Need Help: Display isn't steady, can't boot into windows

zeusvii

Distinguished
Jun 26, 2009
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18,520
Hi everyone,

I'm having some issues on my build that I put together about 5 years ago. Basic stats are below:

(Note: all components left at stock, no overclocking was performed)
AMD Phenom II 1090T
Gigabyte Mobo, GA-890FXA-UD5
Ram: Rip Jaw 1866 2 x 2gb (installed in slots 3 & 4)
MSI Twin Frozr II HD 5830 1 gb GPU
CPU Cooling: CoolIt ECO A.L.C.
PSU: ThermalTake Toughpower XT 875W

This configuration was completely operational and functional (though admittedly, painfully slow when running Fallout 4) up until this week.

I purchased a new GPU (MSI 390x) and new RAM (2x4 gb) in order to upgrade the rig.

I took out the older MSI Twin Frozr from the PCI 16x slot (slot 1), to install the new GPU, and I took out one of the RAM sticks as well. Before putting in the new components, I re-seated the old components to simply test installing the new stuff since it's been awhile. (this means I moved some stuff off then back on - but didn't change anything!) The problem was that when booting into windows, it would go to the flashy windows boot part, but never move beyond this screen and would sit this way for up to 5 minutes before the computer would auto-reset since it was taking too long.

At this time, the Gigabyte Motherboard flash screen and BIOS appeared normal - but I noticed that although all monitor display cables were secure, a slight wiggling would cause the monitor to lose the graphics signal.

So - I figured that in taking out the old card and blowing out some of the dust, maybe it became a little less stable - something that might be remedied by a new GPU!

So I placed the new GPU into the rig and everything inside the box seems to be powering up as expected. HOWEVER now the GIgabye flash screen has been completely corrupted, but I can still pull up BIOS. The same problem persists as before (I can either attempt to boot Windows normally, or I can attempt a repair - if I boot normally, it goes to the black / windows loading screen until system time's out. If I attempt a repair, it tries to identify the issue for about 5-10 minutes - identifies no cause, and again time's out without making any changes.

So - my question is - where do I start? How do i determine what my failed component is, that's keeping me from booting up Windows as expected? Is there a Hardware issue, or did I somehow damage the hard drive when I simple disconnected it? How do I get my computer just working again at all?



 
Solution


So, tried all of this - no dice. Had a feeling that would be the case, since I essentially already did it before. After a couple of boots into windows repair, somehow one of many times it finally identified that the HDD somehow had errors on it (?) Not sure how that happened. It couldn't repair the windows files or identify where the problem was, but apparently this was why Windows wasn't booting.

So - I picked up a new SSD (have wanted to switch my velociraptor 10k RPM for awhile...) and did a clean install on...

zeusvii

Distinguished
Jun 26, 2009
6
0
18,520


So, tried all of this - no dice. Had a feeling that would be the case, since I essentially already did it before. After a couple of boots into windows repair, somehow one of many times it finally identified that the HDD somehow had errors on it (?) Not sure how that happened. It couldn't repair the windows files or identify where the problem was, but apparently this was why Windows wasn't booting.

So - I picked up a new SSD (have wanted to switch my velociraptor 10k RPM for awhile...) and did a clean install on everything. Plugged the old drive (HDD) back in as a slave, and saved all the data I needed, no problems.

 
Solution