[SOLVED] Built A New Gaming Rig, Occasional Boot Issue

Sep 14, 2019
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Hey everyone,

I never post in forums, however, I just built a new gaming rig for myself about a month ago. And I am experiencing a new issue that I have never seen before. My new rig will boot up about 4 times in a row perfectly fine. However sometimes, out of the blue. When I go to start my computer. The computer will turn on like normal however the screen will not post. No bios or windows logo will appear, the screen will stay black. However, the Motherboard, ram, fans, GPU, everything turn on just fine. I assumed this was a Bios issue and updated it to the latest version as well as updated my GPU to the latest driver. These have not solved the issue. Any ideas? I have my rig specs listed below. Just a note, the last 3 boots have been successful. The 4th boot did not work and the 5th boot was successful.

My Gaming Rig -
Case - Fractal Meshify S2
MotherBoard - MSI - MPG Z390 Gaming Pro Carbon
GPU - EVGA SuperClocked GTX 1060 6GB
CPU - Intel Core i7-9700k CPU
Memory - 16 GB DDR4 @ 3200Mhz
Storage - 2X 250GB SSD / 2TB HDD
Power Supply - Cooler Master 800W Gold
OS - Microsoft Windows 10 Pro
 
Solution
You might have bought it in 2012 but that unit was most probably made in 2010. That means at best it's a 7 year old power supply and at worst it's likely 9 years old. That's WAY to old to still be using considering the expected lifespans of power supplies from that era AND considering the fact that your unit used Taiwanese capacitors on the modular board inside. I would not even question this, I would replace it. Whether or not it is the issue is anybody's guess, but given it's age, it's a distinct and highly likely probability.

I'd replace the PSU and I would then remove and reinstall the graphics card, and do a hard reset of the CMOS before you make the attempt to restart after replacing the PSU to reset the hardware tables...
Which slots are your memory modules installed in?

Is the XMP profile enabled? Have you enabled or used the Memory try it! option at any point?

Is the XMP LED lit up on the motherboard when it fails to POST or even when it does POST?

Is MSI fast boot enabled? If so, disable it. You can enable regular Fast boot if you wish, but be aware that on some systems with an SSD, especially if it's an NVME M.2 drive, the system may boot so fast you cannot get into the BIOS and have to reset the BIOS to do so. Just FYI.

In your boot order, do you have a specific drive assigned or is the Windows boot manager assigned as the boot device?

In the OC section of your BIOS, find the Memory fast boot setting. Make sure it is set to Enabled. Save settings, exit BIOS. See if it happens again.
 
Sep 14, 2019
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Which slots are your memory modules installed in?

Is the XMP profile enabled? Have you enabled or used the Memory try it! option at any point?

Is the XMP LED lit up on the motherboard when it fails to POST or even when it does POST?

Is MSI fast boot enabled? If so, disable it. You can enable regular Fast boot if you wish, but be aware that on some systems with an SSD, especially if it's an NVME M.2 drive, the system may boot so fast you cannot get into the BIOS and have to reset the BIOS to do so. Just FYI.

In your boot order, do you have a specific drive assigned or is the Windows boot manager assigned as the boot device?

In the OC section of your BIOS, find the Memory fast boot setting. Make sure it is set to Enabled. Save settings, exit BIOS. See if it happens again.
XMP is not enabled. MSI fast boot is disabled. My boot order is correct. My ram is in slots B2 and A2 as requested via Mobo manual. I tried a few more reboots. 1 of the 3 reboots did not work. On the failed boot, a white LED next to the ram lit up and stayed lit. Thank you for your assistance. LED indicator says its the GPU.
 
Last edited:
Sep 14, 2019
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Quick update,

So after seeing that the LED Debug indicator showed an issue with my GPU. I completely disconnected the GPU, reseated the GPU and plugged it back in. I tested the GPU reseat with about 7 boot ups. Each boot worked fine until about the 6th one. The 6th boot everything seemed to work fine however once I got passed the Bios and windows tried to open, the display went black again, however, the GPU debug light was off at the time. Pretty sure it is a GPU issue. Not 100 percent sure though. When booting the pc the GPU debug light will turn on for a few seconds. Then shut off and usually boot fine. The issue is still not solved, may try to get my hands on another GPU to test.
 
