the "Please power down and connect the PCIe Power Cable(s) for this graphics card" error message without showing the AORUS boot screen.

 

 

Edited January 3, 2022 by Kodeplay10
Clarification on system being able to post.

[Poinkachu]

Just re-checking.

Are you sure you plugged the 6+2pin correctly ? because on your first pic that 2 additional plug is slanted and misaligned with the rest.

 

[Kodeplay10]

11 minutes ago, Poinkachu said:

Just re-checking.

Are you sure you plugged the 6+2pin correctly ? because on your first pic that 2 additional plug is slanted and misaligned with the rest.

I'm fairly certain it is plugged in correctly. Since the extra two pins aren't being used, I'm just letting it dangle however it can inside the shroud (in which that gap seems very intentionally designed).

 

[Poinkachu]

1 minute ago, Kodeplay10 said:

I'm fairly certain it is plugged in correctly. Since the extra two pins aren't being used, I'm just letting it dangle however it can inside the shroud (in which that gap seems very intentionally designed).

 

Yeah, my mistake sorry about that, I was an idiot for 5 minutes.
Edited my post when I realized that.

[Kodeplay10]

8 minutes ago, Poinkachu said:

Yeah, my mistake sorry about that, I was an idiot for 5 minutes.
Edited my post when I realized that.

I appreciate the checkup.

[Alex Atkin UK]

38 minutes ago, Poinkachu said:

Yeah, my mistake sorry about that, I was an idiot for 5 minutes.
Edited my post when I realized that.

Could you tell where the click came from?

AFAIK the 12v is not active in powered off mode, the LED must just be detecting the ground being present.  So it seems odd you could damage anything.  Then again I wasn't aware the PCIe slot had power in off mode either so I could be mistaken.
 

[Kodeplay10]

10 minutes ago, Alex Atkin UK said:

Could you tell where the click came from?

AFAIK the 12v is not active in powered off mode, the LED must just be detecting the ground being present.  So it seems odd you could damage anything.  Then again I wasn't aware the PCIe slot had power in off mode either so I could be mistaken.
 

The click sounded like it was in front of me, though I couldn't pinpoint where exactly. It sounded close enough that I assumed it was the clip of the connector clicking in. However, when I tried again later on, I observed the connection made more of a muffled clicking sound, almost like a tap, rather than a distinct click noise. That is why I wondered if I snapped a pin, which it does not look like the case. It did not sound like it came from the other side of the computer case nor did it sound like it was extraneous noise in the room I was working in (which was essentially silent, no one home).

 

I am not exactly sure what the red light represents. Maybe it could be indicating ground, but I have not yet found any information on ASUS' website for this card. As for PCIe slot power, I found this post on this forum where it is explained that PCIe devices cannot be powered while the system is off. I'm not exactly sure if the author meant the device cannot be powered to function or if the PCIe slot delivers zero power while the system is off. There is mention about PSUs having 5V standby power for USB devices. Not sure if that is enough electricity to cause an issue when plugging in 12V power.

 

[Poinkachu]

55 minutes ago, Kodeplay10 said:

The click sounded like it was in front of me, though I couldn't pinpoint where exactly. It sounded close enough that I assumed it was the clip of the connector clicking in. However, when I tried again later on, I observed the connection made more of a muffled clicking sound, almost like a tap, rather than a distinct click noise. That is why I wondered if I snapped a pin, which it does not look like the case. It did not sound like it came from the other side of the computer case nor did it sound like it was extraneous noise in the room I was working in (which was essentially silent, no one home).

 

I am not exactly sure what the red light represents. Maybe it could be indicating ground, but I have not yet found any information on ASUS' website for this card. As for PCIe slot power, I found this post on this forum where it is explained that PCIe devices cannot be powered while the system is off. I'm not exactly sure if the author meant the device cannot be powered to function or if the PCIe slot delivers zero power while the system is off. There is mention about PSUs having 5V standby power for USB devices. Not sure if that is enough electricity to cause an issue when plugging in 12V power.

 

Pretty sure solid red light on ASUS GPU when system turned on indicates power delivery issue.

Got any power supply tester ?

[Kodeplay10]

Some additional and updated information:

 

Edited original post to include clarification on the system being able to 'post.'

 

I believe I determined what the "click" sound was. It was the PCIe latch clicking into place. This means the card was probably not properly seated, until the push from me inserting the 12V power pushed it all the way in. I'm not sure if this can damage the card, as the LED did briefly turn white as the 12V connector was two-thirds the way in, then turned back red as the latch clicked and the 12V went all the way in.

