Solved BIOS beep, PC posts, but red LED light on GPU and no monitor signal

A couple of weeks ago the fan on my graphics card stopped working, it was buzzing a lot and periodically slowing down. I bought a new heatsink for the card, an Arctic Cooling Accelero L2. I installed everything on the card correctly and carefully. Now when I put the graphics card back on the mobo, the red light (the one ON the actual card, not on the mobo) is lit up and my monitor stays black.

The GPU itself worked perfectly fine (even if the fan wasn't working) before I installed this new cooler. I wouldn't use it much while the fan was breaking down so that it wouldn't overheat.

There IS a POST beep on power-up. Just a normal single beep. It recognizes there is a graphics card in my PCI-E slot but the card itself has a red light on it now. I tried swapping different SATA cables, even tried connecting the card to a molex instead. It just won't respond.

The fan on the new heatsink spins fine, however I have the fan connected only to molex power (it comes with a molex cable for direct-to-PSU use in case the fan connector doesn't fit the header, which in this case, it definitely wouldn't). I don't know whether or not that's an issue.

Now prior to all of this happening I had just contracted the Trojan virus Sirefef/ZeroAccess. I don't know if that would affect graphics card power settings.

GPU: Sapphire ATI Radeon HD5770 PCI-E 2.1

Think you answered your own question,

The fan on the new heatsink spins fine, however I have the fan connected only to molex power (it comes with a molex cable for direct-to-PSU use in case the fan connector doesn't fit the header, which in this case, it definitely wouldn't). I don't know whether or not that's an issue.

Click to expand...

Pretty sure the card won't initialize if there isn't a fan connected to the fan header. Are you sure that the connector from the fan won't fit on the card? From what I can see it has either a 3 or 4 pin connector (or both depending on which model it is) that should fit on the fan header on the card.

No, my damn card is only a 2-pin. Anything bigger won't fit. Now I hear that in some cases people broke the plastic around the header if it's a 2-pin, but I also heard other people say it could be connected to molex only as well. Perhaps I read/heard them incorrectly.

If I do need to connect the plug to the card itself, what would be recommended to break the plastic surrounding the header to fit it?

Stormy is right, with the fan not connected to the GPU, it doesn't "know" there is a fan in use. I would try soldering the connector from the original cooler to the fan leads on the new one.
What is the model number of your GPU card?

I don't know the first thing about soldering, nor do I own a soldering iron or know anyone that does. I can't afford a whole new card if I screw something up anyway. There has to be some other way to get the connecter onto the header.

It's a Sapphire Radeon HD 5770 GDDR5 PCI-E 2.1,1GB

One of these?
Newegg.com - Computer Hardware, Sapphire Radeon HD 5770 GDDR5
Can you upload a photo of the card, cooler and connectors?

It's this one:
Newegg.com - SAPPHIRE 100283-3L Radeon HD 5770 1GB 128-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 2.1 x16 HDCP Ready CrossFireX Support Video Card

And yes, I will, as soon as I can.

Here are the photos.

Hey nice, clear pics! You may be able to use the tip of a sharp knife to slip the wires out of the connectors and swap them. Just be sure to get the wire colors in the same position..
Likely you only need the red and black to run the fan, yellow being the RPM sensor.
EDIT: Here's a couple of pics to help. Those tangs are delicate but can be swapped around, I've done a few myself with fans and front panel connectors.

Do you mean taking the two wires out of the three-pin plug and putting them into the two-pin plug from the old heatsink? Or just pulling the wires out and plugging them directly into the card's connector? What do I swap the wires with/what do I do with them when I pull the wires out? I've never had to do it before so I want to make sure I do everything right.

Almost. When you take out the 3 wires, use 2 of them and put them in the old cooler fan connector. Just make sure you have the black one in the same orientation as the original or the fan will spin the wrong way. You'll have an extra, tape it over so it won't touch anything else.
What I want you to end up with is a 2 pin connector on the new fan.

All right, hopefully I'll have a chance today to take a shot at it. I'll let you know how it went after I try it out.

Thanks for the tip, I didn't know those pins could be removed.

Plugged fan directly into card this time. Light is still red. Nothing's happening. The red light is still in the same place it was before, on the actual card. POST beep and everything, and the fan is running, but nothing else.

Here's some pictures of where the light is showing up. I don't know what else to attribute this to.

And this is the cooler on Newegg: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835186041&Tpk=arctic%20cooling%20accelero%20l2%20pro

And the fan IS running, so I know it's plugged in and everything. I put the right color pins in the right spots.

Don't take this the wrong way. Did you reconnect the monitor cable? Also try pulling the card and reinserting it to make sure it's fully seated. If this doesn't help, I'll have someone else look in here.
I'm not saying you are incompetent, I've done silly things like forgetting things, many times. I've also forgot to flip the PSU switch on.

Naw, I know you're not saying I'm incompetent. I'm not offended I've done silly things, too.

Yes, the monitor is connected.
I've tried re-seating many times, it doesn't work. I have it in as far as it'll go. It's screwed in and secure.
I've tired plugging it into both DVI slots, still doesn't help.
I know my PSU is switched on, because the rest of the computer boots just fine.
I've also tried using a different power cable for the card to see if maybe the cable I was using had a short, but that didn't work either.

I'm actually really concerned the VRAM coolers on the card may have caused damage or something. The cooler itself comes with a bunch of additional memory heatsinks that glue onto the chips.

More stupid questions:
Did you apply thermal paste to the heatsink?

There should be 4 LEDs on the card, from what I have read. At least the Sapphire 4800 series had 4. There should be numbers next to each LED. If D1601 is lit red it means a "critical temperature fault".

See post #14
Sapphire 4850 LED codes?

The other thing I think of, reading your thread and assuming you have made all the connections and installations correctly, is that the card was critically damaged when the original fan failed. I know that is not what you want to hear, but it remains a possibility regardless.

And I have a WAG:
Remove all of the installed RAM from the system and try booting with just one stick in the first RAM slot.
And for good measure you could also perform a Clear CMOS too.

Sounds far fetched but I have read posts where these actions have cleared the red LED!

Thermal paste came pre-applied on the heatsink, and I didn't touch it or remove it. I did clear off the previous thermal paste first before putting the new heatsink on.

Right after my other fan failed, my card was definitely still functioning just fine. I had run it once or twice to check the old fan (when it was still on the old heatsink) and the card would boot up and work, even with the failed fan in it, and I shut the PC off before the card could get too hot, just so it wouldn't damage it. Is it possible for it to completely die while it wasn't connected to the motherboard or being used? I imagine it could be possible, but was there something I might have done wrong?

When I have time I'll check the light and see what number the LED is and get back to you ASAP.

Looks like it's D4000.

And it looks like this person had the exact same problem as me, the very same cooler I have:
http://www.overclock.net/t/885790/xfx-hd-5770-d4000-light-red

Just a though. Could the red light be on because the card no longer picks up the rpm's with a two wire connection. Their for the card thinks the fan isn't working. Because of that the video card is shutting it self down.

If all else fails with this cooler, I can try putting the old one back on. I had purchased a new fan and stuck it on there, and it's a 2-pin, but the plug didn't fit the connector, so I bought the new heatsink instead, figuring it might help with temperatures too in the long run. But now that I know I can pull the wires out of a plug and put them in another one, I can try that with the fan and see if it's the cooler or not.

The only problem with that would be, I wouldn't be able to re-attach the small memory heatsinks. If nothing else helps I'll try the old heatsink with the new fan on it. It would be nice if this cooler worked out though. Cost 35 bucks to order it.