Will not Boot, only "Starting Automatic Repair," then Black Screen

[Albyrt]

So my new build crashed with no warning while playing GTA 5 without overclocking. I've determined it has nothing to do with my GPU, and I think it has to do with my Hybrid SSHD connected to the same SATA port it always has been. I was able to update my BIOS, but still the only result I have when I try to boot is either:

A "Preparing Automatic Repair" screen with a spinning wheel that fades to black,

Just the Windows (or Asus) logo with the spinning wheel that will spin forever without booting, or

an "INACCESSIBLE_BOOT_DRIVE" BSoD. 

If it helps, the "BOOT_DEVICE_LED" is lit up on my motherboard in the BIOS and before it tries to boot. Any suggestions you guys have would be amazing. Thank you! 

OS: Windows 10

Motherboard: Asus Z170-A

GPU: RX 480

CPU: i5 6600k

SSHD: Seagate 2TB Hybrid Drive

[Enderman]

Try unplugging all peripherals and USB drives and extra stuff connected to the PC?

Remove extra non-boot hard drives?

Clean install windows?

[Fredrikmikael]

Are you able to boot into safe mode ?

 

I recently worked on a computer with a similar issue, after a power outage it wouldn't boot into the operating system, but managed to boot safe mode.

After many hours of troubleshooting i concluded that the motherboard was faulty, weirdly enough. That came as a shock seeing as that was the last on my list of suspects.

 

I don't know what kind of hardware you have lying around but try swapping out one component at a time (if you have any spare lying around) to determine which one is causing the hiccups. Try swapping out the GPU, HDD, Motherboard, RAM.

 

But this might also be a simple software related issue so attempting a clean install of windows would be a great place to start.

 

Some motherboards / chipsets from Intel have been alittle wonky lately with the RAM, so i would also try resetting the bios with a jumper, physical reset button or CMOS and removing all RAM and only inserting one stick in DIMM1 (check your motherboard manual for which slot is DIMM1) This has personally solved a somewhat similar issue i had a little over a year ago.

 

EDIT : To me it sounds like a software related issue, so i would personally start with a clean install of windows.

[Albyrt]

I rearranged the RAM and got into the BIOS without the GPU, so I don't think it's either of those. I've tried to find a way to do a safe mode boot, but I can't figure out how to do it with the Asus BIOS. I'll try using 1 stick of RAM.

 

Will a clean install affect anything else on the drive?

 

[Albyrt]

So I realize now that I have to do a fresh install. Thank you for your suggestions. Is there a way that I could backup this drive first? I'll see if I can get it working in another machine.

 

In the future, in addition to obviously having a backup, would it be easier to have a separate SSD and HDD?

[Ryujin2003]

Does your BIOS recognize the drive? Your drive may have failed some how, and is either not recognizable or you lost part if the boot sector. You can always repair the OS and see if that works.

[Albyrt]

1 minute ago, Ryujin2003 said:

Does your BIOS recognize the drive? Your drive may have failed some how, and is either not recognizable or you lost part if the boot sector. You can always repair the OS and see if that works.

Yes, the BIOS sees "Windows Boot Manager" and the 2TB drive. When I try to boot from the SSHD, some underscores pop up on a black screen and it just goes back to the BIOS. If it doesn't do that, the furthest it will go is "Preparing Automatic Repair" and then fade to black.

 

By "repair the OS" do you just mean a clean install?

[Albyrt]

Update: I haven't tested the SSHD in another machine, but I have tried to load my Windows 10 disk from a USB optical drive. A screen comes up that says "Press any key to boot form CD or DVD" so I press enter, the ASUS logo appears, the external disk drive starts whirring, my screen goes blank, and the disk drive goes quiet again. 

 

I'm beginning to think this is an issue with the motherboard. I've seen a few stories of RX 480's frying cheaper motherboards with its excessive power draw, but I wouldn't think that would happen for a brand new Z170-A.

[Ryujin2003]

7 hours ago, Albyrt said:

Yes, the BIOS sees "Windows Boot Manager" and the 2TB drive. When I try to boot from the SSHD, some underscores pop up on a black screen and it just goes back to the BIOS. If it doesn't do that, the furthest it will go is "Preparing Automatic Repair" and then fade to black.

 

By "repair the OS" do you just mean a clean install?

No, you can boot to USB and repair your Windows install. You'll essentially lose your programs, but keep documents.

 

6 hours ago, Albyrt said:

Update: I haven't tested the SSHD in another machine, but I have tried to load my Windows 10 disk from a USB optical drive. A screen comes up that says "Press any key to boot form CD or DVD" so I press enter, the ASUS logo appears, the external disk drive starts whirring, my screen goes blank, and the disk drive goes quiet again. 

 

I'm beginning to think this is an issue with the motherboard. I've seen a few stories of RX 480's frying cheaper motherboards with its excessive power draw, but I wouldn't think that would happen for a brand new Z170-A.

The "excessive" power draw will come from yhe PSU, not MB. MB only powers through PCIE and that maxes out.

