PC Post's OK but black screen after BIOS

[Mike.c]

Need some help with this one and sorry for the wall of text!

System specs:

i7 2600k
Asus P8Z68-V
Corsair HX 620w
Nvidia 1GB EVGA 560Ti
8GB Corsair Vengence Ram
120 GB Samsung 830 SSD
WD Raptor 32GB
Maxtor 320GB
DVD Writer


Was on the machine this morning and every minute or so the system would freeze for a few seconds (mouse would lock up and wouldn't respond to any key inputs), but then come back to normal.

At the time I assumed it might just need a reboot, so left it downloading a file and planned to reboot it after. I come back a few hours later and download has finished without issue, so rebooted. It took a little longer than normal to get back into Windows and the freezing still continued, so was a little stumped. Left the machine again for 30 minutes and come back to have a look at the system logs. The monitor had switched off at this point so move the mouse to get the screen back but it then proceeds to restart (no BSoD).

I get back into windows and there is a Blue screen event warning at the desktop and can see in the reliability history there was an issue with the GFX card. I had installed some nvidia beta drivers recently so immediately rolled these back to the latest certified version. During the install the screen res changed as normal but at this point the GFX card seemed to turn into a jet and was pushing the fan so hard I could hear the bearings rattle. Shut the PC straight down and gave it a few minutes.

Restarted and got into windows again without any issues. Re-ran the driver install and it completes successfully. Restart and everything's back to normal, no freezing and my GFX card isn't trying to take off.

Fast forward to this afternoon and I'm on the machine trying to get it cleaned up - was a little worried after the fun in the morning - when it starts to freeze again. This time, however, after a couple of freezes it doesn't come back and is stuck there. Have to force the machine to shutdown and although it seems to boot ok, I just get a black screen after the BIOS.

Normally, after the BIOS screen, I get a black screen with a white cursor (_ symbol) and a few seconds later it goes to the Windows Welcome screen. I still get this but once this disappears all I get is a black screen. After numerous attempts I've only been able to get into Windows once.

What I've tried so far:

1. Given the initial errors related to the GFX card I took this out and used the one inbuilt to the CPU/MOBO. No dice still getting stuck at the same screen.

2. Removed one stick of RAM and used the slot furthest from the CPU. Same result.

3. Reset BIOS - Same.

4. Removed all none essentials so I'm left with the main HDD (SSD), one stick of RAM, CPU, MOBO and PSU. No difference.

I'm stuck with what to try next.

Leaning towards a possible faulty PSU as its strange I was getting the issues with the GFX card and wonder if it could have been struggling to draw enough power. Does anyone have any ideas or other suggestions?

Unfortunately I don't have any spares I can swap out to test each component.

Any helps greatly appreciated!

[chuckskull]

Weird one. First blush, the consistency of the failures along with the earlier intermittent freezing would make me think hard drive. Possibly corrupted OS with the GFX being symptomatic rather than causal. See if you can get into safe mode. Before anything drastic try the other stick of RAM and in a different slot. Replace the SATA cable/use different port. Check temps via BIOS. Try going through the windows repair procedure using the windows disc.

If you can get it into windows again try checking what the BSOD's relate too; http://www.nirsoft.net/utils/blue_screen_view.html

Slightly more drastic; I'm assuming the 32GB drive is a scratch drive of some kind, assuming it is and contains nothing important try installing windows on it or failing that a Live CD.

[Bonebreaker777]

Try with Live Operating Systems, like Windows PE or Linux.

[Mike.c]

Thanks for the suggestions.

I've now been able to get into Windows consistently and have ran some tests on the SSD drive in Seagate Tools (for Windows), all of which passed ok. Also ran Windows recovery first thing and this came back with no errors (passed boot successfully).

Have been in and out a number of times and it all seems ok, but this is using CPU's inbuilt GPU. Tried plugging the GFX card back in and as soon as you power the machine on the GPU fan is going full pelt. The PCi-e power
connectors are plugged in and I've also tried the card on the second PCi-e slot, with the same result.

There is no display when using the GFX card - it's as if the card is not being detected - and although I can't see, I think it is booting into Windows i.e. if I press the power button the machine appears to complete a clean shutdown.

