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davidspackage
May 16, 2007

Nap Ghost
think I found the source of the problem, see last reply

Problem description:
Last night, I turned on my desktop PC. It showed the usual MSI logo on a black screen, but instead of then proceeding to Windows 10, it lingered for a long time, then rebooted. MSI logo again, but text at the bottom of the screen saying that it was scanning my PC for problems and trying to fix them. Then on to a blue screen telling me that Windows 10 could not start and I could either reboot or try other solutions. I ran through the available solutions (apart from reinstalling Windows), attempting a reboot every time, but ending at the same screen: I tried going back to an earlier system restore point, tried uninstalling recent updates, tried to reboot from a recovery USB key that the PC prompted me to make back when I first got it.

Then the problem got worse. Now, if I try to turn on my PC, a red light goes on on the motherboard, the fans all spin (including the ones on the videocard), and I can feel at least one of the hard drives runs (a SATA drive, the other's an SSD). But the screen (I've hooked up my PC to my TV with HDMI) stays black. My TV indicates that there's activity on the HDMI port that the PC is hooked up, but nothing else happens. I've got a USB hub that lights up when my computer powers on, that stays dark now.

Attempted fixes:
With the current state of my PC, I tried unhooking all outside devices - USB hub, bluetooth USB receiver, external USB hard drive, ethernet cable - and tried powering.
When that didn't do anything different, I unhooked all hard drives except for the SSD on which the operating system is installed. No difference.
Since nothing at all started up, I figured, maybe the RAM strips? There's four of them. First I tried taking all but the first out and powering up. Repeated this for each strip individually, but no difference.
I also figured, maybe the videocard is dead or something? Unfortunately, all the ports (HDMI, VGA and DVI) are on the videocard, the motherboard has none. But since the USB hub stays dark, I assume it's not just a matter of the video not working.
And, I pulled the primary hard drive out and used a Sharkoon Drivelink to hook it up to my laptop. It showed up and read just fine, I let my laptop scan it for faults but found none.

Recent changes:
The one thing I did just before this problem started, was try to boot from a USB key with a Windows 7 Ultimate ISO on it - I was going to install Windows 7 on a third hard drive to try and dual boot it with Windows 10, use it for some older software and games. I used this same USB key to install Windows 7 on a mini PC recently, and that went without a hitch, so I assume it's a coincidence.

--

Operating system:
Primary, Windows 10 Home

System specs:
Because the idea of building my own PC scares me, I ordered this one from a company that builds them for you, a few years back.

Intel Core i7-7800X 3.5GHz
MSI X299 Raider
Crucial Ballistix 32GB DDR4-2400 (4 strips, so each should be 8GB)
NVidia GTX 1050 Ti 4GB
Primary hard drive: Crucial MX300 SSD 525GB
Secondary: Toshiba SATAIII 2TB
Tertiary: Seagate 1 TB

Location:
Netherlands

I have Googled and read the FAQ:
Yeah. It's kind of too vague a problem to Google, unfortunately. I'm getting rather worried my motherboard spontaneously shat the bed. I won't have a chance to look up a repair shop until Monday, so I figured I'd try here first.


edit: it occurred to me it might help to post photos:


Top LED would be CPU failure?

edit2: no, wait. Top LED goes red, there's 4 white LEDs below it: when I turn on the PC, first one lights up, second lights up, both go out. The first one again, second one again, both go out and stay out.

davidspackage fucked around with this message at 06:15 on Feb 7, 2021

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Schweinhund
Oct 23, 2004

:derp:   :kayak:                                     

davidspackage posted:

Now, if I try to turn on my PC, a red light goes on on the motherboard, the fans all spin (including the ones on the videocard), and I can feel at least one of the hard drives runs (a SATA drive, the other's an SSD). But the screen (I've hooked up my PC to my TV with HDMI) stays black. My TV indicates that there's activity on the HDMI port that the PC is hooked up, but nothing else happens. I've got a USB hub that lights up when my computer powers on, that stays dark now.

... But since the USB hub stays dark, I assume it's not just a matter of the video not working.

What I read is the bios tries to load the video first. So it might be getting stuck at the video card not working and not trying to load the other stuff. Maybe the video card became unseated?

davidspackage
May 16, 2007

Nap Ghost

Schweinhund posted:

What I read is the bios tries to load the video first. So it might be getting stuck at the video card not working and not trying to load the other stuff. Maybe the video card became unseated?

