New (Clean) Win 10 Install, Severe Boot Issues

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My system:
MSI Z77A-G45
i5-3570k at default clocks
H100i
Diamond 290X
16 GB RAM (don't recall the clock speed)
EVGA SuperNOVA NEX750B
Windows 7 on one hard drive
Windows 10 on another hard drive


About ten days ago, I did a clean install of Windows 10 to a new, unformatted hard drive. Upon doing so, I ran into two major problems.

1. Graphical glitches (artifacts, even hard locks when given enough time), with the install of any AMD Crimson driver I tried (16.6.2, 16.3.2, 15.7.1, 14.4 I think, maybe one or two more). I tried numerous clean installs (deleting the old partitions) each time this didn't work. This isn't my main question though, I've given up on this for now. See below.

2. When I try to boot up, my computer starts, but nothing works. None of my USB peripherals such as my keyboard turn on, and my monitors show no signal. I can clearly see the lights of various pieces of hardware such as the H100i, but nothing connected to the motherboard works.

I've tried disconnecting all of the hard drives, a disk drive, and my GPU, as well as the memory. Literally everything but the power supply and the CPU (and the H100i). But it still does this.

It does this approximately 95% of the time. I have to sit there and constantly turn it on, wait a few seconds to see if the monitors kick on, then when they don't turn it off again and start over.

This also occurred during a day or so when I deleted the Win 10 install (trying to deal with #1), so while that seems to have initiated it, that's not perpetuating it.

I saw something about making sure hard drives were AHCI mode or something in the BIOS, and I did so. But it didn't help anything.


I'm about to give up and just go for a new motherboard (and by extension a new CPU, RAM...) about 4 months earlier than I wanted to (and no doubt for $100s more than I wanted to...), but I wanted to see if anyone has any tips for me. Do keep in mind that anything you suggest will likely involve me sitting by my PC turning it on and off for half an hour until it properly boots. Thanks for any help.
 
Solution
Darkbreeze
If you are not getting a signal to your peripherals, keyboard, mouse, dongle, etc., then I'd say it's almost certainly a motherboard issue and if that's the case, it's probably not worth replacing considering the age of the platform. I'd almost have to recommend an upgrade to a newer platform. Those Z77 boards are hard to find and the only one even remotely reasonable, new, anymore, is the Z77 Extreme4 which is 140 bucks. Used hardware is a crapshoot and you may end up with the same or similar problems before long or immediately anyhow.

I almost never recommend purchasing used hardware unless the person you are buying it from is somebody who eats meals with your and your family during the holidays, and sometimes not then.

I think...
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Darkbreeze

Darkbreeze

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Jun 24, 2014
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Any bulging caps on the board? Really sounds like a board issue to me but you've also got a very power hungry graphics card paired with a rather low quality PSU. The EVGA NEX units are not even comparable to their B2, G2 and P2 units.

Have you made ANY other hardware changes, had anything disconnected or newly installed?

Almost sounds like the 4/8 pin EPS CPU power connector isn't delivering power to the motherboard. Almost identical behavior to when somebody forgets to plug that in on a new build. Doesn't mean it IS that though. Lots of things it COULD be. Definitely sounds motherboard related. I'm assuming you tried using the iGPU on the CPU in lieu of the discreet card already.

Tried resetting the CMOS by removing the CMOS battery for about five minutes, WITH the power unplugged from the wall first, and then reinserting it into the motherboard, plugging the power back in and rebooting? Maybe a corrupted BIOS ROM, which still probably means a motherboard replacement.

The platform is certainly old enough to be experiencing the result of long term electromigration or failure of the motherboard caps, among other things.

Do you even get beep codes with the memory removed? Do you have a system speaker attached to the motherboard to hear them if there were?
 
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Bulging caps? Not that I know of, though I'll have to check after I get home today.

Hmm, that's disappointing. I thought I saw it listed as B-tier on a PSU list that I saw on here, but maybe that was a "normal SuperNOVA" unit or something.

The only hardware change was adding a new hard drive that was unused until I put Windows 10 on it. Other than that, nothing.

Definitely not the CPU pin. I saw that and made a point of disconnecting them (4+4), but it didn't even boot then. Just lit up for a quarter of a second then went dark.

Yep, I tried disconnecting the graphics card and plugging my monitor(s) into the motherboard. Didn't help.

I did remove the CMOS battery and unplugged the power for about 45 seconds, which didn't help, but I'll try doing it for that long when I get home.