Since this happens AFTER the POST process, it's likely a driver issue now. Try doing a clean install of the Nvidia drivers as outlined here:



Please ignore the lack of images. Tinypic has shut down it's free image hosting and I haven't had to time to fix the images in my tutorials yet. Sorry for that.
 
Try booting in safe mode(f8) with minimal drivers.

Connect your monitor to the integrated motherboard adapter.
Remove the graphics card and see how you do.

You might check the EVGA support forums.
There might be a firmware update for your card that addresses your issue.

Lastly, there could be a psu issue.
Coolermaster seems to have iffy quality.
 
Yes, Cooler master does have very iffy quality on MANY of their power supplies. They have a few good ones over the years, but the vast majority of them are better used as doorstops.

Knowing the exact model could put that question to rest. Knowing it's age would be helpful too.

Safe mode is a good idea because it will likely tell us without a lot of doubt whether it's a driver issue or not.
 
Sep 14, 2019
7
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Yes, Cooler master does have very iffy quality on MANY of their power supplies. They have a few good ones over the years, but the vast majority of them are better used as doorstops.

Knowing the exact model could put that question to rest. Knowing it's age would be helpful too.

Safe mode is a good idea because it will likely tell us without a lot of doubt whether it's a driver issue or not.
The power supply is the Cooler Master Silent Pro Gold 800W. I did purchase this guy back in 2012 and used this same PSU in my last rig. I ended up browsing through some forums and found a few others with my exact issue to the T. I have a ticket with EVGA who is my GPU Manufacture and will consult with them as to if they wanna exchange the card or if they feel it is my PSU. Either way, my GPU is still under warranty and I can afford to replace my PSU so its nothing to cry over. Even if the PSU is bad I still got at least 7 years out of it. Did 7 more boots today. Not a single one of them failed. An interesting issue to say the least. Thanks for the input guys I appreciate it! I'll post an update once I get this resolved.
 
You might have bought it in 2012 but that unit was most probably made in 2010. That means at best it's a 7 year old power supply and at worst it's likely 9 years old. That's WAY to old to still be using considering the expected lifespans of power supplies from that era AND considering the fact that your unit used Taiwanese capacitors on the modular board inside. I would not even question this, I would replace it. Whether or not it is the issue is anybody's guess, but given it's age, it's a distinct and highly likely probability.

I'd replace the PSU and I would then remove and reinstall the graphics card, and do a hard reset of the CMOS before you make the attempt to restart after replacing the PSU to reset the hardware tables.


BIOS hard reset procedure


Power off the unit, switch the PSU off and unplug the PSU cord from either the wall or the power supply.

Remove the motherboard CMOS battery for five minutes. In some cases it may be necessary to remove the graphics card to access the CMOS battery.

During that five minutes, press the power button on the case for 30 seconds. After the five minutes is up, reinstall the CMOS battery making sure to insert it with the correct side up just as it came out.

If you had to remove the graphics card you can now reinstall it, but remember to reconnect your power cables if there were any attached to it as well as your display cable.

Now, plug the power supply cable back in, switch the PSU back on and power up the system. It should display the POST screen and the options to enter CMOS/BIOS setup. Enter the bios setup program and reconfigure the boot settings for either the Windows boot manager or for legacy systems, the drive your OS is installed on if necessary.

Save settings and exit. If the system will POST and boot then you can move forward from there including going back into the bios and configuring any other custom settings you may need to configure such as Memory XMP profile settings, custom fan profile settings or other specific settings you may have previously had configured that were wiped out by resetting the CMOS.

In some cases it may be necessary when you go into the BIOS after a reset, to load the Optimal default or Default values and then save settings, to actually get the hardware tables to reset in the boot manager.
 
Solution