I just tried taking out the videocard and firmly placing it back in, sadly no change. I tried powering the PC without the videocard, and then again with it replaced. Both times the same LEDs light up; first one, second one, both go out. This repeats, and then they stay out (only the red light at the top stays on, which I assume is a power indicator).

It's annoying that I don't fully understand what the lights indicate, would the last light that goes on be the problem area, or the first one that doesn't go on? I'll see if I can get a support reaction from the manufacturer's site.

If the videocard's dead that wouldn't be the worst, I've been entertaining the idea of upgrading. I am a little worried about the start-up problems I had before it wouldn't boot at all.

Dumb question, I assume the videocard's fans spinning say nothing about the actual functioning of the videocard?

edit: for the sake of understanding how I should read the LEDs, I took out all 4 strips of RAM and powered up. First white LED went on and off, second (DRAM) stayed on permanently. drat it. That doesn't help.

davidspackage fucked around with this message at 12:05 on Jan 10, 2021

davidspackage
May 16, 2007

Nap Ghost
Well, I contacted MSI to ask what the debug lights might indicate exactly, and got the suggestion back to try and remove the CPU and place it back, which I didn't quite dare to do - started looking for repair shops in the area when I found my receipt for the PC, and to my surprise I have a 4-year warranty that doesn't run out until October. The guys I bought it from also suspect it's the videocard, so I packed up the PC and sent it to them. They'll replace any defective parts under warranty (unless they're going to blame me for whatever's defective, but cross that bridge when I get to it). I'll try to remember to update with what the problem was exactly, before I close the thread. Thanks Schweinhund!

Zogo
Jul 29, 2003

davidspackage posted:

Dumb question, I assume the videocard's fans spinning say nothing about the actual functioning of the videocard?

Yeah, it's possible the fan works but the GPU is messed up.

davidspackage
May 16, 2007

Nap Ghost
Well, I got word that my PC's working again - but all they did was disconnect and reconnect the videocard and RAM strips. Which I did myself, multiple times. Frustrating that there's no other defect to point to, but I guess I'll see if everything's really alright when I get my PC back - I'll still have to reinstall Win10 since it seems damaged. Once that's done, I'll have a look to see if it shows the full 32GB of memory, or if any of it isn't working.

davidspackage
May 16, 2007

Nap Ghost
Well, I managed to reinstall Win10 with some doing (Win10 would automatically install a driver that would cause my SSD to totally cripple the PC after a while).

My speculative conclusion is that the graphics card came unseated, and when I took it out and replaced it, I didn't place it right. I can't imagine I hosed up properly seating all the RAM strips all of the dozen times I tried.

Not entirely happy with the state in which I got my PC back though, I feel like they did some janky fix to get it running again. I'm having the worst time reaching the BIOS menu or booting from removable media. If I try, I generally end up with a black screen and just no other response from the PC.

edit: I'll close this thread, the problem I started it for is fixed. If I can't figure out this current BIOS issue, I'll open a new thread. Thanks for your replies!

davidspackage fucked around with this message at 19:41 on Feb 6, 2021

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davidspackage
May 16, 2007

Nap Ghost
Opening the thread just to add that I believe I've found the source of the original issue.

I was running Windows 10 with a secondary boot of Windows 8.1, for the sole purpose of running one or two games that refused to work under Win10. I had the wish to add a third boot of Windows 7, partially to run a few more old games and partially for the novelty of it. For that purpose, I made a USB key with a Win7 ISO to install. I'd used this key on another PC and installed Win7 without a hitch.

This is one of the last things I'd tried before my PC stopped working. Now that I had it back from repair and everything seemed stable again, I thought I'd pick up my earlier attempt again, hence why I mentioned my difficulties booting from removable media.

It didn't ruin my Win10 installation, but AGAIN it led to my PC in a state where it'd just stay on a black screen instead of booting. After pulling a few hairs out, I figured I had little to lose and poked the 'clear CMOS' knob on the back of the case. That reset the BIOS settings and thankfully let the PC start up again. I hadn't changed anything meaningful in BIOS, so that was fine.

I figured that would have to be the end of my attempts to get Win7, but gave it one last try, instead first booting into Windows 8.1 and running the USB with Win7 from in there. Worked without a hitch. I don't even think there's anything malicious on the USB key, but for some reason my whole system shits the bed if you try to start the process from the moment you start up the computer. Very weird.



tl;dr: tried to boot from a Win7 installation USB key, PC stopped booting; cleared BIOS settings, ran USB from inside Windows 8.1 instead.

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