 

I thought I should include this image (attached below). While searching online for what the red LED could indicate, it was brought to my attention from this source that the motherboard also displays LEDs while powered on that may be helpful to include. I'm not sure if the VGA light is just corroborating the same info as the red light on the GPU.

 

[Kodeplay10]

14 minutes ago, Poinkachu said:

Pretty sure solid red light on ASUS GPU when system turned on indicates power delivery issue.

Got any power supply tester ?

I do not unfortunately.

 

[Poinkachu]

25 minutes ago, Kodeplay10 said:

I do not unfortunately.

 

Well, I found 2 same cases in reddit. (ASUS GPU Solid Red Led)
One was a problem with loose cable extender (which you do not use)
One was unresolved with indication towards PSU (it's even the same GPU like yours).

Is there any other PC around that you can test your GPU on?, maybe friend's ?
As for the PSU, a simple power supply tester from amazon might do the trick, i think around $10 to $15.

[Poinkachu]

43 minutes ago, Kodeplay10 said:

Some additional and updated information:

 

Edited original post to include clarification on the system being able to 'post.'

 

I believe I determined what the "click" sound was. It was the PCIe latch clicking into place. This means the card was probably not properly seated, until the push from me inserting the 12V power pushed it all the way in. I'm not sure if this can damage the card, as the LED did briefly turn white as the 12V connector was two-thirds the way in, then turned back red as the latch clicked and the 12V went all the way in.

 

I thought I should include this image (attached below). While searching online for what the red LED could indicate, it was brought to my attention from this source that the motherboard also displays LEDs while powered on that may be helpful to include. I'm not sure if the VGA light is just corroborating the same info as the red light on the GPU.

 

 

Nah, pretty sure the VGA led on motherboard indicates problem with GPU (doesn't mean the GPU is broken)
Each LED (MOBO & GPU) works on their own and not communicating with each other.
 

 

 

[Kodeplay10]

8 hours ago, Poinkachu said:

Well, I found 2 same cases in reddit. (ASUS GPU Solid Red Led)
One was a problem with loose cable extender (which you do not use)
One was unresolved with indication towards PSU (it's even the same GPU like yours).

Is there any other PC around that you can test your GPU on?, maybe friend's ?
As for the PSU, a simple power supply tester from amazon might do the trick, i think around $10 to $15.

I do not have access to another desktop to test the GPU. I will look into getting a power supply tester.

 

[Kodeplay10]

It appears that the power supply is functioning properly. My question now is whether or not the graphics card will still light up an LED even if it's bricked.

 

[Kodeplay10]

Closing the loop on this issue for future visitors. Since no other solutions were offered, I am considering this issue unresolved. The only solution left was to assume the card was dead and purchase a new card. Doing so afforded me a functioning machine once more. If there are any other suggestions years down the line, I would be open to hear them, as I would still prefer to have a functioning 1060 for old times' sake. Thank you.

[virus464]

i picked up a used one of these and so far it looks like a lot of people have the same issue with this exact model. couldnt find a solution yet, ill test it tomorrow with my main system where i know the PSU is good. i dont have much hope tbf. i suspect smthn faulty on the power delivery side of the card, bet the logic part it totaly fine.

[nharr0]

Found this thread while researching this exact same issue with my ASUS GTX 1060 DUAL 6GB.

Mine went dead (i guess so) after removing it so i could swap the board and everything onto another pc case. Plugged everything in and flipped the PSU on, light on the graphics card turned white for a few seconds than switched to red.

The computer would't boot, graphics card fans spinning, VGA light on on the motherboard and a message on the screen saying ** please turn off power and connect PCI-E psu cables ** (something along those lines). Removed the graphics card, used some compressed air, cleaned everything with suitable alchool... No dice.

Spent 1 week testing stuff and researching but had no luck. Tested the PSU and it was OK. My solution was to buy a new graphics card, which brought my computer back to life.

TL;DR: If someone bumps into this thread from googling around the same issue: Yep, you card is probably dead

[Gistix]

Since last sarturday when I changed my case and PSU my GTX 1060 started having the same issue as yours, today I decided to take a closer look, in special around the PCIE power connector and...

 

 

This part of the card is normally covered by the fans 'casing', this wasn't caused by physical "trauma", this likely happened when I plugged the new PSU and turned it on...

 

I attemped to unbend this dangly bit to solder it but the other leg broke, so I just soldered the two terminals together (and the other two that where nearby as well lol), the card now recognizes power and seems to be working like it used to, I can now wait for GPU prices to drop even lower before making an informed decision when buying...