Pc Posts but wont pass Windows loading screen

sneakysnail

sneakysnail

sneakysnail

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Chiang Mai
Interesting situation. The pc is the one in my sig, (Asus 990FX Sabertooth / AMD 8350 / Sapphire 290X SuperFlower 1000W Platinum PSU / Corsair Neutron SSD 16GB Corsair Vengeance)
Its an old rig i use for work and no gaming. I have 3 monitors hooked up to it and have had no issues for years.

Yesterday it was in sleep mode and woke up to download windows updates it seems. No big deal, it was left awake several hours i think but all temps were ok (under 50c) considering the room temp was 30c.

Anyway i sit down to watch the football later that day and every now and again theres a stutter/horizontal line the video very occasionally. that prompted the temp checks. Let it restart a few time make sure all the updates were installed completely. The stutter goes on for an hour and then gets worse when i stream to multiple monitors. Had all the screens flicker black for a fraction of a second but continue normally. 5 minutes later they flicker and dont come back.

Restarting the PC it boots but loads endlessly on the windows screen and then goes black eventually. unplugged all but 1 monitor but it continues. i can navigate the bios and windows repair but it fails fix anything. Doing a windows restart is okay until a certain point where it goes black again after it thinks its finished and loading windows again.

Its almost as if the old gpu can only go so far and then once anything is graphically intensive it fails. No on board graphics so i cant test without the gpu. Could potentially be a psu or ssd issue? Ive never had a ssd fail when in use though and doesnt explain the video glitching which didnt occur when browsing files etc.

Whats every ones thoughts?
 
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Out of curiosity, what version of windows are you running?

Can you install a spare drive and do a test install of windows on it? Also have you tried using recovery to get into command prompt then running sfc /scannow and chkdsk?

That's where i would start. Your windows install seems to be corrupt. I've seen that type of behaviour before and yes repair wont fix it. Either the update failed or the drive has started to go. You wouldn't get a display of any sort if it was your gpu or you would be getting loads of artifacts. The fact is youre getting a display but it's just not loading windows. I've seen a corrupt windows install doing exactly what you're describing. Fyi the last time i saw this was because of an unsafe/incorrect shut down.
 
i dont have a spare drive to hand but have ordered one. running checkdisk is a good shout though. I'll give that try later to try and confirm drive failure as the cause.

edit. i'm running windows 10 but cant confirm exact version. I usually have things set up to install updates a couple weeks after release so should be pretty up to date
 
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I vaguely remember there being a known issue recently with windows update and something, which I know isn't much help especially given windows seems to have problems with one random bit of hardware or another every few updates.
 
Sounds like one of the VRAM modules of your GPU is faulty.

Try a known working GPU.

You can get the above display issues if the VRAM module is one that is only used when windows needs more VRAM memory over the basic needs of the BIOS.

I’ve had it where the GPU is fine until you start a game as the VRAM module that was bad was the last one of the series and only used under heavier 3D loads.

I’ve also had it where the first VRAM module is faulty and you get lines across the screen at all times.
 
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There was a recent windows update that broke the os on most amd systems, cant remember exactly which one, there were a few warnings going around not to install, and if i recall it was a optional update via the settings when you check.

I would connect 1 screen and load into safe mode, go to installed windows updates and remove the latest ones that were installed and see if that fixes the problem.
 
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Just to add wookiee87's advice. If you can get into safe mode also take a look at the event viewer to find any additional info on the hang.
 
unable to get into safe mode. tried with a new ssd today, went through the initial windows loading process but after awhile it just black screens again. Same issue so its not to do with a corrupted installation or ssd failure.
 
ran those previously. not the issue. when I said i tried with a new ssd that was a fresh install as well not using any backup images etc. Will have a new gpu to test soon anyway so will get to the bottom of it.
 
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