PC freezes, VGA led light displays red!

[Hatton92]

Hey,

I'm just going to post the events leading up to the problem and hopefully you lovely people of the internet can assist me as to where I have gone wrong and possible solutions for me to fix it.

My PC Spec:
 
CPU:	AMD Phenom II X6 1100T 3.3GHz Black Edit	   
RAM:	Corsair Dominator 16GB DDR3	   
Motherboard:	AMD Crosshair V Formula 990FX DDR3 RoG Series	   
Graphics Card:	AMD RADEON 6870 CROSSFIRE	   
Sound Card:	Creative Sound Blaster X-Fi Titanium Fatal1ty Pro Series	   
Headphones:	Creative Fatal1ty Pro Series Gaming Headset	   
Mouse:	Microsoft Optical Mouse USB	   
Mouse Mat:	RAZER DESTRUCTOR	   
Keyboard:	Logitech Keyboard PS2	   
Monitor:	LG W2363D 23" TRUE 120Hz 3D Widescreen LCD Monitor  
Operating System:	Windows 7 64bit

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1. The PC has worked fine for 6 months, gaming for long periods and no system crashes.

2. I got a new desk set up about 1-3 days ago

3. I decided it would be a good time to install my second graphics card (HD Radeon 6870)

4. I didn't have the crossfire bridge to hand but left the card in the PC anyway to install the bridge at a later date.

5. Booted up PC, worked fine for about 30 minutes

6. Mouse froze, keyboard didn't respond, VGA led light displays as red!

7. Tried to restart, monitor doesn't respond to PC.

8. Red VGA led light is still on

9. Have to turn off PC via the PSU switch.

10. Wait over night.

11. Turn on, boots up fine, freezes 30 minutes in. Same symptoms as #6!

12. Turn off, wait 30 minutes

13. Turn on, BIOS says 'overclock settings failed' (I've never overclocked any of the settings in my life)

14. I decided to just set the overclock settings back to defaults and restart the PC

15. Still freezes anywhere between 10-30 minutes in. Same symptoms as #6!

16. I removed the second graphics card I initially put in

17. Problem still persists. Freezes 30 minutes in, can't move mouse, can't operate keyboard, VGA led light displays as red.

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If any of you can help me out I would really appreciate it, this one has really got me stumped and I don't want to do anything else incase I create further problems.

Thanks in advance,

Hatton

[NemesisChild]

You missed listing one of the most important system components, your PSU make & model?

[Mummy]

1: Do you have your Windows in normal hard drive (HDD) or is it in some SSD ?
-- I didnt find that info from your specs and there is SSD that could freeze your system specially if they had old FW.

2: Did you uninstal your Graphics Card drivers before you installed your secend card in?
-- Uninstall your current drivers via controllpanel and do "clean install" with new ones from AMD.
Do not install them over the oldones!

3: What Red VGA light you mean?
-- The one on Monitor, on VGA card, on Motherboard?


And welcome to Forum

That overclock fail bios info was because you did shot down the pc via PSU swich.
Next time press and hold your pc power button on the case down like 10 sec and it will force it down via MB.

[DarkSilence]

I had a similar incident with the red VGA led. My computer just would not boot up. I found that I had a bad stick of RAM.

[Hatton92]

You missed listing one of the most important system components, your PSU make & model?

850watts Corsair HX

1: Do you have your Windows in normal hard drive (HDD) or is it in some SSD ?
-- I didnt find that info from your specs and there is SSD that could freeze your system specially if they had old FW.

Sorry, Windows is installed on my HDD. I use my SSD for Steam.

2: Did you uninstal your Graphics Card drivers before you installed your secend card in?
-- Uninstall your current drivers via controllpanel and do "clean install" with new ones from AMD.
Do not install them over the oldones!

I didn't update the drivers because I hadn't put the Crossfire bridge on the cards.

3: What Red VGA light you mean?
-- The one on Monitor, on VGA card, on Motherboard?

On the motherboard.

I had a similar incident with the red VGA led. My computer just would not boot up. I found that I had a bad stick of RAM.

It can't be the RAM can it? Everything was working perfectly fine before hand.

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I really don't know what I should do! Thanks for the quick replies, I hope I can get this sorted as soon as possible.

[HiVizMan]

It can be your memory, in fact it could be many things. But lets take it one step at a time.

First a question == did you use a anti-static band when you installed your second graphic card?



Moving on.

In BIOS F5 enter
F10 enter
Boot to OS
Reset as soon as you are in OS.
Run memtest just to remove your ram from the equation.
Post back when you are done and we will take it from there.

[Hatton92]

It can be your memory, in fact it could be many things. But lets take it one step at a time.

First a question == did you use a anti-static band when you installed your second graphic card?



Moving on.

In BIOS F5 enter
F10 enter
Boot to OS
Reset as soon as you are in OS.
Run memtest just to remove your ram from the equation.
Post back when you are done and we will take it from there.

Yes, I used an anti-static band when installing the graphics card.

I've turned it on this afternoon but for some reason it isn't even getting to the Operating System anymore. My monitor doesn't display anything and the VGA led light on the motherboard still displays as red!

Also, how would I go about running memtest? (for future sake)

[HiVizMan]

Download the version that you find easiest to use. I like the USB version 4.2

Insert to PC
Power on PC
F8 and select your Memtest location
Let the application run for at least 2 complete cycles

That is about it.

[Mummy]

@Hatton92, How you have your ram layout, 2x8GB or 4x4GB ?
-- Take as many out so you have only one in the MB (Last one on RED slot. Fartest from CPU) and try booting to, OS again. If it dont help try other memory stick and so on.

My monitor doesn't display anything

Not even BIOS?

I didn't update the drivers because I hadn't put the Crossfire bridge on the cards.

MB still may recognise it in. Anyway i would try to update/downgread them if i get in the os. all so look how high your TEMPs are when you are in and it crases.

[DaemonCantor]

I had this problem on the CHIVF, as it turned out the PCI-E Slots were set by the factory really low ie: not enough juice to power two cards up. I upped the Voltage in BIOS and the problem went away.