1 month old PC boot looping

[escott]

Hi,

 

I've recently just build this pc in late november, been working absolutely fine for the last month or so, and then today I left it on (just idle) for about an hour while watching tv, came back to find it not booting into windows.

 

Hardware:

• CPU: AMD R9 3900X
• GPU: RTX 3070 Founders Edition
• MOBO: Gigabyte X570 AORUS PRO ATX AM4
• Memory: Corsair Vengeance RGB Pro 32 GB (2 x 16 GB) DDR4-3600
• PSU: Corsair RM (2019) 850 W 80+ Gold Certified Fully Modular ATX Power Supply
• Storage: Samsung 970 Evo 1 TB M.2-2280 NVME Solid State Drive

Let me know if you need any of the other hardware....

 

This is what happens when I turn on the machine:

• Turn pc on
• Fans start spinning
• Aorus logo pops up
• Windows spinner pops up under the aurous logo
• Goes to black
• Restarts the entire sequence

There are 4 red LEDs on the motherboard, labelled CPU, DRAM, VGA and BOOT. It's quite hard to describe what they're doing, however the sequence goes like:

• CPU LED (1 second)
• DRAM LED (5 seconds)
• VGA LED (around 10 seconds)
• BOOT LED (flashes once)

 

An update, I was just able to boot into windows, the PC cycled a few times and then went into windows diagnostics, said something about "Repairing your disk", went into windows where I was able to play around for a few minutes, and then just died and went back to the good ol boot looping.

 

Troubleshooting steps I've tried:

- Tried reseating the GPU

- Tried booting without the GPU (no display, but LEDs did the same thing)

- Reset BIOS to default (disabled XMP and such)

- Removed both sticks of ram and put 1 back into the first slot

- Tried booting off a windows bootable usb

- Tried booting off an ubuntu usb

 

I seems to sometimes be able to get into the system temporarily for a few mins, before it shuts itself down and goes back to boot looping.

 

Any help would be massively appreciated, I spent £1800 on this machine and would like to use it ;)

[GroundRod]

What case are you using?

[escott]

3 minutes ago, GroundRod said:

What case are you using?

Using a Corsair 275R Airflow ATX Mid Tower Case

[GroundRod]

All of these new cases have a serious problem in the fact that all the grounding points are covered in paint.

The case is supposed to be use as a ground return for the DC output and with out it all the devices such as MB, GPU, and drives lose 

some power in the form of voltage drops.

These voltage drops are larger for big loads like a 300watt GPU and CPU or a string of drives.

By using the case in addition to the power cables ground wires, more power gets to the device when it is screwed to the case.

For example: the video card backplate is electrically connected to the cards ground through the plate to the PCB, so the case is supposed to ground it when it is installed.

But if you have a painted chassis the paint most often will insulate the connection or be resistive and generate noise.

The ATX standard is clear about this issue, but since home built PCs aren't regulated, the market is being flooded with these fake cases that are not only causing performance issues, but are also unsafe.

 

Have a look at the case I'm using below, this case is designed to make sure that all the metal parts are electrically connected together and that all the devices installed in the case can make a solid electrical connection to the case including the PSU.

Have a look at this thread:

https://linustechtips.com/topic/1279024-should-a-ssd-be-chassis-grounded/?tab=comments#comment-14344981

 

Most people seem to think the ground is some mystical earth connection, but that is the AC ground which should also be connected to the case.

Bottom line is the power levels of these new 350watt watt video cards along with 200watt CPUs and a ton of RAM have brought this grounding issue to a head.

 

[escott]

2 hours ago, GroundRod said:

All of these new cases have a serious problem in the fact that all the grounding points are covered in paint.

The case is supposed to be use as a ground return for the DC output and with out it all the devices such as MB, GPU, and drives lose 

some power in the form of voltage drops.

These voltage drops are larger for big loads like a 300watt GPU and CPU or a string of drives.

By using the case in addition to the power cables ground wires, more power gets to the device when it is screwed to the case.

For example: the video card backplate is electrically connected to the cards ground through the plate to the PCB, so the case is supposed to ground it when it is installed.

But if you have a painted chassis the paint most often will insulate the connection or be resistive and generate noise.

The ATX standard is clear about this issue, but since home built PCs aren't regulated, the market is being flooded with these fake cases that are not only causing performance issues, but are also unsafe.

 

Have a look at the case I'm using below, this case is designed to make sure that all the metal parts are electrically connected together and that all the devices installed in the case can make a solid electrical connection to the case including the PSU.

Have a look at this thread:

https://linustechtips.com/topic/1279024-should-a-ssd-be-chassis-grounded/?tab=comments#comment-14344981

 

Most people seem to think the ground is some mystical earth connection, but that is the AC ground which should also be connected to the case.

Bottom line is the power levels of these new 350watt watt video cards along with 200watt CPUs and a tone of RAM have brought this grounding issue to a head.

 

Interesting, however I've got a mate who has exactly the same case as me, so could this have just been a freak accident?

 

Also, how would a company like Corsair knowingly send out units that they know are unsafe, without massive customer backlash? Surely this would have been bigger news?

[GroundRod]

Firstly 99% of the population don't know anything about Ground Bonding, and secondly most of these companies don't design anything, they just brand it and sell it, so this is not surprising.

If you look at the OEM built systems that have to pass regulations, they all have properly grounded systems. If you built a system in the 90s you would never have found a case with a painted chassis.

I am a electronics engineer and I noticed this issue because I was searching for a case since my system is nearing the end, and I was shocked to see so many cases with painted chassis. WTF!!!!

I thought these are just cheap ones and if I keep looking I will find the real ones, but no just more painted cases.

I did find a few like the Antec  VSK4000E-U3, but don't expect sexy!

 

Have a look at this Mac Pro which meets safty regulations:

 

 

[escott]

Anyone else got any suggestions?

[Skiiwee29]

3 minutes ago, escott said:

Anyone else got any suggestions?

Try pulling the system out of the case and building it on your table/box and see if you get any boot.