Fixing a neglected PC with a bunch of problems... Where to start? What to do? Windows 10 and BIOS issues.

HankTheYank

Commendable
Aug 13, 2016
1
0
1,510
So I am here today to request help. I will warn you right now that I am not the keenest person when it comes to PCs. I really need some experts here who are willing to sit down and think this through for a while.

Because there are potentially a multitude of problems here I have no idea how to list this thread or what to name it to get it the attention it deserves. Any moderators feel free to move it accordingly or make recommendations on changing the title to better represent the issue.

I understand it is long and I apologize. I have left a very detailed account of everything I can think of regarding the issues I have had. You will find all of the important parts in bold to better guide you to the important information. Please read thoroughly. Thank you.



I got into PC gaming about 2 years ago. I had been wanting to for quite some time but as you all know, it takes money. Against the recommendations of all my friends, I decided to purchase a pre-built ASUS gaming PC. I have always been intimidated by PCs so I never felt I was ready to build my own and was under the impression that ASUS was a very trusted brand.

So I got the ASUS ROG G20 series PC. Here's a link to the specific one I have.

http://

Specs:
Intel i7 - 4790 CPU 3.60GHz
8 GB RAM
GTX 760 GPU
Windows 10 (it came with 8.1)
64 bit
I don't what the motherboard is and am going to need help figuring it out


This has perhaps been the most regretted purchase I have ever made in my life :(

It all started out ok. I got all my Elder Scrolls games downloaded and set off to modding the crap out of them. Then the first issues began to arise. One day, I turned my computer on and it displayed a BSOD. I cannot for the life of me remember what the error code was but after doing a bit if searching I discovered that no one really knew what it specifically meant. The common theme seemed to be a conflict between GPU drivers and Windows 8.1. I contacted ASUS and ended up factory resetting the PC and reverting back to older drivers for my GPU. That seemed to fix it but I never trusted it again. Then I was given Witcher 3 by a friend and could never get it to run without crashing at launch which lowered my confidence in my machine even more. To further this regret I noticed trending bad reviews on the Amazon page that were not there when I first bought it. Some of which were due to the same issues I was having.

After this I got out of PC gaming for a while until WIndows 10 came out. I upgraded for free and had it install itself without backing anything up. Everything seemed fine at first... Then one day the PC rebooted during an update. When it turned back on, it came to the BIOS settings screen. I was pretty scared at this point. I just exited without saving and hoped for the best. It tried to run the update and could not finish it. This became an everlasting cycle of trying to update itself but not being able to. Then I tried to have Windows 10 reinstall itself through the built in settings. It wasn't a clean install but rather a system restore of sorts. I lost all my programs and it went through the installation process again. It worked fine at first... Then during an update the BIOS screen appeared again.

It still can't install updates and the BIOS screen still appears any time it get's rebooted.

Also, I can never play games. Any modern game will crash the entire PC after about an hour. I don't mean the game will crash, I mean the PC screen will blank out (sometimes the color brown?) a noise will happen, I will jump out of my chair with a start, the fans will blast at full RPM and the BIOS screen will appear again.

Another interesting detail is that occasionally, when I try to reboot it after having issues, it just won't turn on. The fans will spin and lights will come on but nothing on the screen. I just wait and keep trying until it works.

Now we get to the fun part.

What do?

Here is a cohesive list of every issue it has had that I can think of, prior and post Windows 10.

Windows 8.1

- BSOD unknown issue
- factory reset, fixed for a time

Windows 10

- Windows cannot install updates
- every time the computer reboots it runs the BIOS settings
- sometimes the computer refuses to boot up and only spins it's fans
- games with modern graphics crash the PC


I have a friend who is very good with computers and a networking student and we have both pulled our hair out talking about this. He's paranoid about Windows 10 and wants me to find a copy of 7 and I would agree with him if I thought my motherboard could support it. I don't think it does.

The theory is that WIndows 10 installed itself completely wrong and that is the source of all the issues.

I have been looking at external HDDs and am getting ready to purchase one to attempt to fix it.

The plan is to load the files onto the external and format the internal drives and do a clean install of Windows 10. The hope is that will fix it. The fear is that it won't and there is a lot more going on with the motherboard.

Here are my questions:

What do you make of all the issues I have listed? (please include detailed opinions)

Where should I start? (I need to know what I am up against here)

Am I on the right path to fixing it?

How do I perform a clean install of Windows 10?

How do I find detailed information on my specs and motherboard?

How can I perform tests on the motherboard?

How do I deal with BIOS?

What is the best way to check drivers?

What is the best way to keep drivers updated and not conflicting?

What should I do?

What should I do to keep this from happening again?



*launches flare into sky, radios in for backup...

*finds a comfortable rock to sit on. waits.

 
Solution
Check their web site and see if they have a new BIOS, if so - get it and install it. Also check the available drivers, look test and see if they have Win10 drivers, get those installed. Then check for Win10 updates