Multiple red LEDs flash on start up and PC stuck in boot loop.

Snowwillden

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Nov 10, 2015
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So this might be quite a long explanation because there seems to be quite a few things wrong with my system.

A few months ago I upgraded my stock cooler to a cooler master evo. However when installing it I must've plugged the pins in backwards because the socket started smoking. I assumed the mobo was broken but it seemed to have only affected the CPU fan socket, and being a poor student I decided to continue using this mobo. At that time nothing else seemed to be wrong with the system.

Fast forward to a few weeks ago. Windows is very insistent on installing updates, which fail every single time. I try and fix the issue but can't seem to. Two days ago my computer suddenly wouldn't turn on. On boot, the windows icon would appear on the screen and the words "Attempting to recover installation" followed by "Restoring your previous version of windows" would flash on the screen. The screen would then go black and the system would try to boot again. This happens until I turn off the machine.
Today I tried to turn on my machine and the words don't show up anymore, only the windows logo, before it turns off and tried to boot again.
I also noticed that several red LEDS flash when trying to boot up, one after the other, in this order:
CPULED
DRAMLED
PCIEX16LED
BOOTDEVICELED

I have tried to use startup repair with installation media. I have also opened command line with the media and ran the sfc scannow and chkdsk commands, to no effect.

I'm starting to think my motherboard has completely died due to the frying it received a few months back, and my boot drive has malfunctioned at the same time due to failed updates (perhaps caused by the faulty mobo).

I'm planning on buying a new motherboard, and recovering my boot drive's data (by connecting it to my laptop via Sata to USB converter) before installing a fresh windows on it.
Do you think this is the best way of dealing with this situation? Have I diagnosed this correctly? Any advice as to what I should do would be greatly appreciated.

Specs:
OS: Windows 10 Home 64-bit

CPU:Intel Core i5 4460 @ 3.20GHz

RAM: 16.0GB Dual-Channel DDR3 @ 666MHz

Motherboard: ASUSTeK COMPUTER INC. Z97-A (SOCKET 1150)

GPU: 4095MB NVIDIA GeForce GTX 970 (MSI)

Storage: 232GB Crucial SSD, 1863GB Seagate Hard Drive

Thanks again

 

Snowwillden

Reputable
Nov 10, 2015
14
0
4,510


OS: Windows 10 Home 64-bit

CPU:Intel Core i5 4460 @ 3.20GHz

RAM: 16.0GB Dual-Channel DDR3 @ 666MHz

Motherboard: ASUSTeK COMPUTER INC. Z97-A (SOCKET 1150)

GPU: 4095MB NVIDIA GeForce GTX 970 (MSI)

Storage: 232GB Crucial SSD, 1863GB Seagate Hard Drive
 

Snowwillden

Reputable
Nov 10, 2015
14
0
4,510


Cleared the CMOS, doesn't seem to have had any effect