I don't believe I have a system speaker attached, no, so I wouldn't hear anything. But I didn't touch that at all (until more recently when removing things piece by piece) so I have no idea how that could be it.

Just two stress two things:
1. Everything sounds like it boots fine. The lights light up. My fans make their characteristic sound (running loud for around 6 seconds, then quieting down). But nothing connected to the motherboard, like a USB keyboard, or a monitor, works.
2. It works sometimes. It takes a ridiculous amount of time sitting there and turning it on and off, but it does work sometimes, which makes me hope there's a solution.

Anyway, thanks for your help. Apologies if this isn't where I put replies or something, this is my first time posting here.
 
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Darkbreeze

Darkbreeze

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The B2, G2 and P2 units are good. Tiers 1 and 2 depending on the unit. The B1, W1 and G1 NEX, or any of the NEX units really, are not nearly as good and have some shortcomings. Still, they are not fire starters or extremely poor units, but neither are they anything to have supreme faith in either, especially if you're running high end cards.

Have you tried a different monitor cable or a different kind of display output? Different monitor?
 
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It maaaaay be related to the memory.

Confession time: right before I posted this topic, I saw something. While I originally had 16 GB, for some reason it only said 8 GB. Thinking it was unimportant, I put 16GB above, but see below...

Just so we're clear, I have 4 Corsair Ballistix pieces, all DDR3-1600. Two of them are 4 GB, and two of them are 8GB. They are here and here. I've had problems with my memory on this motherboard for as long as I can remember, where I could not use the standard "channels." It would start up, then switch off a few seconds later, then start up again, and loop like that until I turned it off myself. I had to put two sticks (more than that didn't work) in slots 1 and 2.

Now, after I took out the battery and unplugged the PC from the wall, it did work. However, rather than double check if it was permanently fixed, I ran a test I should have done years ago. I took each piece and tested it in each slot. Each Arbitrarily Assigned Stick (1, 2, 3, 4) was placed in a Slot (1, 2, 3, 4). I then checked if it had an automatic shutdown (indicating a definite memory problem), or if it did the same thing as before, where it booted but nothing showed. My results are below.

AAS1 S1 [strike]S2[/strike] [strike]S3[/strike] [strike]S4[/strike]

AAS2 S1 [strike]S2[/strike] [strike]S3[/strike] [strike]S4[/strike]

AAS3 [strike]S1[/strike] S2 [strike]S3[/strike] [strike]S4[/strike]

AAS4 S1 S2 [strike]S3[/strike] [strike]S4[/strike]

AAS1 and AAS3 are the 8GB sticks. AAS2 and AAS4 are the 4GB sticks. The strikethroughs mean I got an automatic shutdown and restart (indicating a definite memory issue). All of the others had the same issue as I started this topic about.

It can clearly be seen that I have major motherboard/memory issues here, though I'll point out that when the memory works, I get the issue I made this topic about, which would indicate it isn't necessarily related to memory. Just a consideration.


I have two monitors, one DVI (Dell E2211H) and the other HDMI (Hannspree HF229H). In a careless moment I destroyed my HDMI port on my 290X, so I use a DVI-to-HDMI adapter for that monitor (my card has two DVI outputs). This has always worked fine.

I did indeed try moving the monitors to the motherboard, and trying one or the other, but there was no change. I wish to emphasize that when this problem occurs, nothing connected to my motherboard--including things like my USB keyboard or my wireless Xbox controller dongle (which has a green light when powered--appears to work.

In light of this and the part I've put in the spoiler area, I'm thinking my best bet is just to bite the bullet and start upgrading now, starting with my motherboard. But before I do, anything else you can think of?
 
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Darkbreeze

Darkbreeze

Retired Mod
Jun 24, 2014
80,408
7,630
176,790
If you are not getting a signal to your peripherals, keyboard, mouse, dongle, etc., then I'd say it's almost certainly a motherboard issue and if that's the case, it's probably not worth replacing considering the age of the platform. I'd almost have to recommend an upgrade to a newer platform. Those Z77 boards are hard to find and the only one even remotely reasonable, new, anymore, is the Z77 Extreme4 which is 140 bucks. Used hardware is a crapshoot and you may end up with the same or similar problems before long or immediately anyhow.

I almost never recommend purchasing used hardware unless the person you are buying it from is somebody who eats meals with your and your family during the holidays, and sometimes not then.

I think you've covered just about all the bases but it's entirely possible that it's a memory issue, rather than a motherboard problem. Doubtful, but possible.
 
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Yeah, I can't really think of anything else. Thanks a bunch for your help, though.
 
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