Ray,
I've done a man read, so hopefully got all the info. If you power the receiver with a separate power pack, then disconnect both red wires from your two esc's, as they don't need to power the rx, you already have the power. I theory, with one red wire, you don't need the supplementary power source.
I would suggest you rebind the tx and rx, just to start from fresh. I cant see that you have both esc's connected to your rx, so are you using a "Y" harness?
Are your esc's lipo compatible? Its been a long time since I used vipers, but I recall the tio was lipo friendly, but you still had to programme it, are you exceeding the max input voltage?
I think, the esc with the red wire, thus providing the power and signal to the rx needs resetting, and your rx needs to be live prior to the esc's arming. I remember that I had a similar problem with a twin motor set up, using turnigy rx, it was arming slow, and the esc's where "trying" to set quicker, and not seeing the receiver, I rambling now, but the rx needs to be lit before the esc's, you might want to try and work out some sort of switch to the esc's to prevent this happening, its what I did, so power everything, see the rx lit up, then flick the switch to get the power to the esc's .
When you rebind, use one esc at a time, setting the throttle range etc, then go back to the dual hook up. Its very difficult to explain, wish I could have it in front of me!
Paul