PC wont boot, How to track down why

mattyg

mattyg

mattyg

Soldato
Joined
17 Jun 2007
Posts
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So, My "aging" 5950 desktop wont boot into windows after an update.

It will boot randomly and then all is good until I reboot it again, Then we go into a loop. Even after the normal 4 0r 5 goes when it offers a recovery menu screen it'll often just hang. It wont boot into safe mode (just hangs)

I've 6 monitors connected and only 3 turn on when its failing to boot. But when its going to work the others then turn on. Could this mean its a GPU issue. its got a 1070 and a 1080 installed.

What would be the first steps to try and narrow it down.

It recently had a new 990 m.2 installed as i was getting some errors. It ran fine until an update.

I get random disk check screens or undoing update screens or just hangs at the bios/ windows starting to load wheel screens
 
ED209 said:
Have you checked event viewer to see if there is any errors in there that may help?
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When I last got it to boot. I checked, Loads of warnings and a number or errors. BUT, It finally finished downloading the win11 repair install so ran that and not got it to boot since........

I'll start by stripping everything off it and try the onboard graphics.. I also get a device is missing error
 
Try repair/recovery once let it do it's thing come back an hour later if it's still knackered don't waste anymore time. It can do a couple of methods of recovery/repair like download/verify image but it just takes too long, several reboots etc can't be arsed with that.

Either connect HD to another PC to recover my documents, save games etc then wipe it. Or if you have a a spare empty drive do fresh install on that, plugin the knackered OS drive again then copy files as it'll be seen as D:
 
Do you have a spare SSD or HDD you can try? Take out all drives (including the NVME Drive) and do a clean install of Windows 11 (Or Windows 10, I am just assuming its 11) for testing
 
Its "feels" like its hardware. I've disconnected the monitors going to the 1080 and it now boots everytime. But it'll hang at the windows login screen if i dont log in. If i fully boot into windows it all acts normally until a sudden reboot after maybe 5 mins.
Event viewer is showing these as Critical Kernel-power issues.
 
I keep a USB drive with a Linux Distro on it and boot from that for such occasions, just to see if the Hardware's OK.
 
mattyg said:
Its "feels" like its hardware. I've disconnected the monitors going to the 1080 and it now boots everytime. But it'll hang at the windows login screen if i dont log in. If i fully boot into windows it all acts normally until a sudden reboot after maybe 5 mins.
Event viewer is showing these as Critical Kernel-power issues.
Click to expand...
that's annoying, these errors just indicate an unexpected shutdown and no info on why its happen.

Is there anything else before or after the kernel power issues events?

It could be a corrupt OS\files that's causing it to hang with all the unexpected shutdowns

Maybe take out the 1080 and try with the 1070 in and see if you still get the reboot or hangs
 
Last edited:
The opening line to this thread kind of suggests the conclusion "So, My "aging" 5950 desktop wont boot into windows after an update."

Fresh OS is the best way as mentioned a few times. Get all the data that you need off it first.
 
Dragging this back up as not had time to sort until tonight. I still think its hardware related. It wont even boot to USB to do a fresh install of windows.

I had it boot into windows a few times today but it just hard restarts after a few mins. Only error showing is a power interrupted issue.

I'll pull it apart at some point. I've some spare bits PSU etc. Or I just chuck my 7950x system into it and upgrade the gaming rig..............
 
mattyg said:
Dragging this back up as not had time to sort until tonight. I still think its hardware related. It wont even boot to USB to do a fresh install of windows.
Click to expand...

I wonder if one of your drives has become suspect. It may be just a dodgy SATA cable.
 
Looking at you first post did the problem starts when you put in the Samsung drive ?

You also mentioned an update was that to the m2 or a windows update ?
 
mattyg said:
It recently had a new 990 m.2 installed as i was getting some errors. It ran fine until an update.
Click to expand...

I missed this. The 990 Pro used to have a major firmware issue. It was supposed to have been fixed a year ago. But if you got old stock and didn't update the firmware, you could be SOL.
 
Quartz said:
I wonder if one of your drives has become suspect. It may be just a dodgy SATA cable.
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Possibly. I'll strip right back to just the System drive
mickyflinn said:
Looking at you first post did the problem starts when you put in the Samsung drive ?

You also mentioned an update was that to the m2 or a windows update ?
Click to expand...
It was a windows update.
However the M2 is new as I was having some issues and magician showed some errors. So I swapped (cloned) the 980 to a 990. It ran ok for a time and then went rapidly down hill.

I made the "mistake" of upgrading a while back. Old gaming rig donor'd to the work desktop and spent a fortune on the gaming rig.. Seems to happen around 3090-4090 and no around the time of the 5090..... :D
 
Quartz said:
I missed this. The 990 Pro used to have a major firmware issue. It was supposed to have been fixed a year ago. But if you got old stock and didn't update the firmware, you could be SOL.
Click to expand...
I checked for firmware updates when first installed, Non were offered so I'm inclined to think it was a later batch But it was from Amazon so could have been behind a shelf for 2years
 
mattyg said:
Possibly. I'll strip right back to just the System drive

It was a windows update.
However the M2 is new as I was having some issues and magician showed some errors. So I swapped (cloned) the 980 to a 990. It ran ok for a time and then went rapidly down hill.

I made the "mistake" of upgrading a while back. Old gaming rig donor'd to the work desktop and spent a fortune on the gaming rig.. Seems to happen around 3090-4090 and no around the time of the 5090..... :D
Click to expand...
Sometimes it's best to take the pc back to a the minimum to try to pin point.

I would pull the motherboard out the case and build on the motherboard box connecting the minimum components, then try to install windows.
 
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