Custom Windows 10 PC stuck in Bluescreen loop.

[fludge87]

Hi, I have a custom built desktop PC, running Windows 10. Everything has been running well on it since I've built it. Only minor problems that have been easily fixed, up until about 3 days ago. I left my PC on for about 16 hours, came back, and it was stuck in a Bluescreen/reboot loop. Getting a new error code for almost every time it Bluescreened. Most common being "IRQL_NOT_LESS_OR_EQUAL," and "DRIVER_OVERRAN_STACK_BUFFER," along with the occasional "KMODE_EXCEPTION_NOT_HANDLED" and a few others. I've been over every square inch of the BIOS, trying everything I can to try a different boot, but to no avail. It gets stuck at the Splashscreen of Gigabyte (Because I have a Gigabyte Z170XP-SLI Motherboard), then either bluescreens immediately, or goes into "Windows Auto Repair", and then bluescreens about five seconds later. I don't have a spare Thumbdrive to create a boot disk, and so I will be purchasing one later if it is necessary. I can't boot into Safe-Mode, as I cannot get past the splash screen. My guess is that Windows 10 automatically installed a driver that crippled my whole computer, but I could be mistaken. I've found no solutions to this anywhere I've looked.
Any suggestions are appreciated. Thank you.

 

[fludge87]

sounds like your dimms. reseat them or take one out and swap them try them one at a time. also clear cmos. I got a lot of that crap if I misconfigured the bios while overclocking.

Thank you for the quick response. I tried your suggestion, (even switched the two sticks of ram in the slots 1 and 3), and to no avail yet again.

 

[fludge87]

well I got this problem mostly when my cpu was overclocked but undervolted. That would suggest something more towards power consumption issues & your psu.

I've had flaky power supplies go bang when tested which is kinda fun when all your servers are on the same rccb.

Hmm, it shouldn't be the PSU. It's a 500W EVGA Bronze, and I'm running a locked Intel CPU and a GTX 970 which wasn't under load when it happened. I've had no problems with the PSU in the past, either. Even when I was running AMD and the 970, everything was fine. I haven't overclocked anything except for the GPU (which was barely anything, +100 Core +155 Mem) which didn't trouble the PC at all. It just suddenly stopped working, for no apparent reason.

 

[fludge87]

did you unplug any peripheral devices? Test the hypothesis. Swap out the psu if you've got a spare. Unplug any additional hard disks, your dvd rom anything that isn't cpu motherboard vga mem.

Check your molex plugs

Sometimes these connectors are crud and the wires come out of the molexes

Check your fan connectors - same issue. A loose wire poking out somewhere could short on something causing a power drain maybe

swap out your sata cables

think of anything that you can't see or something unusual.

Get your motherboard manual and check every jumper is in the correct position

replace the cmos battery

Will do. I'll report back here when I've accomplished those things. Though, I don't think I have a spare PSU that will be adequate, but I'll do my best. Thanks!

 

[fludge87]

I can offer you an example of something that was working yesterday but is not today. My monitor began to flicker a couple of days ago if I turned the base to it's side or the pc tower to it's side. Today it started blinking on and off. I loaded a game and the textures looked wrong. Oh no thought I, it's the video card.

Thankfully it was not. It was just the dvi cable I'm using. I haven't moved up to HD yet. When they go 16k I will go 4k probably.

Lucky for me I had a spare dvi cable (and quite a few vga cables) in my box of spares.

I want to be buried with a spare PSU.

As it turns out I do have a spare power supply from about 5 or 6 years ago. I'm glad it was just your DVI. Lol, Video cards are EXPENSIVE to replace, especially if they don't have a warranty of any kind. Usually they do though.
Later today I will swap power supplies. I don't know if I hope it works with the spare, or if I hope it is still broken. If it works with this spare, then that means my PSU is shot and I'll have to get a new one. More money I don't have. But if it doesn't work with the spare, then that means I'm still in the ditch. With nothing but time wasted

 

[fludge87]

In Science, no experiment is ever wasted.

That's fair and true. Turns out, the old power supply didn't have all the right connectors and the PC wouldn't power on. I'm not seeing any abnormalities in the cables on my other PSU, though. Based on my research of the BSOD errors that I received, my best guess is still a driver. Do you think a Boot Disk and a driver rollback would be effective?

 

[fludge87]

Aaaahhhh great. Luckily, I should have some spares of each thing that I can temporarily steal from another computer or something. It shouldn't be the motherboard, should it? Because this motherboard and processor are only about 2 months old. GPU is only about 6 months old.

