Wacky Windows

[spongy21]

I want to start out with my credentials, I have been building and fixing pc's for a little over 5 years, and build in the neighborhood of 200 systems... 

 

That said, I have never seen such a stubborn pc... My personal rig is going insane... I think. 

 

Specs:

i5-7600k @ 5GHZ

Asus Z270i Gaming

Corsair H100i V2

16gb Corsair vengance 3200mhz ddr4

Gtx 770 (yes I still use it)

Intel 140gb SSD 240 series

2tb Seagate baracuda

Phanteks Evolv Shift X

 

Now that all that is out of the way, we can get to the meat and potatos... 

Problem 1: the pc will "at times" refuse to boot from the GPU, and I will need to remove it, and use the integrated graphics for 1 boot, then the GPU will work fine "problem does not occur with other GPU's, and is random"

~problem began after transferring to new case

 

Problem 2: the pc refuses to boot when a 1tb Seagate baracuda drive is plugged in "one I need to recover data from" even if it is explicitly turned off as a boot option... the little Windows rings will just spin around in circles forever if it is plugged in.

~as soon as I unplug the drive it boots on 2 seconds flat

 

Problem 3: the system "when it booted the first time" while the 1tb drive is installed, will after a short time crawl to a stop and not work until rebooted... which it never did

 

If anyone out there can take this little scrap of info and help me out I would greatly appreciate it

 

[Tabs]

Problem 1 sounds like a grounding issue, or possibly damage to the card (or motherboard) when transferring cases. Ensure that you're using the correct height of standoffs, and check for any damage where the motherboard or gpu may be making a small amount of electrical contact with the case - especially around the pcie x16 slot. The card itself could be grounding the motherboard to the case via the back panel, leading to floating ground voltage.

 

Problems 2 and 3 sound like common examples of "why drive recovery is hard". Sata signalling can easily cause a machine to completely lock up, and (since hard drives are generally a piece of hardware that's connected during startup) prevent boot entirely. Your best bet to try to recover data from that disk is to connect it via a usb to sata dock, since at least then you have a *chance* of having it be detected by your machine - and can be connected after it's booted fully. 

 

That's all I can think of from the info you provided so far.

[Phentos]

Your first problem seems like a ground issue with your case. Check the standoffs and look around for any unintentional contact with your parts and the case.

 

In general, when I troubleshoot stubborn PCs with symptoms like what you're having, usually the first thing I do is clear the CMOS. This will restore default settings on the BIOS. For the most part, this tends to clear up a lot of issues in my experience as part-time IT.

 

Next step would be to try using the problematic parts in a different PC if you have one available. However this always isn't the case, so if you don't have access to another PC to test your hardware in, move on to the step below. 

 

If clearing the CMOS doesn't work and/or your hardware functions correctly on another system, then flash a new BIOS on the board. Flashing BIOS is not the high stakes procedure that people think it is as long as you take some basic precautions, like ensuring your PC will never lose power during the flash process which shouldn't take any more than 5 minutes or so.

[Hugs12343]

46 minutes ago, spongy21 said:

Problem 1: the pc will "at times" refuse to boot from the GPU

Do you mean it won't boot with the Graphics Card.

[Hugs12343]

Can you get to the UEFI? Or will the computer actually not post?

Do you see lights?

[spongy21]

12 hours ago, Hugs12343 said:

Do you mean it won't boot with the Graphics Card.

I meant that it will refuse to boot into windows when the GPU is installed, it can get to Bios, but windows will be stuck in a boot loop. the issue goes away when I use Integrated graphics, or other graphics cards... I believe it was just some crud on the pins... I cleaned it with a copious amount of alcohol and it seems to work fine now. thank you!

[spongy21]

12 hours ago, Phentos said:

Your first problem seems like a ground issue with your case. Check the standoffs and look around for any unintentional contact with your parts and the case.

 

In general, when I troubleshoot stubborn PCs with symptoms like what you're having, usually the first thing I do is clear the CMOS. This will restore default settings on the BIOS. For the most part, this tends to clear up a lot of issues in my experience as part-time IT.

 

Next step would be to try using the problematic parts in a different PC if you have one available. However this always isn't the case, so if you don't have access to another PC to test your hardware in, move on to the step below. 

 

If clearing the CMOS doesn't work and/or your hardware functions correctly on another system, then flash a new BIOS on the board. Flashing BIOS is not the high stakes procedure that people think it is as long as you take some basic precautions, like ensuring your PC will never lose power during the flash process which shouldn't take any more than 5 minutes or so.

I think that my problem is 2 fold, my GPU was likely the cause of not booting properly, and ended up corrupting windows registry in the process. thank you!