Question Custom Tower does not boot, Even w/sys restore

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marcplante

Senior member
Mar 17, 2005
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I have a custom tower with an Asus Z270 Mobo I7 7700 proc, Crucial SSD Win 10, 16G of Rpjaws memory, xfx 1080ti Graphics card.

Peripherals include a corsair KB, logitec Marathon mouse and an HP 17" monitor.

Everything has been running fine for about 8 months, then it won't boot. It keeps trying to go into system repair with no effect. I tried system restore with no result.

Before I reset the computer and reinstall the OS (losing my software and patches). are there any diagnostics I should run to see if I have a HW problem that might be causing issues.

Thanks,

Marc
 
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UsandThem

UsandThem

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May 4, 2000
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There's not many utilities you can run outside of Windows to test various components. You can run programs like Memtest from a USB drive, but there's just not that many.

https://www.memtest86.com/

Once (if) you're able to reinstall Windows, you could run a program like Crucial Executive or CrystalDiskInfo to see if your SSD has any issues. Not sure if you had a recent Windows update (or maybe even malware) that hosed your system, or if have an issue with a component (SSD, memory, motherboard, etc). But you can start with the SSD as it's one of the quickest and easiest things to test.

https://www.crucial.com/usa/en/support-storage-executive

and

https://crystalmark.info/en/software/crystaldiskinfo/
 
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Ketchup

Ketchup

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Sep 1, 2002
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Are you sure nothing happened before it wouldn't boot? Usually situations like this are caused by an update gone wrong or failing hardware. And yes, if memtest on a flash drive doesn't find a problem and repair install doesn't work, a fresh install is probably what you will need to do.
 
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VirtualLarry

VirtualLarry

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Aug 25, 2001
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I would agree that it sounds like the SSD may be at fault, or you might have had a "bad update" somewhere along the line.

But for completeness, what PSU do you have, and how old is it? I noticed that you left out that info in the OP. If the PSU was included with the case, consider replacing it with a name-brand one, that could be an issue too, although I would guess less of an issue than the SSD failing.
 
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marcplante

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Mar 17, 2005
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I reset the OS and now think I was just in some form of update stasis. I got similar behavior and waited it out only to see it*eventually* start up. I'm going to wait until windows update is happy then consider a clean install if I still have problems. It's annoying to start or shut down a PC and have it seem to ignore you.

PSU is a new Corsair 750. I built the box 8 months ago to support a VR driving Sim since I can't get to the track like I used to. I'm still sorting out settings, so I haven't abused it with the sim SW yet.
 
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marcplante

Senior member
Mar 17, 2005
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So I'm now in a schlog of slow startups and shut downs as my OS patches itself back to current levels. The update status indicates that its at 61%, and it seems to advance a half dozen percentage points with every power cycle.

Some of my startups are regular, others include a 5-15 minute wait with no indication on the screen that anything is happening beyond the windows 10 spinning screen.

My shutdowns typically feel like something is broken. No indication of "Update and Shutdown" in the menu and the computer feels like it ignores the shutdown command, but if I have faith and wait, it typically does something and shuts down within 1/2 hr or so.

This makes me wonder about the implications of ever restoring a Win 10 computer. If patching back from a reset is this painful, frequent full image backups become more critical. I'm not sure if my syste restore was fine before and I jumped the gun resetting given the current update behavior. MY "frozen" computer may not have been frozen after all.

Is this typical? Or do I need to wipe and start over?
 
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UsandThem

UsandThem

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May 4, 2000
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Sounds a little slow for a SSD (not sure what model you have), but if you're resetting back to a really old version of Windows 10, that could be the reason why it's so painfully slow.

I'd personally download the newest Windows 10 version from Microsoft, and create a bootable USB installation drive to install Windows.
https://www.microsoft.com/en-ca/software-download/windows10

If you are still having really slow install times, you likely have some type of hardware issue. You never addressed if you ran any utilities to test to see if your SSD is in good health.
 
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marcplante

Senior member
Mar 17, 2005
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Their lies the problem. I was using store bought media that was likely ancient.. duh. So I probably had to go through a dozen micro patches to get current. My machine is now installing 1809.

It would have been nice to see a little better indication. This started when what I suspect was sluggish update that I mistook for a failure.

#1 put another drive in the box and backup the whole image monthly

#2 get current install media next time.

#3 sure it make sense to put the OS in it's own in a small sad (I have a spare 128). If I put apps on another drive will banking up the registry help piece things together if u have to rebuild? Or is it just best to get religious about maintaining full disc backups?
 
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