Windows 10 can't boot while gpu is plugged in

[IceSentry]

This is going to be long so please bare with me.

 

Last week I got tired of seeing my C: drive with barely 10GB left on it. So I ordered a new Samsung 850 EVO 500GB. After receiving it I cloned my old drive on it expanded the partition (had a lot of trouble with that since I never did that before) and it worked fine.

 

The next day I tried updating to Windows 10 anniversary edition because I couldn't do that before because my drive was too low on capacity. It kept refusing to install saying an error message about some device not being compatible. I searched the web and tried a bunch of things. Turned off a couple of things turned on other (it doesn't really matter anymore since this drive doesn't even have that particular install of windows on it). After that some people suggested unplugging everything that might be causing an issue. So I unplugged everything and it still wouldn't work. Finally I tried unplugging my graphics card and it finally worked.

 

That's when the problem started. I plugged back the gpu and tried booting and it didn't worked. After reading on the web a lot about how the update was fairly buggy I decided to simply cancel this project and go back to my stable install. So I cloned my old drive again because I just unplugged it before so it was exactly the same as before. Everything worked again so I was happy.

 

Then last night something happened. I don't know what though. I played Deus Ex Mankind Divided (great game btw) most of that evening. While playing I did notice some visual bug I didn't see when the game launch but nothing close to what a dying card usually sees. After closing the game I was hungry so I went downstairs to eat something and when I came back to my room my whole computer was frozen. The only thing I could do was move the mouse, nothing else worked, no ctrl-alt-del, nothing. I tried pressing the power button and it would not close. So I forced it by holding the button. I then decided to go on my old drive and download the iso of windows 10 on a usb stick and try to repair my install with that.

 

After that things only went downhill. While I was downloading it or maybe while it was installing it on my usb, I don't remember exactly, the same thing as before happened. Everything froze I couldn't do anything. I started to panicked a little.

 

Now I'd like to mention while I do not have backups of windows I do have most(anything I would never want to lose at least) of my data backed up either in the cloud or on external devices. The only thing that would happen if I have to do a complete reinstall is that I would have to install everything again and download my games/movies/tv shows again. That's not so bad I don't really have anything on my c drive anyway so even if my windows install is fucked the data is still there on my other drives. Again losing those drives only mean losing time downloading all of it again.

 

I then used my shitty old laptop to download windows 10 on my usb stick and it worked. I managed to install it on my most recent SSD but only when the gpu is not plugged in. After that I could still access my computer on both my old SSD and my new one, as long as the gpu wasn't plugged in. I could boot in safe mode while the gpu was plugged in though (again on both drives).

 

I tried installing Ubuntu and it managed to boot with the card plugged in, but it felt slow and I couldn't set the resolution to my ultrawide aspect ratio. I suspect it did something similar to safe mode and bypass the gpu somehow.

 

Alright here's what I tried after that. At this point I can't even boot as long as my gpu is plugged in so I assume the gpu is the problem. I have an old 9800gt lying around so I tried booting with that and it worked. It only worked on the fresh install though not the old one.

 

After trying out a couple combinations of old gpu, new gpu, old install, fresh install, now it just can't boot. It shows the windows logo and starts the loading animation and just freezes there. So at this point I think that I just killed the two gpu because I wasn't careful enough while plugging/unplugging them.

 

I then booted on my old drive with no gpu and cleaned everything I could. Malwarebytes/windows defender scan, ccleaner cleaning and registry fix, scf /scannow, DISM (somehting) /Restore-Health. I then tried again with the gpu and it still wouldn't work, so I just assumed the worst and almost bought a new card.

 

Then things started to be even worse. I booted on my old drive with no gpu and now windows couldn't even see the network card and the time was completely wrong, it also sent me a notification saying the security center was turned off (which I never turned off, at least not knowingly). I tried it in safe mode and same thing happened.

 

Now I tried it on my fresh install and the network card is seen but the time is still completely off. I'm currently typing this on that os so clearly internet works.

 

I'd like to mention that when I say that the pc freezes when I boot it with a gpu all my peripherals led also turned off.

 

I also tried multiple pci-e slot on my mobo.

