- Jun 4, 2023
- 4
- 2
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Hi Everyone -
I have a peculiar issue that I haven't found a solution for after searching for a few days and troubleshooting through various means.
I built my PC a bit over a month ago and everything was fine, but I believe I may've downloaded a malicious file(s). I say this because a day after I downloaded the files, my PC would no longer shutdown via Windows. When I clicked ''Shut down", "Sleep", or even "Restart", the machine would attempt the shut down cycle and immediately go back to the lock screen. It would not shut down or power off at all.
I also want to note that after I downloaded the file(s), I received a PIN error - “Something Happened and Your Pin Isn’t Available” - and I'd never received that error on any of my PC's in the past.
Back to the power off issue - because the system could not power off via conventional means, I forced the power off by holding the power button. I didn't need to use the PC for a few days, so when I came back to use it I expected normal operation. This is when I discovered something was severely wrong.
The system no longer booted into Windows as it'd always done by default after my Windows install when I first built the PC (Windows 11). It now prompted me to boot back into ASUS UEFI BIOS Utility. At the time I'm thinking this is odd but not a problem, I'll just boot into my Windows drive (2TB SSD) from here. When I selected to boot into the drive, the CPU attempts to load but then powers off.
The strange thing is when I hit the power button after it autonomously shut down, it did not respond; however, it powered on by itself a few seconds later only to shut down again after a few seconds (my monitors didn't even detect it was on). It then ran another 5 second power cycle before shutting down for good. At this point, the PC is completely unresponsive to the power button no matter how many times I press it. To illustrate this weird cycle more clearly: It turns off to restart, restarts after about 10 seconds and the monitors don't detect it, it turns off autonomously again, turns on after about 30 seconds, and immediately turns off after attempting to startup for about 5 seconds, thus ending the cycle.
To remedy this, I turn the PSU off and disconnect the power from the PSU for 15-30 minuntes before plugging it back in. After plugging it back in, once I press the power button, sometimes it powers on immediately but sometimes there's a delay of about 10 minutes max.
To diagnose this, I went into the case and ensured all the components were still fully and properly mounted, including the GPU, RAM, motherboard, SSD, and PSU. Once I ensured the hardware and physical connections were good and there were no engorged capacitors, etc. but the problem persisted, I suspected malware. Once I was back in the ASUS UEFI BIOS Utliity, I booted into my external HDD that has the Windows installation media.
Once in the Windows installation HDD, I went to the 'Repair your computer' feature to run through more diagnoses. The first thing I ran was the 'Startup Repair' to no avail; the system detected no errors. From there, I attempted the 'System Restore' feature and restored my PC back to when I first built it. When attempting to restart after this, it did the thing where it'd cycle on & off two times before not powering on at all. I waited per the usual and booted back into ASUS UEFI BIOS Utility to boot back into the recovery external HDD.
Next was to run the command prompt to check the drives, my SSD (C) and my HDD (D). Note that the file(s) I believe are malicious were saved onto the D: drive. I ran bootrec /fixmbr with no issues. I then attempted to run bootrec /fixboot but myaccess was denied. Following this, I tried to run bootrec /rebuildbcd and my access was denied again. Finally I ran /chkdsk on both drives (this took upwards of 9 hours total) with no errors found.
From here, I figured I may as well just wipe everything and try a fresh install of Windows. This is where things got confusing, as I was sure it must've been some sort of malware or other software issue.
From the Windows Recovery Environment on the external HDD, I chose custom install and deleted all the detected drives, essentially wiping the system. Both my SSD & HDD should be clear at this point, right? So I reinstalled Windows 11 onto the SSD, but when the PC went to restart, I ran into the same issue! When it tries to boot the new Windows installation (Starting services > Getting ready > etc.), it just shuts down. It then turns on after about 10 seconds and the monitors don't detect it, it turns off autonomously again, turns on after abuot 30 seconds, and immediately turns off after attempting to startup for about 5 seconds, thus ending the cycle.
Essentially, it seems like my PC is unable to boot into Windows even after a fresh wipe & install. This was never a problem before, and I seriously doubt it's a hardware issue because it runs fine in the ASUS UEFI BIOS Utility and in the Windows Recovery Environment.
Please let me know if you all have experienced something like this before and what you discovered to resolve the situation. I wanted to check here before taking the system to a certified PC repair shop.
Motherboard: ASUS PrimeZ790-P WiFi LGA 1700 ATX
Processor:13th Gen Intel Core i7-13700KF
SSD (Boot Drive): Samsung SSD 980 Pro 2TB
HDD: WD_Black 8TB Gaming HDD WD8002FZWX
GPU: XFX Speedster MERC310 AMD Radeon RX 7900XTX
RAM: G-Skill Trident Z5 RGB Series (Intel XMP) 32GB (2x 16GB)
PSU: SilverStone Technology 850W 80 Plus Gold
I have a peculiar issue that I haven't found a solution for after searching for a few days and troubleshooting through various means.
