Bootloop of Death (And Persistance)

SpookyNoodle · December 7, 2017

TL;DR

My first build is experiencing lots of problems with booting, and when waking up from sleep.

The History

I know that I have a penchant for colorful language, so I will do my best to be as brief and as detailed as simultaneously possible.

My computer has been experiencing many, many problems starting about 6 months ago. I built it in May, and I later learned that there were a few issues. Some of the mobo screws were not fully screwed into the standoffs, and some of the standoffs were not fully screwed into the case.

After some time, I learned that the motherboard was shorting out, so I replaced the motherboard, took the build apart, fully screwed in the standoffs, and assembled the computer again, double checking each part as I went. This rebuild took place about two months ago.

The Build

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: AMD - Ryzen 5 1600 3.2GHz 6-Core Processor (Purchased For $195.00)

Motherboard: ASRock - AB350 Pro4 ATX AM4 Motherboard (Purchased For $0.00)

Memory: G.Skill - Aegis 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR4-2800 Memory (Purchased For $130.00)

Storage: SanDisk - Z400s 256GB 2.5" Solid State Drive (Purchased For $70.00)

Storage: Seagate - Barracuda 3TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive (Purchased For $80.00)

Video Card: Sapphire - Radeon RX 480 8GB NITRO+ OC Video Card (Purchased For $200.00)

Case: Rosewill - Galaxy-01 ATX Mid Tower Case (Purchased For $0.00)

Monitor: Acer - XF240H 24.0" 1920x1080 144Hz Monitor (Purchased For $180.00)

Keyboard: Corsair - K70 Wired Gaming Keyboard (Purchased For $0.00)

Mouse: Logitech - G502 Proteus Core Wired Optical Mouse (Purchased For $0.00)

Headphones: Kingston - HyperX Cloud Core Headset (Purchased For $0.00)

Total: $855.00

Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available

Generated by PCPartPicker 2017-12-06 23:54 EST-0500

The original motherboard was MSI B350M Bazooka but some advice from a PC Laptops technician convinced me to upgrade to an ATX Board.

I have always kept up-to-date with the latest graphics drivers, and recently flashed my UEFI to ver 4.2 (the latest bios ver as of 12/6).

The Problem

In my case, I have an LED Fan, which lights up whenever the system is powered on. When this blue light is on, I shall refer to it as signal 1.

On my case, I have an LED that indicates if the hard drive is active. When this light is on, either steadily flashing or solid, I shall refer to it as signal 2.

Both my keyboard and mouse having backlighting, and when they are lit up, I shall refer to them as signal 3.

And finally, my monitor automatically turns on when it has a signal and goes to sleep when it does not. When the monitor is lit up and receiving signal, I shall refer to it as signal 4.

The case also has some sort of reset switch or CMOS button on the front, which I occasionally use while troubleshooting (as described below).

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Frequently, when I come back from an extended period of inactivity, I will have 1, but not 2-4. Under normal circumstances, I could tap a few keys or make a few clicks, on the system would wake up, having all signals. However, the problem has arisen that the system is unresponsive, no amount of clicking keys or clicks can arouse the system, and I will have to do a hard reset (holding the power button down for 5+ seconds). Upon starting the system up from cold (completely off), I’ll get signal 1 immediately, followed by 2 and three for a brief period of time, then all signals except 1 go dark. Again, the system is unresponsive, unless I do a hard or soft reset (hitting the reset switch).

The reset switch will frequently have the same result as the previously mentioned cold boot, but occasionally, without doing anything differently, it will boot to the UEFI logo, either freezing there, or allowing one or two loops of the ‘loading icon’ (the swirling dots), before freezing there. In these instances, I will have Signals 1 and 4, but not 2-3, and a hard reset produces a loop of the same type, going to the UEFI screen before freezing.