Question Boot problems

[mikejs78]

I'm at a bit of a loss on my current situation. Have a desktop that is a little less than a year old (self-built). Everything was working fine until yesterday when my system rebooted itself (my son was using it at the time) and got stuck in a bootloop. I get the Asus logo (I have an Asus motherboard) with "Preparing Automatic Repair", and then after a second or two, reboots.

The weird thing is that this also happens with the Windows USB Install media. (without the Preparing automatic repair) - Asus logo and then a reboot. Tried with two copies. However, I *can* get into non-Windows bootable disks, or a Windows PE disk with a couple of utilities on it. Used the Windows PE disk to try repairing the Mbr, using DSIM, etc, to no avail. (The disk still shows up, and files seem intact, which is good; chkdsk doesn't find any issues either...)

The weird thing to me is that the USB drive won't even boot the install media.

System specs are below:

CPU: AMD Ryzen 7 7700X 4.5 GHz 8-Core Processor
CPU Cooler: Thermalright Phantom Spirit 66.17 CFM CPU Cooler
Motherboard: Asus ROG STRIX X670E-F GAMING WIFI ATX AM5 Motherboard
Memory: G.Skill Trident Z5 Neo 32 GB (2 x 16 GB) DDR5-6000 CL30 Memory
Storage: Samsung 990 Pro w/Heatsink 1 TB M.2-2280 PCIe 4.0 X4 NVME Solid State Drive (System drive)
Storage: Samsung 990 Pro w/Heatsink 2 TB M.2-2280 PCIe 4.0 X4 NVME Solid State Drive (Apps drive)
Storage: Western Digital Blue 2 TB 3.5" 7200 RPM Internal Hard Drive (Data Drive)
Video Card: Sapphire NITRO+ Radeon RX 7900 XTX 24 GB Video Card
Case: be quiet! Pure Base 500DX ATX Mid Tower Case
Power Supply: be quiet! Dark Power 13 1000 W 80+ Titanium Certified Fully Modular ATX Power Supply
Case Fan: be quiet! Silent Wings Pro 4 97.41 CFM 140 mm Fan
Case Fan: be quiet! Silent Wings Pro 4 97.41 CFM 140 mm Fan
Case Fan: be quiet! Silent Wings Pro 4 97.41 CFM 140 mm Fan
O/S: Windows 11 Pro

Only Bios settings I've changed initially were to enable secure boot, enable EXPO, and disable integrated graphics. I reset the BIOS settings just to be safe and still see the same thing.

I'm at a loss on what to try.

 

[Ralston18]

Make and model USB drive?

Do you have another known working USB drive to try?

Are you able to swap in another known working USB cable (if applicable)?

Is the USB drive powered: 1) only by the host's USB port or 2) is the USB driven indpendently powered or 3) connected to an independently powered USB hub?

Desktop:

Power down, unplug, open the case.

Clean out dust and debris.

Verify by sight and feel that all connectors, cards, RAM, jumpers, and case connections are fully and firmly in place.

Use a bright flashlight to inspect for signs of damage.

 

[mikejs78]

It's a USB thumb drive - SanDisk Ultra USB 3.0 128GB. Interestingly the drive boots fine on my laptop. But interesting that:
* It's the same symptom as booting up from the system drive
* Another drive of the same type but with a slimmed down version of the OS (Windows PE for my backup software) boots fine.
* I tried another copy of the Windows install on another USB drive and same issue.

USB is powered only by the port.

I tried restoring the system drive with the last backup I had (which was early in the day that it died) and still can't boot up. I may try a slightly older backup...

Disabled in BIOS the following:
* Ethernet
* Wifi
* Bluetooth
* USB Audio
* SATA (which has a data drive HDD attached)

My next step is taking out things one at a time (graphics card and the two NVME drives, and each ram stick). Beyond that I can't think of anything other than the motherboard or CPU that is at issue....

 

[ubuysa]

The Windows installation media uses WindowsRE, which is a more modern version of WindowsPE. WindowsRE is the Windows Recovery Environment, it's WindowsPE (the Preinstall Environment) plus additional features to aid in recovery. That your system boots PE and not RE is a major curiosity.

• I assume the BIOS POSTS with no issues?
• Try a smaller USB drive, 128GB is way larger than you need for either PE or RE and that might be an issue. 8GB is plenty big enough for either PE or RE.
• I would ask your son for full details of what he was doing at the time. No blame attached but knowing exactly what he did might be helpful. Stuff rarely breaks out of the blue, there is generally a trigger.

 

[mikejs78]

Ok. More weirdness.

