RossMadness

So before running chkdsk again, do a HDD diagnostic. If it's a bad HDD then running chkdsk repair could destroy data. Check your boot options and your BIOS to see if the manufacturer has included a diagnostic tool. If not, Seagate Seatools and WD Data Lifeguard both have bootable tools to do diagnostics. If the HDD is verified as fine, then run chkdsk /f /r This will attempt to repair the file system and fix any bad sectors. Again, run the diagnostic tool FIRST. If the diagnostic fails then focus on doing data recovery. We can talk about those options in another post once you've had a chance to run the diagnostics.

The problem I've had with this series is the haphazard why he's approaching this. I think it's a great experiment, and if I had the hardware I would try it too. However his troubleshooting steps don't make sense. Start with one GPU and one VM. Get it working then add another. Also, don't try porting over other VMs. Clean install each one. That's not necessary, but is optimal. This is basic troubleshooting and project management. You don't throw 6 GPUs of all different types in at once and then try and troubleshoot the abundance of errors that could take place. Setting all the hardware out in the open and stacked on top of each other is the icing on the cake. I really like watching troubleshooting videos. I do computer repair and system management for a living and I enjoy seeing solutions other people come up with so I can have them in my back pocket just in case. This has been maddening though. It makes for a confusing video and ruins the excitement of the project itself. I just about screamed "FINALLY" into the void when he said it was time to go "back to basics" and install everything "part by part". Linus, I doubt you'll see this, but for my sanity please review troubleshooting methods that help efficiently eliminate variables. It will make your life easier and might even make for a good tech quickie video at some point.

I have an older ASRock board and it doesn't come with a motherboard speaker installed. That was in the box and I had to install it myself. I would double check that just in case. I would remove everything that isn't necessary and just boot using CPU, RAM, (and GPU since your CPU doesn't have integrated graphics). Does it get into the BIOS/UEFI successfully? If so, then slowly add parts such as HDD, SSD, GPU, etc and try a boot after each one. This could help narrow down a troublesome part or where some tuning in the BIOS/UEFI is required. Also, that's a beefy Graphics card. If possible, use a less power hungry GPU while doing these tests. Also, 550 watts seems too low for this system, especially with the 1080 hybrid, and the AIO for the CPU and all of the RGB fans and RGB ram. I would try upgrading to a 700+ watt PSU and see if that helps. (Most stores will let you return the PSU within a certain time period so if it doesn't help then just return it). Good luck.

If they work outside of Windows then it's most likely an OS issue. As mentioned by @barondeau, you can open Device Manager and right-click on the USB hardware. Select "uninstall driver" from the context menu. This should reinstall the driver from the Windows driver store (assuming that isn't corrupt). For general OS health, you can run SFC /SCANNOW from command prompt. If Windows 8 and up, you can also run DISM /ONLINE /CLEANUP-IMAGE /RESTOREHEALTH to check the drivers, driver store and some other Windows system functions against Microsoft's Windows Update store online. Again, this is all just general health stuff. Start with uninstalling the drivers from Device Manager first. I only mentioned the other options because you had shown concern about the search not working either.

I have several questions. You may have answered them already, but I didn't see it in the thread. When you say "it gets to the part with 'Starting Windows'" are you saying that you have completed the installation and are now booting to the internal HDD/SSD? If so this may not be an issue with the installation media. It may be the drive you're installing it on. Run a diagnostic on the drive and see if it's bad. If it's an OEM machine, they usually have some tool to boot to (for exampe, HP has diagnostics available in the BIOS or by hitting F2 on boot, depending on the age of the computer). Seagate Seatools and WD Data Lifeguard both have bootable disk diagnostics. If you aren't even able to reach the install screen, but are having problems booting to the install disc, then I have other questions. You said "it wouldn't let me put it on a usb drive". Where did you get the ISO? What are you using to write it to the USB drive? How big is the drive? If you have an official ISO (or made an ISO of the official disc), I recommend using Rufus to create the bootable USB. It's very reliable and I've had better success with it than Microsoft's own utility. MS recommends at least an 8 GB USB but I always recommend 16 GB just in case.

The website cybrary.it is a good one for a variety of topics. I haven't looked specifically at their A+ stuff, but I've used their Linux+ and Network+ courses and they were good. It all depends on the expert that made the course.

My brother-in-law had this issue the other day. I advised him to use Rufus and the Windows 10 ISO to create the boot USB instead of the Media Creation Tool. It worked like a charm.

Yes, those are the ones. Very handy. Just make you sure you get the right one for your current exam.

