What Is Red Light on Motherboard and How to Fix the Issue?

What Is Red Light on Motherboard

The red light on motherboard indicates that the internal hardware is incorrectly inserted or not working. What causes the issue?

• Internal hardware includes CPU, RAM, or graphics card.
• A dead CMOS battery.
• A boot error on the hard drive where the main operating system is installed.

The red light is always on after the computer is turned on, but it generally does not turn on, cannot enter the bios, and does not display content on the monitor. The specific error depends on the location of the motherboard and the red light. Some motherboard manufacturers put a label on the motherboard to explain the problem.

Then, let’s see how to read the red Light on motherboard.

How to Read the Red Light on Motherboard

Newer motherboards have four main indicators, and a red light will be located next to each label. Those are:

CPU: The red light near this indicator indicates that the motherboard cannot recognize the CPU, which may mean a variety of situations. It may be that the CPU is not inserted correctly or one of the pins is bent. It may also be that the CPU fan is not plugged in properly. Finally, a dead CMOS battery will also cause the red light to trigger

BOOT: The red light near the BOOT indicator indicates that there is a problem with the boot device, which may be the hard drive. More specifically, it is the hard disk that stores the operating system.

VGA: The red light near the VGA or GPU indicator indicates that the graphics card is not detected or installed incorrectly.

DRAM: The red light near the DRAM indicator indicates that the RAM module is not installed correctly. If you can see that the side clips on both sides of the RAM stick are not locked, that may be the problem.

How to Fix Red Light on Motherboard

How to fix red CPU light on motherboard? Here is the guide.

1. Disconnect the affected hardware and reinstall it to make sure it is plugged correctly.
2. Reset BIOS. You can refer to this post – How to Reset BIOS/CMOS in Windows 10 – 3 Steps.
3. Replace the CMOS battery.
4. Please disconnect and unplug all hardware starting from GPU, any hard drives, RAM, and CPU. Look at the connectors and pins to see if there is any damage or debris. Dirt and dust may accumulate on the old motherboard, causing problems.

You can remove it by carefully cleaning the connector with a soft pencil eraser. You should also remove all peripheral devices, including mouse, keyboard, external drivers, printers, and Ethernet cables.

5. Connect the devices to your computer one by one and try to start it. Key hardware includes CPU and RAM.
6. If you checked all the components and the problem persists, the problem may be a problem with the motherboard, or a damaged or defective power supply.

Final Words

Here is all the information about the red light on motherboard. If you have any other useful solutions to this issue, let us know by leaving a comment below.