Inconsistent Boot Issues

SystemFreak · February 22, 2018

Hello all,

My PC is acting erratically and inconsistently at boot; inconsistently because it boots fine about 50% of the time, without any changes made between shutdown and boot. Below are each of the issues I've been having.

1. It began with "disk read error" upon startup which led to me cleaning my boot drive and reinstalling Windows 10. The error persisted, so I checked the cables (which, yes, I now realize I should have done first), and I have not seen the disk read error message since, yet.

2. After disk read error subsided, then I boot up. During boot, the PC shut off. Randomly just shut down, without a command, and even without having reached Windows login yet. This happened only once, but I am still concerned.

3. Most recently upon booting, the windows logo appears and says "Preparing automatic repair" then takes me to a page asking me to choose a keyboard layout. Neither my mouse nor keyboard work here, so I am forced to hard-shutdown, by holding power button. After that, and it seems to boot just fine again, right into Windows, as if nothing is wrong.
This most recent issue is still occurring,

(4. Separately, a minor display issue: 10% of the time, the display goes black after Windows login page begins to load. It's as if my monitor isn't receiving signal. This is fixed simply by unplugging then re-plugging in the HDMI cable from the GPU. Not sure why this happens,it doesn't seem major, but is obviously a problem, nonetheless. Note: my Nvidia driver is updated.)

I get into Windows about 50% of the time, and when I finally get into Windows, all runs smoothly. But there is clearly something wrong.
Any and all help is greatly appreciated!! For, I am actually afraid to shutdown my PC now because I don't want something to go wrong again during boot.
Thank you.

System Info: (not overclocked)

OS: Windows 10 64 bit (version 1709, OS Build 16299.248)
CPU: AMD FX(tm)-4300 Quad-Core @ 3.80 GHz
MB: MSI 760gm-p23 (fx) (Bios version states v17.18b3)
(I have tried to flash BIOS update via USB, but I must be doing something wrong because I can't get it to start updating.)
RAM: PNY 16GB (2x8GB) 1600MHz
GPU: EVGA Geforce GTX 1060 SC
SSD: Samsung 850 EVO 250GB
HDD: Toshiba 1TB
PSU: EVGA 650 G3

Psittac · February 22, 2018

Is your system overclocked? This is a mystery. The most likely culprit would be your UEFI, which I suspected before you mentioned that it can't update. BIOS and motherboard are what I'd point the finger to.

Can you run synthetic stress loads once it's loaded and running fine?

Other random thoughts:

What about PSU? a long shot and it would give issues once in windows as well.

What get's me is that it is fine once loaded, but the kicker is that it blacks out at login screen.

Check the smart data of your ssd, maybe the chip your OS is on is faulty?

It's really a crap shoot to diagnose. Check thermals under synthetic load, check smart value of ssd, try it with only the OS drive, look further into updating UEFI, test with only one stick of ram then with only the other, try ram in different slots, If you fail stress test's then you can go from there. If not I would highly suspect a UEFI issue.

What ever component you have an extra of, try swapping that out.

This is one of those "impossible to solve" situations.

SystemFreak · February 22, 2018

12 hours ago, Psittac said:

Is your system overclocked? This is a mystery. The most likely culprit would be your UEFI, which I suspected before you mentioned that it can't update. BIOS and motherboard are what I'd point the finger to.

Can you run synthetic stress loads once it's loaded and running fine?

Other random thoughts:

What about PSU? a long shot and it would give issues once in windows as well.

What get's me is that it is fine once loaded, but the kicker is that it blacks out at login screen.

Check the smart data of your ssd, maybe the chip your OS is on is faulty?

It's really a crap shoot to diagnose. Check thermals under synthetic load, check smart value of ssd, try it with only the OS drive, look further into updating UEFI, test with only one stick of ram then with only the other, try ram in different slots, If you fail stress test's then you can go from there. If not I would highly suspect a UEFI issue.

What ever component you have an extra of, try swapping that out.

This is one of those "impossible to solve" situations.