- Dec 8, 2011
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Hi everyone--
A bit more than two years ago, I built myself a PC. Briefly, it's a Z68 extreme 3 from ASRock with a core i5-2500k, 8 GB of RAM, a 6950 2GB, and both a 128GB m4 SSD and a 1TB Seagate HDD. I am running Windows 8.1 enterprise. I have not had any substantial issues with it until today.
This morning, I attempted to resume from sleep. The computer resumed, and I typed in my password at the Win8 login screen, which it appeared to accept--but then the screen just stayed blue (my background color, not a BSOD). After it sat there for a minute or so, I did a hard reboot. The system posted, and Windows went into some kind of repair mode, but stopped after a few seconds. It said I needed my install media, because there was a system file that needed to be repaired. Unfortunately, i didn't have time to write down which file, but it was something in \windows\ and may have had something like "kernel" in it. After a few seconds the screen went black.
I attempted to hard reboot again, but the system kept doing nothing--I'd hear some disk noise, but no post. I tried about three times before the system did finally post. I got a brief warning that said "the system has repeatedly failed to boot; press del to enter the UEFI." So i did that. But when I got in, it appeared to be hanging. The mouse and keyboard didn't work. I tried to reboot a few times after that (about three more), but it won't post. I had to go to work, though, so I haven't been able to experiment.
Any ideas what might be going on here? I can't think of any event that could have caused this (except that i know I removed a USB stick, which just had filed on it, from a port while the computer was asleep). At this point I am not sure where to start--is the mobo bad, or is a drive, or a RAM stick? Based on how everything started, I had thought it was just my Windows install that had gone bad somehow (since it booted into a repair mode). But now I'm thinking it must be a hardware issue, since I've had trouble posting.
I guess the first thing I'll do is reset the CMOS, and also try booting with first one RAM stick, then the other. Past that, i'm not sure. I have built several PCs before, but I would not say I'm an expert on hardware troubleshooting.
Anyway, thanks for your help.
Peter
A bit more than two years ago, I built myself a PC. Briefly, it's a Z68 extreme 3 from ASRock with a core i5-2500k, 8 GB of RAM, a 6950 2GB, and both a 128GB m4 SSD and a 1TB Seagate HDD. I am running Windows 8.1 enterprise. I have not had any substantial issues with it until today.
This morning, I attempted to resume from sleep. The computer resumed, and I typed in my password at the Win8 login screen, which it appeared to accept--but then the screen just stayed blue (my background color, not a BSOD). After it sat there for a minute or so, I did a hard reboot. The system posted, and Windows went into some kind of repair mode, but stopped after a few seconds. It said I needed my install media, because there was a system file that needed to be repaired. Unfortunately, i didn't have time to write down which file, but it was something in \windows\ and may have had something like "kernel" in it. After a few seconds the screen went black.
I attempted to hard reboot again, but the system kept doing nothing--I'd hear some disk noise, but no post. I tried about three times before the system did finally post. I got a brief warning that said "the system has repeatedly failed to boot; press del to enter the UEFI." So i did that. But when I got in, it appeared to be hanging. The mouse and keyboard didn't work. I tried to reboot a few times after that (about three more), but it won't post. I had to go to work, though, so I haven't been able to experiment.
Any ideas what might be going on here? I can't think of any event that could have caused this (except that i know I removed a USB stick, which just had filed on it, from a port while the computer was asleep). At this point I am not sure where to start--is the mobo bad, or is a drive, or a RAM stick? Based on how everything started, I had thought it was just my Windows install that had gone bad somehow (since it booted into a repair mode). But now I'm thinking it must be a hardware issue, since I've had trouble posting.
I guess the first thing I'll do is reset the CMOS, and also try booting with first one RAM stick, then the other. Past that, i'm not sure. I have built several PCs before, but I would not say I'm an expert on hardware troubleshooting.
Anyway, thanks for your help.
Peter
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