Windows 7: 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,

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.