Question Computer hangs after BIOS post screen. After multiple retries works fine, the next day the same problem repeats...

[Gourry]

Hi all,
I have been an user of this website for a very long time but it's the first time that I ask for help. I have more than 25 years experience building my own desktop PC, this is the only time in which I really have no idea of what could be the issue.

I assembled a new PC reusing some old components and new ones. The problem is that the PC hangs during the BIOS splash screen. Sometimes it happens after the beep, sometime before. There is a single beep, no error.
After multiple start/stop operations (sometimes 2 sometimes 10), than the PC boots normally.
The configuration of the PC follows:

New components:

• Mobo Gigabyte Z390 UD at first. After the issue, I replaced it with an older Gigabyte Z370P D3 . After a couple of weeks the same problems happened again
• Corsair Vengeance LPX 32GB DDR4-3200
• Crucial CT500P1SSD8 P1 500GB NVMe as primary - boot - storage
• Intel Core i5-9400F CPU

Reused components:

• Cooler Master Centurion 2 case (very old)
• OCZ 600MXSP ModXStream Pro PSU
• Bluray burner / Dvd burner: LiteON iHAS524B, LiteON iHBS112
• ASUS Dual-GTX1060-3G video card
• Crucial MX300 Internal CT1050MX300SSD1 as secondary storage
• Logitech G413 keyboard
• Logitech G603 Mouse

OS: Windows 10 Pro with retail license

Suspecting memory problems, I ram memtest over night. All the 3 passes completed without any erros.
Initially the mobo was a Gigabyte Z390 UD, I tried to tune up all the possible options, enabling and disabling XMP (no effect), removing the splash screen, changing obscure parameters, nothing. As soon as I tried a new setting the PC looked fine, but than failed the next day.
When failing the mobo showed the led on the BOOT position, but I saw that the hard drive was booting fine and didn't generate any problem so I ruled it out. I tried updating and downgrading bios to multiple revisions with no luck.

I asked for an RMA replacement of the mainboard, suspecting some incompatibility I choose an older model the Gigabyte Z370P D3 as replacement. Initially I was happy with the choice because the problem went away. The only new issue happening is that the new mainboard is not able to work with the XMP memory profile so I had to manually adjust memory timing so that it's 3000Mhz instead of 3200Mhz as XMP is expecting.
Unfortunately after 2 weeks the problem come back, exactly as before. The new mobo doesn't have leds indicating the process status, but the single beep tells me that again it is blocking before the command is passed to the OS.
Again I tried playing with the bios, using default settings or optimizing them and still the same issue is present. I tried downgrading the bios to a version without the latest intel microcode security fixes, but no luck there too.

What I cannot really understand is that, after the bios is over, the PC works perfectly fine. In more than a month I didn't have a single blue screen or any error in windows.

Does anybody have a suggestion on how to proceed?

Thanks a lot

 

[logainofhades]

I am going to suspect that power supply. It isn't a stellar model, and is quite old, as well.

 

[Gourry]

Thank you for the suggestion! I didn't think about it because it was running fine with my previous setup.
Is there any test I can make with my current setup to understand if the power supply is the issue? For example looking at voltage measurement.

 

[Dark Lord of Tech]

I AGREE , before you can troubleshoot further , you need a new reliable PSU.

 

[Gourry]

Thank you, I just bought and installed an EVGA SuperNOVA 650 G3 80+ Gold power adapter. I will keep you posted if the new PSU solves the issue.

 

[Dan Williams]

I would look for driver issues with the motherboard integrated chipset fighting with a plug in card. I had the worst time getting my most recent build stable. It would suddenly reboot for no reason. No windows error log just hardware reset. Told me it wasn't a windows problem. I went through all the memory diagnostics and driver reloads. Multiple windows installs. Eventually I figured out it was the on-board video driver conflicting with the Radeon video card. In bios I disabled the on-board video interface and the thing is now solid as a rock.

So basic advice is get into the bios and start turning off things like the on-board video or sound card to see if that gets you where you need to be. Good luck.

 

[Gourry]

Hello,
@logainofhades @Dark Lord of Tech thanks for your suggestion, unfortunately the new EVGA SuperNOVA 650 G3 80+ Gold PSU did not solve the issue... After a few weeks the problem appeared again. This is the same that happened after I replaced the mainboard: for a couple of weeks the system worked properly than started again to hang in the bios screen.
I am posting a picture of the bios screen where the PC hangs.

https://imgur.com/a/RtkRzXV

@Dan Williams thank you for your suggestion. As you see in the picture above the problem is presenting before windows is started so it should not be driver related. I tried, following your advice, to switch off the on-board sound card and other devices (for example something called "Super IO") without luck. There is no on-board video card in the system: Intel Core i5-9400F does not have one.

Do you have any other suggestion for me? I am losing hope...

Thank you a lot for all the help up to now!

 

[Gourry]

As an additional note, I tried removing all the USB devices and leaving only the monitor. Still the PC is stuck at the BIOS screen as in the screenshot. Than after 20 retries it boots. The problem does not present again the same day, but could present after it is powered off for some hours.