Computer Won't Fully Boot. Is it my SSD or something else?

Spacefreak

Honorable
Jan 23, 2013
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10,510
I just put together a new rig (specs at bottom) that's only been together for less than a week.

I was playing FarCry 3 last night, and when I changed the screen mode from "Windowed" to "Fullscreen," my computer locked up and the screen went to that teal color that desktops used to have. It sat like that for a minute during which time I hit ctrl+alt+del and then tried to manually reset it by holding the power switch. But after a minute it suddenly started shutting down (as in a proper shutdown) but suddenly froze again and then just turned off.

When I tried to boot it back up, it shows the Windows 7 load screen and then just freezes and reboots after a few seconds. I tried running the Windows repair utility, and it kept running into an error and couldn't do anything. I then tried to run a System Restore, but it kept running into an "Unknown Error" and couldn't continue.

My first thought is that there's something wrong with the SSD since the computer won't boot and I keep running into errors when I install or try to run a system restore. But I'm not totally positive.

Does it sound like the SSD is bad or something else? If it is the SSD, is there something I can do to fix it or is an RMA my only option?

Computer Specs:
OS: Windows 7 x64 Ultimate
CPU: Intel i5-3570k
SSD: Samsung 840 series 250GB
Motherboard: Asus Sabertooth Z77
Memory: G.Skill Ripjaws X - 4 x 4GB
PSU: Corsair HX 750W
Graphics Card: EVGA Superclocked GTX 680 2GB
 


Sounds like it has something to do with your graphics card drivers, not your SSD.

Boot into Safe Mode and uninstall the drivers for the graphics card. Reboot into Windows and let Windows install its own default drivers.

Reboot again, play your game again and try to do the same thing you did before that caused your problem.
If it doesn't happen again then you know it had something to do with the graphic card drivers.

 

Spacefreak

Honorable
Jan 23, 2013
4
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10,510
I deleted the old graphics driver and then started Windows normally and it worked and then installed the default driver.

Then I restarted the computer, but the computer won't turn on normally again. It's freezing at the same place.
 

blackmancer

Distinguished
Nov 29, 2008
429
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18,810
Can you repeat the process you did before to get it to boot up, but once there, goto the properties of the C: (right click on icon, properties), then goto tools and run a disk check and a full one at that. reboot the machine, it should say it needs access via the reboot, let it complete and if you can look for any bad sectors in the small report that flashes on completion. depending on the size of the hdd this can take ages, so no biggy if you miss it, we can check elsewhere.
 

Spacefreak

Honorable
Jan 23, 2013
4
0
10,510
Well, I've figured out the problem. After trying the solutions here, I decided to replace my graphics card with an older one I have, and now my computer works fine...

So that means my graphics card was the problem the whole time. Time to RMA.

Thanks! I appreciate all the help!