* It's not just Windows RE or my installed windows. I tried booting into Hiren's boot CD PE. That also failed. But my Backup software PE still works..
* It's not all versions of Linux. Earlier I was trying some barebones Linux Live CDs, along with utils like Memtest86 and Ultimate Boot CD. All of those worked. But tried Lubuntu and that failed.
* So this leads me to believe that when some driver is attempted, it fails. Not sure what though and how to proceed with this info.

To answer the other questions
* Yes BIOS POSTs fine. I see the Asus logo, can get into BIOS setup.
* Tried an 8gb USB drive, still failed
* My son was launching Madden 25 from Steam. He said he saw the splash screen, pressed the button to continue, and it just rebooted.

 

[onespeedbiker]

I'm thinking some sort of systemic failure; I would start out with getting the power supply tested.

 

[ubuysa]

I agree with the above, this is almost certainly a hardware problem and the PSU is as good a place to start as any.

• Disconnect all external devices, except mouse/keyboard/monitor. And try wired keyboard and wired mouse rather than wireless.
• Remove the RAM overclock (via DOCP/XMP) and run the RAM at native (SPD) speeds. Note too that the maximum guaranteed RAM speed that your CPU supports is 5200MHz.
• Remove RAM sticks and try on one stick at a time (check the motherboard manual to ensure that the one stick is in the correct slot - commonly A2).
• Unplug/remove all storage drives except the system drive.
• Remove the graphics card and plug in to the motherboard port using the iGPU in the CPU.

 

[mikejs78]

Latest updates:

• When testing yesterday I realized I never installed a speaker on the MB, so wasn't hearing the POST beep. Installed it and was getting the normal one beep and then immediate reboot at almost the same time.
• I disconnected SATA, graphics card, and the secondary NVME drive. Tested out RAM sticks separately with EXPO off - same issue. Cleared CMOS each time.
• Even disconnected the primary NVME drive to see if I could boot off of the Windows USB drive - still same issue.
• Twice when booting at a minimal configuration, I got a VGA post error (one long beep, 3 short). Rebooting cleared the error.
• After reinstalling stuff I completely disabled integrated graphics to see if that was the culprit given the VGA error.
• Next step is a PSU test - I don't have a tester that works with 3.0 PSUs, so that's arriving tomorrow from Amazon. I'm dreading removing all my cables .....
• If that's not it, I think it's down to the CPU or Motherboard. I don't OC or anything so no worries about warranty, but I'm not sure how to tell if it's one or the other without buying a new CPU or Motherboard....

 

[Sir Kenobi]

try removing the RAM sticks, then clean them and the RAM slots very well, I recommend you use a liquid electronics cleaner if you have one( the very cold spray liquid that dries really quickly), I had this exact same issue and after sending my pc to a repair store they fixed it that way, the issue occurred to me when I plugged an ethernet cable to my pc for the first time, RAM issues are so weird.

 

[mikejs78]

So it's a couple of weeks later, but I'm finally back with a working desktop. Figured I'd post my troubleshooting steps since my last update in case anyone runs into this in the future.

* Tried cleaning the RAM and DIMM slots - no go.
* Tried new RAM, no go.
* Tested PSU and everything checked out
* Finally replaced the Motherboard board last night. Same model, bought a new one, figured I could RMA the old one as I'm going to be replacing another system in the house in the next few months anyways. SAME ******* PROBLEM.
* Only thing left I could think of that was common was the CPU - so I overnighted a new CPU from Amazon and installed it this morning - and it booted into Windows.

This was a crazy one. I've dealt with numerous hardware/software issues over the years, but nothing as perplexing as this one. (Usually if it was hardware, it was the RAM, and I did have a motherboard go once... ). I wouldn't have suspected the CPU because I could boot into some things on USB but not others, and CPU stress tests ran fine.

My theory (without evidence at the moment, just a theory) is that something got messed up with TPM (yes, I did try resetting it). Just a theory, but not sure what else it could be.

Good news is I have my system back. I do have spare parts now (RAM, MBoard) that I'll probably keep around as spares / use for my other system rebuild...

Thanks for all your suggestions - is much appreciated.

 

[onespeedbiker]

Wow, CPU failure while not rare is unusual, unless it has been messed with; definitely sounded like a hardware failure. Glad you figured it out. I'm sure you did a happy dance when it finally booted. As mentioned you're now pretty close to an identical backup computer. 👍

 

[mikejs78]

Definitely did a happy dance. Just glad to have it back. Yeah, I've never had a CPU fail before - I got a bad one once but that one didn't even POST. And I'm not doing any kind of overclocking or anything, just running it stock, and have been for over a year - good thermals, my case has great airflow, etc... So random .. 🤷‍♂️