Not sure if its duff PSU, GFX card, Motherboard or a combination of all three!

[mikeo01]

Plug your speakers in turn them up, best way to know if you've actually booted into Windows good indication is numlock on your keyboard, the light won't go off/on.

If your GPU goes into full spin that usually indicates it's not getting enough power, or, well faulty.

Have you got the spare 4-pin molex adapters for the GPU?

[chuckskull]

Any idea what changed to let you get into windows consistently? That'll help narrow it down. Is it stable now without the 560 or just better than it was?

With the fan spinning up to max it makes me think you're right with the not being detected thing. Most cards will run at max when you boot then be slowed down by the driver. Do you get output from the onboard with the card plugged in? If so see if it's listed in the device manager.

It's possibly a driver screw up of some kind, try removing the current drivers completely(I'm not sure it's entirely necessary, but a lot of people recommend doing this in safe mode, it can't hurt), reboot, then windows should use it's basic VGA drivers, if you get no image using those I'd be leaning more toward dead card at that point. Also worth double checking your BIOS, since you reset it, it might be set to use the onboard by default, I've had a BIOS do dumber things.

Do you have another rig you can slap the card in to test it, maybe a friends or something? Anything with a PCI-e slot will do. That'll answer a lot of questions.

PSU is still a maybe, stress testing would probably be the best way to check that without a multimeter or spare. It's not perfect because it might be one dodgy rail/connector or something but in terms of power draw a loaded CPU should be higher than idle CPU and GPU together.

[Mike.c]

Thanks again for the help.

Simple but effective tip Mike, the machine is getting into Windows even when there isn't an output on the display (can hear the Win7 loading sound). I haven't got any spare 4 pins (the GFX card takes two) but have swapped these around.

Not sure what's changed to make it load Windows successfully. All I did this morning was run startup repair via the Win7 disk and this didn't come back with any faults. It does seem stable without the 560 - Leaving it running at the moment and will keep testing the machine.

Took your suggestion Chuck and uninstalled the drivers in safe mode. Restarted and made sure the GFX card was set to the main display adapter (was on auto originally). While the fan didn't spin at full pelt at this point, I still didn't get an output. Shut the machine down and powered back up again. This time the GPU fan did spin at full speed again - nothing had changed so no idea what's happening there.

I did run Prime95 for about 10 minutes while using the PC without the 560 and didn't get any crashes or lockups. Temps were getting up there though, but this is on a stock HSF.

I moved down to Norfolk recently, so don't know anyone I can test the card with. Think that is going to have to be the next step though. Checking with a friend of a friend to see if I can test the parts with them (they run a PC servicing business). If not, will see if there's any local shops I can take the machine into.

Without testing, it is looking like the GFX card is at fault, although what was stopping me from getting to the desktop without the 560 in initially I don't know (this was one of the things I tried first).

[chuckskull]

At this point testing with your friends seems like the best bet. Can't think of anything else that would pin it down conclusively. Last thing I can think of on the 560 front is using a different output and cable to hook up the monitor, but it's a long shot.

Another long shot, is your PSU fan working? Cooling down over night could be an explanation for it being better this morning.

If the 560 was causal I can't help think it would have worked again the second you pulled it and it wouldn't have shown the POST screen. That's what's confusing me. The fact it started booting again after windows repair even though it detected no faults makes me think SSD again, but that in turn could be caused by a mobo or PSU on the fritz and we still can't rule out some kind of serious driver screw up, it happens. Which is a long winded way of saying I'm at a loss. Sorry mate. Intermittent bugs like this are the worst, at least a consistent failure is something to work with, I feel your pain. Hope you sort out somewhere to test.

[Mike.c]

Thanks for all the input on this one.

Managed to get the components tested and it was the PSU at fault. Basically, it was starting to fail and wasn't supplying enough power for the GPU. To be fair, it was just over 5 years old, so it had a fair run and I was lucky it didn't take everything with it!

Now have a Corsair RM 850 and Asus 770 to get me over it

TL;DR
If you ever experience short random freezes in Windows, leading to no output at boot and GPU fan at 100% - check the PSU.