Random failure to boot

[Dave1920]

So first off apologies if I have missed another post that covers this, I have seen many similar but not close enough.

 

So years of computer building and no problems then after one update of motherboard, cpu and graphics card I have a random ( in that it doesnt always happen and when it does its not always the same) boot issue.

 

Sometimes the PC hangs at the post screen, sometimes we do a loop with a repair needed and then we're in and a couple of other variations. Second time boot is nearly always fine but usually this requires me to turn the pc off and then back on, it doesnt just memory test and carry on for example. It seems to have changed with time as well in that initially it was 99% hang at the start I'd turn it off and on again and then fine. Now it seems to cause error screen and restart most of the time. When in windows if you restart its fine, if you turn the pc off and leave it a few minutes and turn it on its fine. Defining exactly how long you can leave it before it fails is difficult. Most of the time there is no error on the motherboard I think it gets the A0 code.

 

Current system is i7-8700k (not overclocked), asus ROG maximus X hero, 16gb ram corsair vengeance 3200mhz, 250gb samsung 970 evo m.2, gigabyte 2070 gaming oc. There are other hard drives and I'll look for the details if anyones bothered.

 

What have I tried reinstalling windows, multiple times on different drives (I still think the issue may lie here somewhere), multiple times round bios settings and updated firmware (no expert in all the settings), new power supply, memory swapping and peripheral swapping. Its very hard to test as I have to leave it overnight between each attempt to make sure it would have otherwise failed. 

 

The final clincher is that I repurposed old parts for a pc for my dad which I briefly tested and it seemed ok but he tells me it occasionally does the same thing. This makes me think I've done something schoolboy when installing windows as the only other link is the PSU which used to be in my system and is now in his. Both installs where from microsoft downloaded software onto usb pen. As I type this I'm wondering if I formatted the drives first but I think at least one of them was brand new, formatted and then windows installed.

 

Any help appreciated.

 

Thanks

[paddy-stone]

29 minutes ago, Dave1920 said:

So first off apologies if I have missed another post that covers this, I have seen many similar but not close enough.

 

So years of computer building and no problems then after one update of motherboard, cpu and graphics card I have a random ( in that it doesnt always happen and when it does its not always the same) boot issue.

 

Sometimes the PC hangs at the post screen, sometimes we do a loop with a repair needed and then we're in and a couple of other variations. Second time boot is nearly always fine but usually this requires me to turn the pc off and then back on, it doesnt just memory test and carry on for example. It seems to have changed with time as well in that initially it was 99% hang at the start I'd turn it off and on again and then fine. Now it seems to cause error screen and restart most of the time. When in windows if you restart its fine, if you turn the pc off and leave it a few minutes and turn it on its fine. Defining exactly how long you can leave it before it fails is difficult. Most of the time there is no error on the motherboard I think it gets the A0 code.

 

Current system is i7-8700k (not overclocked), asus ROG maximus X hero, 16gb ram corsair vengeance 3200mhz, 250gb samsung 970 evo m.2, gigabyte 2070 gaming oc. There are other hard drives and I'll look for the details if anyones bothered.

 

What have I tried reinstalling windows, multiple times on different drives (I still think the issue may lie here somewhere), multiple times round bios settings and updated firmware (no expert in all the settings), new power supply, memory swapping and peripheral swapping. Its very hard to test as I have to leave it overnight between each attempt to make sure it would have otherwise failed. 

 

The final clincher is that I repurposed old parts for a pc for my dad which I briefly tested and it seemed ok but he tells me it occasionally does the same thing. This makes me think I've done something schoolboy when installing windows as the only other link is the PSU which used to be in my system and is now in his. Both installs where from microsoft downloaded software onto usb pen. As I type this I'm wondering if I formatted the drives first but I think at least one of them was brand new, formatted and then windows installed.

 

Any help appreciated.

 

Thanks

Maybe the outlets are buggy, or the PSU you swapped to also has a problem... I had a similar problem a few years back, in the end I found out it was the PSU after it went bang! when in my test system.

What I would do personally:

• Try a different outlet or 2
• Get a different surge protector, or use one if you don't already
• Think about buying a UPS, but only if you could do with one anyway.

I'm almost positive this will turn out to be a power issue of some sort, but the finding out can be troublesome.

[Dave1920]

On 6/24/2020 at 3:05 PM, paddy-stone said:

Maybe the outlets are buggy, or the PSU you swapped to also has a problem... I had a similar problem a few years back, in the end I found out it was the PSU after it went bang! when in my test system.

What I would do personally:

• Try a different outlet or 2
• Get a different surge protector, or use one if you don't already
• Think about buying a UPS, but only if you could do with one anyway.

I'm almost positive this will turn out to be a power issue of some sort, but the finding out can be troublesome.

Thanks for the suggestion and it is solved ( I think) but it wasnt the power supply. I took your advice and I tried swapping to my remaining spare PSU. I didnt think it would work but I asked for help and you made a reasonable suggestion so I gave it a go. Its not the hardest thing to swap a psu but I took the memory out just in case and when I tested it I only put one stick back in, and it failed but different from usual. Had to actually go into BIOS and reset then it worked, that suprised me. So I tried swapping the memory and it worked first time but I didnt know if the PC had time to 'cool off' so I gave it a few tests over the next few days and its now working with one stick and the original PSU boots first time every time. I mustn't have allowed enough time between when originally testing the memory. So thank you, my new memory on the way and I can't believe I've lived with this for a year when it was so simple.  

[paddy-stone]

13 hours ago, Dave1920 said:

Thanks for the suggestion and it is solved ( I think) but it wasnt the power supply. I took your advice and I tried swapping to my remaining spare PSU. I didnt think it would work but I asked for help and you made a reasonable suggestion so I gave it a go. Its not the hardest thing to swap a psu but I took the memory out just in case and when I tested it I only put one stick back in, and it failed but different from usual. Had to actually go into BIOS and reset then it worked, that suprised me. So I tried swapping the memory and it worked first time but I didnt know if the PC had time to 'cool off' so I gave it a few tests over the next few days and its now working with one stick and the original PSU boots first time every time. I mustn't have allowed enough time between when originally testing the memory. So thank you, my new memory on the way and I can't believe I've lived with this for a year when it was so simple.  

No worries, I'm glad you got it sorted out.... IMO they can be very tricky to diagnose, hence my OCD required me to purchase 3 of the same PSUs, and one very similar that still takes the same modular cables... makes troubleshooting a lot easier when I only have to swap the actual PSU unit and not all the cabling etc too. They are EVGA 650W G2 models for the 3x the same, and my other main PSU is an EVGA p2 850W. It's not often I need to test or diagnose something with them, as they are quality units and don't give me any problems at all. I invested in a couple of UPS units a year or 2 back, and that made it even better as I know I won't suffer a power failure when updating BIOS or something... plus it's nice to have all my gear hooked up and get a couple minutes to shut down my systems.

 

Are you RMA'ing the ram stick? if not, and you have a spare system with DDR4 slots it might be worth your while testing that faulty stick... also you could swap it into your main system to run a memtest and see if it shows any errors. It could be the memory slot on the mobo that's shonky, I hope it's not, but might be worth testing that too.