[SOLVED] Can’t boot Windows, can’t reinstall Windows. PC is now USELESS. Help!

[RandomHero1047]

So me and my 5-year-old son were playing a game on my PC when it froze up. I went to restart it and it turned off, then immediately went into a bootloop for some reason. It would load to the black screen with the Windows logo and the spinning dots. I read on some forums that you needed it to go to Automatic Repair, so I powered it down three times until it said “preparing Automatic Repair” but it would flash a window for a millisecond then go to a black screen with a moveable mouse cursor. I did this probably about 10 times from both unplugging the power cable and toggling the power switch to no success (no joking, it was really that many times)

So I accepted my loss and decided that I’d just reinstall Windows from a flash drive (which is how I installed it when I built the machine) and just sacrifice everything to have a functional machine. I downloaded the Media Creation Tool and proceeded to boot it from my BIOS and now it’s stuck on a purple screen with a moveable cursor. I’ve tried it from both just the “normal” flash drive and the UFEA partition and both end up in the same place which is the purple screen. So if I try to load it from my SSD I get the black screen, and if I load it from the flash drive I get the purple one.

Now I have essentially an expensive brick in my office that I can’t load anything on nor can I wipe the system clean. Did my SSD fail? Why can’t I reinstall Windows? Why did House Flipper brick my $2,000 PC? I’ve spent over 6 hours trying to fix this and I’m just about ready to throw the whole machine out the window. Does anyone have any ideas?

I’m attempting to run Windows 10 Pro 64 bit and my system specs are here: https://pcpartpicker.com/list/HYpWb8

Thanks for the help!

 

[Ralston18]

No beep codes or diagnostic LED's?

Will the PC boot into Safe Mode?

How old is the computer? Any recent updates or maintenance? Have you tried a new CMOS battery?

Power down, unplug, open the case.

Clean out dust and debris.

Reseat all cards, connectors, RAM, and jumpers to ensure that all are fully and firmly in place.

 

[RandomHero1047]

No beep codes or diagnostic LED's?
- Nope. It posts and turns on all of my RGB fans. I can get into BIOS though but nothing past that really works.

Will the PC boot into Safe Mode?
- No it will not. It flashes for a millisecond then goes immediately to either the purple screen (Flash Drive) or the Black one (SSD)

How old is the computer? Any recent updates or maintenance? Have you tried a new CMOS battery?
- Computer is a little over a year old. I built it myself and have had zero problems prior to this. I was playing House Flipper at the time it froze while downloading another game off of Steam. As far as updates/maintenance, no - just the Steam games. I have not tried a new CMOS battery, but am assuming that's not it since it's not an old machine.

Power down, unplug, open the case.
Clean out dust and debris.
Reseat all cards, connectors, RAM, and jumpers to ensure that all are fully and firmly in place.
- I did all of those and I'm back at the same place I was before with the same outcomes.

For the record, I've done the following things:

• Unplugged the machine three times to try and get "Automatic Repair" to happen. It says it is preparing "Automatic Repair" and then flashes for a second followed by a black screen with a moveable mouse cursor.
• Done the same thing with both the PSU power toggle and my case's power switch - same outcome.
• Downloaded a Windows ISO on my Macbook Pro to a SanDisk Flash Drive (16 GB). I used both Boot Camp Assistant and just a simple drag and drop. Went into MoBo BIOS and booted directly from Flash Drive. Both times game me the same result - Black Screen with moveable mouse cursor.
• Downloaded Windows Media Creation Tool on a Surface directly to same SanDisk Flash Drive. Booted directly from BIOS and ran both the UFEA partition and the non-UFEA one. Both resulted in the same "new" result - now it does a purple screen (like the Windows 10 Install background) with the same moveable cursor but does not give me the window to actually install Windows 10.
• I did the same things, but without my SSD plugged in (attempting to install Windows on my HDD) - this didn't work and generated a never-ending Black Windows circle loading screen (I left it on overnight).
• So at this point, I'm able to either load into a black screen if I use my SSD or a purple screen if I use the Flash Drive. I also tried unplugging and plugging in my two drives, my RAM, and my PSU and I'm at the same point that I was before.

 

[Ralston18]

Do you have access to another PSU that could be installed for testing?

Just a basic hardware configuration with only the boot drive connected.

Objective being able to achieve at least a boot up.

 

[RandomHero1047]

Do you have access to another PSU that could be installed for testing?

Just a basic hardware configuration with only the boot drive connected.

Objective being able to achieve at least a boot up.

Dumb question: if my computer can get to BIOS, turn on my RGB fans, get to my monitor, etc. the PSU probably works fine, right? Could it be a bad SATA cable?

I can get it past BIOS, but nothing that I can actually do once I get to either that Windows Screen (SSD) or the blank Purple one (Flash Drive).

 

[madmatt30]

Disconnect the hard drive and just leave the ssd plugged in.
Maybe trying to install boot sectors on the hard drive and that's far more likely to have failed than the ssd.

 

[Ralston18]

Will second @madmatt30's suggestion.

And that would also be a good time to try a known working SATA cable (data and power).

As for the power supply, it provides 3 different voltages to different components.

So some components may be getting the correct voltages while other components either get out-of-spec or no voltage at all.

Here is a link to provide more information:

https://www.lifewire.com/how-to-manually-test-a-power-supply-with-a-multimeter-2626158

Not that you need to immediately test the computer's PSU per se.

Just start by reading the two links provided in the first sentence.

 

[RandomHero1047]

Disconnect the hard drive and just leave the ssd plugged in.
Maybe trying to install boot sectors on the hard drive and that's far more likely to have failed than the ssd.

Wow, that totally did it! I disconnected my HDD and it installed just like it should. I guess now I need to get a new large HDD. I’m assuming the one I have now that just crapped out is junk, right?

 

[madmatt30]

Wow, that totally did it! I disconnected my HDD and it installed just like it should. I guess now I need to get a new large HDD. I’m assuming the one I have now that just crapped out is junk, right?

Possibly reformat then do a full disk scan on it.

It may be able to move damaged sectors and be useable.

Its just whether you'd trust it with anything even slightly important from here onwards.

Seagate barracudas imo have the worst failure rates of any platter drive out there.

I only buy Toshiba drives now personally.