PC freezing during boot

[Jyles]

During the Windows boot screen, my PC always freezes. It also freezes while trying to reinstall windows from a USB and during the automatic repair. It started yesterday, and briefly starting working again for roughly 30 minutes, but then froze while watching a video. PC began freezing during the boot screen again, and I haven't been able to get it to work since then.

 

I got home from work, I had left my PC idle to download some things while I was gone, I came home to the PC frozen. Forced it to restart and thus began the freezing during boot issue. I did nothing special at the time where it worked for 30 min, just powered on and off, and it just worked that one time. 

 

The PC can post just fine, and I can access all BIOS fine, but whenever I try to boot from a drive, it freezes up during that little circle ring animation. No error, just freezes up and needs to forced to shut down.

 

I've been troubleshooting by myself for the past day and a half and pretty much all out of ideas. I have: 

• Tried the SSD that contains Windows on a different PC, and it works just fine. 
• Tried taking out my current RAM and inserting different RAM.
• Tried hooking up a different PSU.
• Tried updating motherboard BIOS. 
• Tried installing Windows to a different drive, but it freezes after I select the USB in the boot options. Tested that USB, and it launches the Windows installer perfectly fine on a different PC. 

I'm not the most knowledgeable when it comes to PC stuff, so I decided it was best to ask online before buying new parts or taking it in to a repair shop. Based on what I've tested, I assume that it's a problem with the motherboard, but I want to be sure before going out and dropping $200 on a new one. Any help would be greatly appreciated! 

 

 

PC specs just in case: 

• OS: Windows 10 64bit 
• CPU: i7-8700K
• MOBO: ASUS Prime Z370-A
• GPU: MSi RTX 2080 Ventus 8G
• RAM: 2 x 8GB Corsair Vengeance LPX DDR4 3000mhz
• PSU: Corsair CX600M 

Mobo, CPU & RAM are all about 2 years old and the GPU is about a year old. 

[Windows7ge]

Have you tried removing the GPU and using the ports on your motherboard?

[Jyles]

9 minutes ago, Windows7ge said:

Have you tried removing the GPU and using the ports on your motherboard?

Just tried that, still freezes in the same spot during boot. 

[Windows7ge]

8 minutes ago, Jyles said:

Just tried that, still freezes in the same spot during boot. 

Have you done any overclocking? Are any auto-overclocking features enabled? Try resetting CMOS.

[Jyles]

23 minutes ago, Windows7ge said:

Have you done any overclocking? Are any auto-overclocking features enabled? Try resetting CMOS.

Fiddled with overclocking briefly, and no auto-overclocking features enabled. I just reset the CMOS and I am still running into the same issue. 

[Windows7ge]

45 minutes ago, Jyles said:

Fiddled with overclocking briefly, and no auto-overclocking features enabled. I just reset the CMOS and I am still running into the same issue. 

Hmn...not looking good for either the CPU/motherboard (more likely the latter)...did you try disconnecting all unnecessary peripherals?

[Jyles]

48 minutes ago, Windows7ge said:

Hmn...not looking good for either the CPU/motherboard (more likely the latter)...did you try disconnecting all unnecessary peripherals?

Yea, tried a boot without anything attached. Thanks for the advice by the way! I went ahead and bit the bullet after calling in to a local repair shop who recommended just buying a motherboard off of Amazon that guarantees returns. Time will tell if the motherboard is the culprit... hopefully, I really don’t want to buy another CPU 

[Windows7ge]

1 minute ago, Jyles said:

Yea, tried a boot without anything attached. Thanks for advice by the way! I went ahead and bit the bullet after calling in to a local repair shop who recommended just buying a motherboard off of Amazon that guarantees returns. Time will tell if the motherboard is the culprit... hopefully, I really don’t want to buy another CPU 

Unless you send too much power to the CPU (which when you do usually results in the computer never POST-ing again) they're usually very well made & robust. More often than not if an issue comes down to the motherboard or CPU it's the motherboard.

 

Make sure you update us after you do the swap.

[Jyles]

On 11/11/2020 at 4:38 PM, Windows7ge said:

Unless you send too much power to the CPU (which when you do usually results in the computer never POST-ing again) they're usually very well made & robust. More often than not if an issue comes down to the motherboard or CPU it's the motherboard.

 

Make sure you update us after you do the swap.

Swapped out the motherboard and now running into a different issue, but I’m guessing it’s the same root problem.
 

New motherboard won’t even post, it’s an Asus Z390-A, and I get a VGA error during post. Board manual says that it’s related to GPU (which is 100% working), but can also  be due to a faulty CPU. 
 

Kinda sucks, but I’m probably going to just send in the CPU since it’s under warranty and have them test it. Hopefully, they’ll find it defective and I can get back my working PC when they send a replacement... and if it’s totally fine, I’m not quite sure what I’ll do lol

 

 

[Jyles]

Swapped out my CPU with a friends' who was gracious enough to let me use it to test... and it was most definitely the CPU, booted up and worked like a charm. 

 

Thankfully, mine is still under warranty, thanks for the help!