 

If you're thinking MB, let me ask. What anti static precautions have you taken with assembly and tinkering of the PC?

[Albyrt]

1 hour ago, Ryujin2003 said:

If you're thinking MB, let me ask. What anti static precautions have you taken with assembly and tinkering of the PC?

I've tried to ground myself out as best as I can. I only think it's MB because I don't know what else it would be. The BIOS seems to work just fine, it just can't actually boot. I don't know how I would be able to test to see what is wrong at this point since I don't have another Z170 lying around.

[Albyrt]

It's worth noting that my power supply is over 5 years old, and the only component that isn't brand new. The first time I started my computer after it crashed, it mentioned something about a surge.

 

Could the PSU be causing it to not boot while still being able to power on?

[Ryujin2003]

10 hours ago, Albyrt said:

I've tried to ground myself out as best as I can. I only think it's MB because I don't know what else it would be. The BIOS seems to work just fine, it just can't actually boot. I don't know how I would be able to test to see what is wrong at this point since I don't have another Z170 lying around.

You should look into some wrist straps and a grounding mat for future projects,  just incase.

9 hours ago, Albyrt said:

It's worth noting that my power supply is over 5 years old, and the only component that isn't brand new. The first time I started my computer after it crashed, it mentioned something about a surge.

 

Could the PSU be causing it to not boot while still being able to power on?

I'm not sure where you are in the world,  but a PC repair shop or even Geek Squad should have a PSU tester. That would help diagnose a PSU issue,  else you could put in a new one.

Your PC should always be connected to a surge protector.

[Albyrt]

3 hours ago, Ryujin2003 said:

You should look into some wrist straps and a grounding mat for future projects,  just incase.

I'm not sure where you are in the world,  but a PC repair shop or even Geek Squad should have a PSU tester. That would help diagnose a PSU issue,  else you could put in a new one.

Your PC should always be connected to a surge protector.

Thank you for your advice. I assume they'd be able to identify, and likely fix the problem if I just brought my whole rig?

[Ryujin2003]

7 hours ago, Albyrt said:

Thank you for your advice. I assume they'd be able to identify, and likely fix the problem if I just brought my whole rig?

Depending on the PC place yes. It also depends on how skilled their techs are. You will likely be charged for diagnostics if they can run them.

[zanthros]

If this happened after a BIOS update then clear the CMOS and reboot. If it still does not boot into the OS then go into the BIOS and check all of the settings to make sure that they are right for booting into Windows 10. 

Did you read the bios update installation instructions? Most of them tell you to reset the BIOS to the default configuration prior to the update. This is to make sure that all of the updating of the code is done properly as non default settings in the BIOS code may cause problems for the update and board. Now with that said, Windows 10 requires different settings to the " boot device" to function. Usually this is referred as secure boot mode and legacy bot must be turned off. What you are experiencing is exactly what happens when the secure boot is disabled or if it gets changed to legacy boot enabled or on.

 

 

[zanthros]

21 hours ago, Albyrt said:

It's worth noting that my power supply is over 5 years old, and the only component that isn't brand new. The first time I started my computer after it crashed, it mentioned something about a surge.

 

Could the PSU be causing it to not boot while still being able to power on?

If you are still getting to the "Preparing automatic repair" then it is not the power supply keeping it from booting to the drive.

[Albyrt]

Thank you guys for all your help. You really streamlined my troubleshooting process, and I took Ryujin's advice and took it in to a local PC store to do some tests.

Before we even looked at the power supply, I replicated the problem using my SSHD and my USB optical drive with my copy of Windows 10 and couldn't get either to boot. We tried with one of their optical drives and it still wouldn't even boot from the disk.

I pulled out my SSHD so he could see if it could be read by one of their machines. When he hooked it up, his PC couldn't even boot from its own primary drive. I tried booting my computer up without a hard drive, just the Windows disk, and it worked perfectly. 

My SSHD was cooked, and apparently it was very much corrupted. Thankfully, the MB did its job of being a giant surge protector and protected everything else form my old PSU, but the 2TB Seagate Hybrid drive was physically ruined. Luckily Seagate has a pretty nice warranty system, and will send me a new one and I'll send mine back in the box the new one came in. I've only had it since September, so it's still very much under warranty and all I had on it were a handful of games, Office, and SolidWorks. For now, I'm just using the nostalgically slow 600GB HDD from my old PC with a fresh install of Windows 10.

 

Lessons learned:

It's never too early to backup your files and programs;

Warranties aren't insurance, but I got lucky with mine;

Don't buy a Hybrid Drive, just get them separately so you can pick what you want in which drive and they'll be less prone to failure for less money; 

DON'T put the Power Supply from the Frankenstein upgraded HP build that you've had since 2007 into your shiny, new rig and expect it to work seamlessly for another 5 years. Please.

 

EDIT:

When the initial crash happened, my PSU was plugged into a surge protector, and I didn't notice anything else in my room that would've indicated a power surge. While this case is closed, I still don't quite understand what happened with the PSU, because it still works "perfectly." I won't be pushing my luck with heavy loads for it for it until I get a new one.