 

So at this point I'm not sure if it's simply that my motherboard is slowly dying or do I need a new gpu? The time issue is probably related to the CMOS battery dying or just the whole board dying since having something plugged in any pcie seems to make me unable to boot.

 

My current specs are in my signature, but I'll type them out anyway:

 

CPU: i7 3770k (was OC at some point but not right now)

CPU Cooler: Corsair H100i

RAM: 4x4GB Corsair Vengeance 1600(I think)

GPU: ASUS Strix GTX 970

Power supply: EVGA SuperNova 750 p2(it's like 4 months old I had some issue with my old one. I don't think this could be the issue and there is more than enough power in that)

Old SSD boot drive: Crucial m4 128gb

New SSD boot drive: Samsung 850 EVO 500gb(less than a week old)

Windows 10 64bit was used on both drive

 

If you need anymore information just ask and I will give everything I can.

 

Sorry if this is hard to read, English isn't my first language and I haven't been able to sleep properly for a few days because of this.

[Ryujin2003]

Since you already have your original SSD, I'd wipe the SSD and fresh install. See if this fixes anything. Yes,wrong time is an indicator of bad CMOS, but that shouldn't cause all of these problems.

 

You may also want to run barware diagnostics. You might be having issues with something else crapping out.

 

I would start with fresh install first.

[IceSentry]

As I said in my very long post I did try a clean install. My new ssd has a fresh version of windows 10 on it and it still doesn't work. That's why it feels like a bad motherboard. I'm at school now, but i'll try hardware diagnostic as soon as I get back.

[Ryujin2003]

1 hour ago, IceSentry said:

As I said in my very long post I did try a clean install. My new ssd has a fresh version of windows 10 on it and it still doesn't work. That's why it feels like a bad motherboard. I'm at school now, but i'll try hardware diagnostic as soon as I get back.

Sorry, somehow missed that. I'd venture to say it's a chip issue on the MB. Trying a new GPU ended up resulting in same issues. I'm guessing it's a communication issue between peripherals and the CPU. Do you have access to other working hardware? Swap out the MB, try new RAM. Make sure your CPU is still working.

 

The hardware diagnostics should hopefully result in something.

[0x1e]

3 hours ago, Ryujin2003 said:

Yes,wrong time is an indicator of bad CMOS, but that shouldn't cause all of these problems.

A wrong time can also indicate static.

If it was out of the blue then I would say a bad battery. However because he was in and out of the PC constantly I would think he gave the motherboard an electric shock. Depending where it is it can trigger the bios to revert to default. However that's not the problem, what is he could have damaged what ever he shocked.

 

I think it's something to do with either the motherboard, or PSU.

[IceSentry]

No that's my problem I don't have anything else to test.

 

I did do a memory check and it came out with no errors.

 

8 hours ago, Ryujin2003 said:

Sorry, somehow missed that.

No problem my post was very long.

 

Yup I do think playing around with the inside of the pc caused more problems but I do think it was bad even before that because I started having issue without even playing around in it.

[IceSentry]

I guess at this point my only solution is buying a new motherboard and cpu since I don't think I can find a new board with my socket.

 

I just hope I only broke my motherboard and not my gpu.

[Ryujin2003]

6 minutes ago, IceSentry said:

I guess at this point my only solution is buying a new motherboard and cpu since I don't think I can find a new board with my socket.

 

I just hope I only broke my motherboard and not my gpu.

There are a couple compatible boards on Newegg and Amazon. They are cheap enough to try that first, unless you want to upgrade.

[IceSentry]

Well I was saving for an upgrade anyway just wasn't excepting it so soon.

 

I feel like it would just be easier to upgrade my motherboard/cpu now and just forget that whole issue.

 

I'm looking at my options right now.

 

I'll probably go with a i7 6700k in a bundle on ncix

[IceSentry]

So I just bought a i7 6700k in a bundle with a motherboard and I also bought some DDR4 ram. I hope it'll fix the issue.

 

I think it should since it's going to be pretty much a new pc.

 

If it works but the gpu still doesn't work then I guess I'll just have to buy a new one as well, but I'd like to wait at least 1 year before needing to change that.