For me, I bought a book from the "Exam Cram" series that was very thorough and it came with a CD of practice questions. I also used https://www.professormesser.com/ . This guy is a multi-decade veteran of the IT industry and has comprehensive series on different certifications including weekly live streams where you can ask questions. I've used him for the Network+ and Linux+ studies as well, but I have yet to take those exams.

A+ Certified tech, here. You don't NEED it, but like @Oshino Shinobu said, it helps make your resume that more convincing. For me, I don't have a college degree so it made a HUGE difference in my job opportunities because it validated my knowledge. The great thing about working in tech jobs is that certifications are often looked at as equivalent to degrees in some positions. So you can get more certs moving forward and just makes you a more desirable hire. PLUS the A+ is two tests at 200 dollars a test. So if you can get your school to pay for that, then you DEFINITELY need to do it. Way better than 400 bucks out of pocket.

The problem is driver support. The OS will not run natively because neither Microsoft nor the hardware manufacturers support XP anymore. You can run XP in a VM, but that still means your grandpa will have to use Win10 just to even get that far. Honestly, I would install 10 and customize the crap out of the Start Menu and walk him through what's new. Unless you can salvage his old hardware and just refurb the old machine. Sorry to be the bearer of bad news. Good luck.

I can guarantee you that Windows XP doesn't have drivers for ANY of that hardware. Also, WinXP is only 32 Bit so even if it did have support for DDR4, it wouldn't use more than 4 GB. Windows XP will not run on that system. He has to use a modern OS to use modern hardware.

If understand your post correctly, you're still able to boot into the BIOS and make changes. If everything is set back to default, then there's a few things you can try. Create a bootable CD or DVD. I suspect booting from USB is the problem. If you can boot from a CD/DVD then you know everything is fine. To try and get the USB working, check for a "Legacy USB boot" option. If it's on, turn it off. If it's off, turn it on. I've seen that mess with USB booting depending on how the USB is set up.

There is a forum post on page one about this. Why does no one ever read it? https://linustechtips.com/main/topic/42440-readme-how-to-respond-to-a-no-post-or-no-power-up-situation/ It's an almost comprehensive list of things to do in this situation. Good luck.

This might still be a Windows problem since it gets far enough into the boot process for Windows to register that it "didn't start correctly". I would power on and tap F8 repeatedly. From the menu options choose "Disable automatic restart on system failure". Just in case there is a blue screen but it's rebooting before you can see it. If it does hit Blue screen on next boot, it will not restart but instead let you stare at the blue screen as long as you want before your manually restart it. This might shed more light on the problem.

That happens sometimes, unfortunately. If you want a good, free antivirus, Bitdefender has been a good one for me and it has an extremely low resource usage.

You assume that, but you don't see behind the scenes. Most districts have contracts with manufacturers such as Dell. My district contracts with HP. They probably got those Alienware PCs for a major discount. Also, a lot of times school admins purchase computers without IT even knowing about it.

As others have said, check your Chrome extensions and look for anything you didn't install. Google names of the extensions if you're not sure. Odds are, someone out there will be talking about it. If this is malware, CCleaner isn't a huge help. It has a decent Uninstall utility and startup entry manager, but that's about it. You can try running Malwarebytes Anti-Malware just to be sure. It may find more. Also take some time to look at your services in MSCONFIG. Be sure to click the checkbox for "Hide all Microsoft Services" so you see only third party ones. Google ones you don't know and uncheck any that seem unnecessary. Good luck!

SeaTools is amazing. The bootable version has helped me more times than I can count.

Hi. School computer tech here. Don't touch it. Your teacher should have a method of placing a work order with the school or district technician. Not trying to be a downer, hear me out. IF you do something that makes it worse or you accidentally break a physical component, your teacher's department might be responsible for paying for the damage. Worse case scenario: you pay for it out of pocket. No matter what your opinion might be of the quality of the technicians, the IT department has a budget for any and all mistakes a technician might make. You don't want to risk bring blamed.

I'm wondering about the quality of power from your wall outlet. It could be "dirty" power so the PSU isn't getting a consistent input of energy. It might be worth going to some place like Best Buy, buying a UPS (uninterruptible power supply) and plugging the computer into that. The idea is that the UPS will provide a consistent level of output and if the power from the wall drops below sustainable levels, it will beep when it switches to its internal battery. If it doesn't make a difference then return the sucker. Best Buy has a 15 day return policy as long as you don't jack the box all to heck. Good Luck!

Since you've already done a fresh install (sounds like maybe more than once) I would boot to a Linux Live CD and see if the ethernet adapter works consistently there. If it doesn't run as consistently then the hardware may be faulty.