Troubleshooting Boot Issues

[wheezyalien]

Hey yall, usually I generally consider myself pretty competent when it comes to computers, and can work through most issues, but this one has me stumped. My computer no longer starts, as soon as it tries to boot into Windows, it bluescreens (kmode exception not handled), restarts, bluescreens, restarts, etc etc. I did my best to google some solutions beforehand, but I feel like there isn't much I can do. I can't access startup repair, since it crashes almost immediately. I ran memtest and tested both sticks of memory, and everything came back fine (some thread on Tom's Hardware said to check it). I also tried to make a windows installation media, but if I boot to it with the SSD plugged in, it crashes. I can only access the installation media when the SSD is removed from the system, which doesn't really do me any good. I really don't know how to proceed or how to fix it, so any guidance would be really appreciated.

 

Thanks in advance.

[aDoomGuy]

Are you able to boot into safe mode? There may be some driver causing the issue but it's strange that the install media also crashes and not while the SSD is plugged in.... I assume It is your only drive judging by your wording, yes?

It may also be RAM as you probably read on another forum, have you tried simply booting with a single stick of RAM? Also try disconnect everything not needed to start the PC (external hard drives, printers, scanners, camera etc). Does that help at all?

[wheezyalien]

25 minutes ago, aDoomGuy said:

Are you able to boot into safe mode? There may be some driver causing the issue but it's strange that the install media also crashes and not while the SSD is plugged in.... I assume It is your only drive judging by your wording, yes?

It may also be RAM as you probably read on another forum, have you tried simply booting with a single stick of RAM? Also try disconnect everything not needed to start the PC (external hard drives, printers, scanners, camera etc). Does that help at all?

I can't access any sort of settings like safe mode, command prompt, reset this machine, etc. It'll get past the BIOS and instantly blue screen. The only things plugged in are the display, keyboard, and mouse. I also forgot to mention that I tried to plug the drive into another machine, and while I was able to access the files and whatnot on the drive, the computer would not recognize it as a boot device. I have a 2x8 kit of corsair ram, and i tried with each stick individually, with each stick in each slot. Both sticks passed with no errors on memtest86.

EDIT: Forgot to mention I have 2 drives, a 240GB Kingston A400 SSD to boot from, and a 4TB Seagate for bulk storage and games. My parts list is on my profile.

Edited February 7, 2022 by wheezyalien

[aDoomGuy]

Can you put the drive in question in the other PC and look if it have the partitions in the image below in disk management? (EFI and restore on each side of the partition with OS).

It is possible that Windows isntalled that to another drive which is not impossible to cause issues. Would it be possible for you to move that drive to the other system and back up everything you wish to keep, while in the other system wipe all partitions of the drive and try to install Windows on the PC with problems with ONLY that drive connected?

 

[wheezyalien]

3 minutes ago, aDoomGuy said:

Can you put the drive in question in the other PC and look if it have the partitions in the image below in disk management? (EFI and restore on each side of the partition with OS).

It is possible that Windows isntalled that to another drive which is not impossible to cause issues. Would it be possible for you to move that drive to the other system and back up everything you wish to keep, while in the other system wipe all partitions of the drive and try to install Windows on the PC with problems with ONLY that drive connected?

 

I'm in class rn (yay Computer Information Systems degree) but I will check in ~2 hours when I get home. Luckily I don't really have anything important on the ssd, all my games and stuff are on my hdd

[wheezyalien]

2 hours ago, aDoomGuy said:

Can you put the drive in question in the other PC and look if it have the partitions in the image below in disk management? (EFI and restore on each side of the partition with OS).

It is possible that Windows isntalled that to another drive which is not impossible to cause issues. Would it be possible for you to move that drive to the other system and back up everything you wish to keep, while in the other system wipe all partitions of the drive and try to install Windows on the PC with problems with ONLY that drive connected?

 

 

[wheezyalien]

Just out of curiosity I ran chkdsk on the drive and it did have errors. Is it possible that that is the culprit? 

[wheezyalien]

5 minutes ago, wheezyalien said:

Just out of curiosity I ran chkdsk on the drive and it did have errors. Is it possible that that is the culprit? 

It was not

[aDoomGuy]

52 minutes ago, wheezyalien said:

Just out of curiosity I ran chkdsk on the drive and it did have errors. Is it possible that that is the culprit? 

Of course it may be a part of it even if fixing that did not solve the problem. I would try what I suggested earlier and see if that changes anything.

[wheezyalien]

6 hours ago, aDoomGuy said:

Of course it may be a part of it even if fixing that did not solve the problem. I would try what I suggested earlier and see if that changes anything.

Ended up just wiping everything and starting from scratch, thank you for your help 

[aDoomGuy]

Seemed like the only option.