I built my PC a bit over a month ago and everything was fine, but I believe I may've downloaded a malicious file(s). I say this because a day after I downloaded the files, my PC would no longer shutdown via Windows. When I clicked ''Shut down", "Sleep", or even "Restart", the machine would attempt the shut down cycle and immediately go back to the lock screen. It would not shut down or power off at all.
I also want to note that after I downloaded the file(s), I received a PIN error - “Something Happened and Your Pin Isn’t Available” - and I'd never received that error on any of my PC's in the past.
Back to the power off issue - because the system could not power off via conventional means, I forced the power off by holding the power button. I didn't need to use the PC for a few days, so when I came back to use it I expected normal operation. This is when I discovered something was severely wrong.
The system no longer booted into Windows as it'd always done by default after my Windows install when I first built the PC (Windows 11). It now prompted me to boot back into ASUS UEFI BIOS Utility. At the time I'm thinking this is odd but not a problem, I'll just boot into my Windows drive (2TB SSD) from here. When I selected to boot into the drive, the CPU attempts to load but then powers off.
The strange thing is when I hit the power button after it autonomously shut down, it did not respond; however, it powered on by itself a few seconds later only to shut down again after a few seconds (my monitors didn't even detect it was on). It then ran another 5 second power cycle before shutting down for good. At this point, the PC is completely unresponsive to the power button no matter how many times I press it. To illustrate this weird cycle more clearly: It turns off to restart, restarts after about 10 seconds and the monitors don't detect it, it turns off autonomously again, turns on after about 30 seconds, and immediately turns off after attempting to startup for about 5 seconds, thus ending the cycle.
To remedy this, I turn the PSU off and disconnect the power from the PSU for 15-30 minuntes before plugging it back in. After plugging it back in, once I press the power button, sometimes it powers on immediately but sometimes there's a delay of about 10 minutes max.
To diagnose this, I went into the case and ensured all the components were still fully and properly mounted, including the GPU, RAM, motherboard, SSD, and PSU. Once I ensured the hardware and physical connections were good and there were no engorged capacitors, etc. but the problem persisted, I suspected malware. Once I was back in the ASUS UEFI BIOS Utliity, I booted into my external HDD that has the Windows installation media.
Once in the Windows installation HDD, I went to the 'Repair your computer' feature to run through more diagnoses. The first thing I ran was the 'Startup Repair' to no avail; the system detected no errors. From there, I attempted the 'System Restore' feature and restored my PC back to when I first built it. When attempting to restart after this, it did the thing where it'd cycle on & off two times before not powering on at all. I waited per the usual and booted back into ASUS UEFI BIOS Utility to boot back into the recovery external HDD.
Next was to run the command prompt to check the drives, my SSD (C) and my HDD (D). Note that the file(s) I believe are malicious were saved onto the D: drive. I ran bootrec /fixmbr with no issues. I then attempted to run bootrec /fixboot but myaccess was denied. Following this, I tried to run bootrec /rebuildbcd and my access was denied again. Finally I ran /chkdsk on both drives (this took upwards of 9 hours total) with no errors found.
From here, I figured I may as well just wipe everything and try a fresh install of Windows. This is where things got confusing, as I was sure it must've been some sort of malware or other software issue.
From the Windows Recovery Environment on the external HDD, I chose custom install and deleted all the detected drives, essentially wiping the system. Both my SSD & HDD should be clear at this point, right? So I reinstalled Windows 11 onto the SSD, but when the PC went to restart, I ran into the same issue! When it tries to boot the new Windows installation (Starting services > Getting ready > etc.), it just shuts down. It then turns on after about 10 seconds and the monitors don't detect it, it turns off autonomously again, turns on after abuot 30 seconds, and immediately turns off after attempting to startup for about 5 seconds, thus ending the cycle.
Essentially, it seems like my PC is unable to boot into Windows even after a fresh wipe & install. This was never a problem before, and I seriously doubt it's a hardware issue because it runs fine in the ASUS UEFI BIOS Utility and in the Windows Recovery Environment.
Please let me know if you all have experienced something like this before and what you discovered to resolve the situation. I wanted to check here before taking the system to a certified PC repair shop.
Motherboard: ASUS PrimeZ790-P WiFi LGA 1700 ATX
Processor:13th Gen Intel Core i7-13700KF
SSD (Boot Drive): Samsung SSD 980 Pro 2TB
HDD: WD_Black 8TB Gaming HDD WD8002FZWX
GPU: XFX Speedster MERC310 AMD Radeon RX 7900XTX
RAM: G-Skill Trident Z5 RGB Series (Intel XMP) 32GB (2x 16GB)
PSU: SilverStone Technology 850W 80 Plus Gold
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