System will only boot in Safe Mode, endless reboot loop otherwise

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dva8090

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Jan 31, 2018
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So recently I had to replace my water cooler for my PC. Went in just fine and is working great. Ran it a while night without issue. Next day during its boot up, it would get to the log in screen then reboot from the motherboard symbol. It would then start rebooting again a few seconds after the motherboard symbol appeared and continue in this loop. Occasionally it will make it a little further and let me log in but would reboot again soon afterwards in the same fashion without warning.

I can get it to boot into safe mode and it has no trouble there, so I’m curious if it’s a driver issue but I have no idea how I would check.

Any help or points in the right direction are appreciated, thanks.
 
Solution
jr9
Well, that eliminates a lot of things such as:

Graphics card
Hard drives and thus malware and drivers
Windows

If you have reboots or crashes in BIOS that can only be caused by a hardware issue. If your temps are good then I think there is an issue with the PSU, motherboard, or cooler install.

As the only change made to the system was the cooler installation something the only things I could think of that went wrong are:

- Thermal paste in the CPU socket somehow or bent socket pins if the CPU was removed
- ESD damage to the motherboard or RAM. Rare but it happens.
- Physical damage to the board during installation
- Part of the cooler kit shorting on something. I've seen this if the washers are installed with the rubber side...
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dva8090

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Jan 31, 2018
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Trying to boot it up this morning, managed to get into my desktop for about 5 min before another unexpected reboot. It got to the login screen again after and then dropped a BSOD for Bad Pool Header.

Would the reboots be connected to this or is this just a coincidence?
 
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Cystash

Cystash

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Sounds like possibly a virus infection. That would be the first thing I would check in safe mode. Virus’s can break important files in windows and cause the pc to do weird things. Are you using an anti virus program?
 
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dva8090

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Jan 31, 2018
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Bitdefender. But I can’t run it while in Safe mode so I can’t scan for anything.
 
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dva8090

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Jan 31, 2018
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I may have found the answer. I had the thought of removing the backside cover that houses all the cable runnings and so far it hasn’t crashed. I’m wondering if the cables were too squished or if something was ‘shorting because it was too close to something else?
 
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dva8090

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Jan 31, 2018
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Well so much for that. It was stable for a while but then rebooted randomly again and got caught in the reboot loop, making it to the motherboard logo and then rebooting again until it gets through to the safe mode or launch start repair screen. It doesn’t seem to have trouble getting into safe mode.

Eventually it will log in to normal windows and acts fine, but no idea what triggers the loop in the first place.
 
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jr9

jr9

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Dec 6, 2017
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Specs will help. If it's rebooting as if you hit the reset button that is more often a hardware or installation issue. If it reboots randomly before it starts to load Windows then that is an issue beyond Windows and drivers. You may wish to uninstall the new cooler and reinstall the old one to see if the previous configuration is more stable.
 
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dva8090

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Jan 31, 2018
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I took apart the old cooler, it was clogged with something or other and is no longer any good.

Specs:

i7-4770k @ 3.5 GHZ - Corsair H75 Cooler
RAM 16 GB (8GBx2) 1866 MHz Corsair Vengeance
EVGA GTX 780 FTW
Corsair CX750 PSU
ASUS Maximus VII Ranger MB
500GB SSD (boot drive)
1TB HDD
 
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jr9

jr9

Estimable
Dec 6, 2017
2,212
3
3,960
- Try shutting down, removing the GPU, hooking up to the integrated graphics with the motherboard ports, and starting up and see if it works when the video card is not in use.

- BIOS update may help. This could possibly be a bug.

- Reseat RAM and try just using one stick.
 
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dva8090

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Jan 31, 2018
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Tried removing the GPU, and it lets me get into my desktop but eventually will reboot again. However, it doesn’t keep doing the endless reboot, now it actually lets me get to the desktop each time before doing it again. EDIT: After letting me get there a few times, now it’s rebooting right at the login screen again, followed by the occasional opportunity to log in. So not sure if it’s a hint in the right direction or not.

I’ve also noted that it will reboot eventually if I’m in Safe Mode with networking, but hasn’t ever in normal safe mode.

I’ve tried the thing with the RAM before and it didn’t seem to help but is worth a shot again. I believe I have the latest BIOS version but I’ll double check.

Another thought, could these be signs that my PSU is faulty?
 
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jr9

jr9

Estimable
Dec 6, 2017
2,212
3
3,960
Well, that eliminates a lot of things such as:

Graphics card
Hard drives and thus malware and drivers
Windows

If you have reboots or crashes in BIOS that can only be caused by a hardware issue. If your temps are good then I think there is an issue with the PSU, motherboard, or cooler install.

As the only change made to the system was the cooler installation something the only things I could think of that went wrong are:

- Thermal paste in the CPU socket somehow or bent socket pins if the CPU was removed
- ESD damage to the motherboard or RAM. Rare but it happens.
- Physical damage to the board during installation
- Part of the cooler kit shorting on something. I've seen this if the washers are installed with the rubber side backwards.

Right now you have made it to the "swap part and try again" stage of troubleshooting. If you don't have a spare PSU, motherboard, cooler, or RAM I would recommend having a shop do the diagnostic for you. You do not want to buy parts and guess. Don't attempt to flash the BIOS as if it crashes during the update that will be the end of that motherboard unless it has a backup BIOS.

If I had this PC to work on in the shop my approach would be:

1. Remove cooler and install an air cooler, verify functionality.
2. Connect a testing power supply. Verify functionality and test in question PSU with a PSU tester.
3. Remove CPU and RAM and test them with a known working LGA1150 board. Memtest, OCCT, and Prime95. Verify the work.
4. Replace motherboard and install air cooler+ old CPU and RAM if they passed testing, verify system works.
5. Reinstall liquid cooler and verify everything works
 
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Solution
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dva8090

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Jan 31, 2018
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Took it to a guy today and we looked at the the power consumption of the PSU and it seems to be fluctuating more than it normally would, so I have a new PSU on order to arrive by Saturday. I’ll reply back after install whether or not it was the issue.
 
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dva8090

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Jan 31, 2018
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Well I found the answer. It wasn’t the power supply. Took everything out of the case and noticed a smudge of thermal paste that got trapped under the mounting bracket for the CPU at some point. Had I not taken the cooler off and the CPU put to check the pins I probably would have never noticed it. Since wiping it off there have been no more random reboots. Case closed.
 
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