PC not restarting or booting after updating BIOS

Proc

Proc

Proc

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Got a strange one that I’m struggling to troubleshoot.

PC was working fine but I (foolishly) decided to update the BIOS, updated and it wouldn’t boot into Windows, tried a restart still same. Did a power cycle and got into the BIOS, came out and still wouldn’t boot. I then tried the previous BIOS and got it to boot, but when I restarted it wouldn’t boot back into windows, tried again and managed to get to Windows. All good and managed to restart and got it back in to Windows a couple of times, I came out and went back into the BIOS to re-enable stuff like xmp etc and it wouldn’t boot again, wouldn’t restart so couldn’t get back into the BIOS or Windows. Theres no error lights on the mb come on, the rgb on the ram & ssd comes on but not the fans and all the fans ramp up to full and it just sits there.

Tried to reinstall the original BIOS and cleared CMOS but it does nothing. Everytime I reboot or restart it from power off it just hangs and unsure what to do, any ideas would be great.
 
I would simplify.

One stick of RAM (check motherboard instructions for which slot to use when only using one stick) No GPU installed if you have integrated graphics. Clear CMOS and then see if you can get into BIOS. If not, try it with the other stick.

If that fails, the CPU would be the next thing I check. You probably don't have another compatible CPU handy, so a visual inspection of the pads / pins is worth a shot. If there are no visible issues, reinstall CPU and, clear CMOS and try again.

You mentioned enabling XMP etc before seeing the failure mode you are experiencing now. Assuming the "etc" isn't some agressive overclocking settings, XMP failure points to RAM or the IMC on the CPU.

Also, if you manage to get back to a point where you can try XMP again, I would disable memory context so that it "trains" the RAM on every boot. (Just to note if it's reliably getting into windows with training) Then enable memory context and see if you're all clear.

FWIW, my son's prebuilt PC is not reliable with memory context enabled. I thought I was being a hero when I found and enabled the setting...even got a couple really quick boot times too. Then it wouldn't boot. I had to take it down to bare bones hardware, clear CMOS, run windows startup repair, and once in windows, run DISM to clean up the windows image. (It was really messed up) I got him sorted and he has just lived with long boot times ever since.

My build has been fine with memory context enabled so the feature *can* work, but it can also cause headaches too.
 
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If BIOS failed you would have a total brick, black screen upon switch on.

A CMOS reset should work, I don't know why it's having issues now, and even with downgrade flash it still is having issues.

tbh it sounds like just something happened to fail at this time. Try a fresh install on a blank spare drive and see if that works. If it does then maybe Windows got corrupted.
 
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So if I clear the CMOS it will boot fine, did some stress testing with OCCT, firmark etc no issues. Windows updates, restarts and same again won’t boot.

So will work absolutely fine until it’s rebooted or powered off and on again. Going to try a fresh BIOS flash again and then a reinstall of windows, if not then will start looking at hardware, thing is was working fine until I updated the BIOS, only other thing I’ve changed is vertically mounting the GPU, but can’t imagine it’s that?
 
Proc said:
So if I clear the CMOS it will boot fine, did some stress testing with OCCT, firmark etc no issues. Windows updates, restarts and same again won’t boot.

So will work absolutely fine until it’s rebooted or powered off and on again. Going to try a fresh BIOS flash again and then a reinstall of windows, if not then will start looking at hardware, thing is was working fine until I updated the BIOS, only other thing I’ve changed is vertically mounting the GPU, but can’t imagine it’s that?
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Could this be a memory context issue? (Since a clear CMOS is likely to do memory training but a restart won't retrain with context enabled)
 
aaronyuri said:
How are you flashing the BIOS? Best done through UEFI or DOS.

Remove the PCI-E extender to rule that out as another variable.
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Originally flashed through the m-flash in BIOS, but when it wouldn’t boot did it via the specific usb slot and flash button on the I/O panel.

Tried with memory context restore on and off but no change. Thing is I’m not getting any error messages or leds to say anything is wrong, just rgb on the ram and ssd light up, fans spin but no picture. But when it does boot all seems fine.
 
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Proc said:
Originally flashed through the m-flash in BIOS, but when it wouldn’t boot did it via the specific usb slot and flash button on the I/O panel.

Tried with memory context restore on and off but no change. Thing is I’m not getting any error messages or leds to say anything is wrong, just rgb on the ram and ssd light up, fans spin but no picture. Bite when it does boot all seems fine.
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Are you sure it's not POSTing and booting without any display output? Definitely remove the extension or at least reseat it. This sounds odd.
 
Well a bit of progress it seems, reset the current bios to default settings, cleared the cmos and flashed latest bios. Set it to default and it booted, powered down and back on ok so set stuff like xmp, game boost etc and it booted fine. Ran cinebench, occt & firmark for an hour each and all seemed good, so shut down and back on again and booted straight away.

I have noticed, other than the rgb not powering up on power on, just when it boots into windows, is that since it started playing up it looks to have done something to windows as I’ve been having to log on with my Microsoft account password and it’s saying it needs activating. Windows was activated before the first bios flash, so think I definitely will do a clean install of windows and touch wood should be good again.
 
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Have you done a full reset since it started booting? If not, it's worth a shot.

Genuinely hate to say it, but you might want to try reflashing it from the bios screen just to rule out a bad flash if you're still having issues after a reset.

It sounds like Windows is treating it like a hardware change, which is odd.
 
Yeah done a full reset and been ok so far, I will try the bios flash and yeah something has definitely gone funny with Windows. Also wondering if the nvidia drivers have been causing issue as well, had few display glitches and the nv app keeps playing up.
 
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