 

[fludge87]

I took out the GPU beforehand and tried to boot with integrated graphics, no improvement. I don't know if I'm going to be able to test a different CPU, but I'll do what I can.

 

[fludge87]

I have noto tried the CMOS reset or battery, yet. I don't have a spare battery for it, so I can't replace that right now. I will try to clear it, and use a Win10 repair when I get the chance. Do I need to have a specific battery for the CMOS or just a button battery of the right size?

 

[fludge87]

Right, okay. Sorry for all the dumb questions, but I've got to learn somehow! Thanks again. I'll report back after clearing CMOS and if I can replace the batter then that too.

 

[fludge87]

Them's good eatin'.

I've tested the HDD, Graphics card, and RAM. So far none of those are the issue. Reset the CMOS twice, once before and once after replacing the RAM. No good. Only things left are PSU, CPU, and MoBo. If it's the MoBo or CPU I'm going to be very disappointed. Every code I'm getting is a Driver/Memory issue, so I fully expected it to be the RAM. It shouldn't be drivers, since my PC wasn't hooked up to the internet when it died. I can't really "test" the motherboard or CPU since I don't have an extra one of either. I have a new PSU coming in, because I'm building my sister a new PC, so I'll test with that one.

 

[Plumboby]

ur not getting enough power to be honest ur psu not powerful enuf

 

[fludge87]

I ran every piece of my PC through a compatibility checker (PCPartPicker.com) before I ordered anything. My rig is Intel i5 6500, G.Skill RipJaws V 2400Mhz DDR4, Gigabyte Z170XP-SLI MoBo, EVGA GTX 970 ACX 2.0+, WD blue 1TB HDD, Kingston 120Gb SSD, EVGA 500B 500W PSU. 500W should be more than enough power for this system, and it has been for 2 months up until it started doing this. I have reset the CMOS battery, but not replaced it yet (I don't have a place to get one easily.) I'm not sure what the voltages should be, but they shouldn't have changed. I don't have a boot disk just yet, but I can make one soon. I can disable integrated graphics, if that would help. I am unsure if the settings stick or reset in the BIOS, I think they stick, but I'm not 100% positive. I can't run Memtest on my computer but I can swap the ram to my Brother's pc and run it there. There are configurable settings in the BIOS, and as far as I can tell, everything is fine and nothing has changed. It's possible that my PSU has dropped a few Watts, it's over a year old and only a $35 PSU. I don't expect too much from it. (However, I expect more than this.)

 

[fludge87]

I will tweak and fiddle with the voltages and timings when I get the chance. My brother's PSU I'd a 430W, powering a MiniATX board, so it won't work very well for my PC. I'll test it out, though. I'll make a boot disk and see if it works, but I highly doubt it because it didn't work with my brother's drive.

 

[fludge87]

I will disable the integrated graphics soon, I was out of the house but have just returned. I didn't make a boot disk, I tried my brother's SSD, with Windows 10 on it, and it didn't work. I will make a boot disk now that I am home, and I will set it to load from the disk and see if it works.

 

[fludge87]

Just as well because moving the ssd could've invalidated his windows 10 key. Don't do that again.

Of course windows wouldn't boot as this hardware problem remains unresolved. Using the 430w psu temporarily won't be any problem as long as it's working normally you won't be stressing the pc just trying to get windows to load on it's own or with an assisted repair from a boot disk.

And we are trying to determine by process of elimination which part is faulty in your pc.

OK?

So first, disable the integrated graphics

Then reboot

see if windows loads.

If not try the 430w psu. Does windows load?

If not try windows setup.


And don't make any independent decisions without checking here first ok? Don't decide to borrow you're bro's ssd on your own. don't touch it. dial 911 and ask for a pair of handcuffs?

His Windows will be fine, I've dealt with that before. I have been checking here frequently, and trying my own thoughts as well. It's a learning process for me. I get what we're trying to do, I'm the one who asked the question. I will try your suggestion, when I can. I doubt the police would provide handcuffs for something so trivial, but thank you for that suggestion.

 

[fludge87]

I will try the PSU and disabling integrated here in a bit, I'm not able to just yet, but I'll let you know how all that goes. I agree with you on the front of one of my core parts is malfunctioning, which is quite frustrating.

 

[Plumboby]

will be most likely psu mite be a dud motherboard could be random blobs of solder not letting the right signals & voltage u can get them quality control atm u wudnt trust as so many are made in a run try another motherboard even ram

 

[fludge87]

I've discovered that the problem is my CPU. Thank you for your efforts and suggestions.