[SOLVED] During boot I get a flashing cursor in top left, nothing or it boots fine (New Build) I'm going crazy!!

[Evil Cotgrevil]

Thanks ahead of time for any help. I crazy frustrated with this. It' s a new build and the issues started from the beginning.

Most of the time this is what happens:

• powers up for a second and then back off (enough to spin the fans momentarily)
• powers up and then goes to a flashing cursor in the top left of screen and stays there
• sometimes the screen goes blank... still on, but no pic (in progress after blinking cursor)
• sometimes no power goes to screen or keyboard

-the computer boots correctly on the 4th try or so
-When I had to reinstall the OS it took.... no joke 20 min or more to move from flashing cursor to win logo. I took a nap 30 min after the win logo appeared. An hour later it had finally made it to the next screen


Additional info:
-No post beep so I removed the GPU and still no beep indicating there was an error... I thought there might be a POST issue but I just read that on when fast boot is enabled there isn't a beep.... is that right?

• I read that the momentary start can be a PS issue... still could be but I bought this one new to power a friends work PC and it worked great for 3 months
• I have unplugged everything and plugged it back in

-I thought there might be a problem with one of the HD's being the old boot drive so I unplugged it... there was no change... when I plugged it back in it wasn't recognized, so I unplugged the general storage drive too and the computer would recognize no drives at all! I had to completely reinstall Windows... then all drives were recognized again. (Boot Drive is an M.2)

• I have 3 spots for M.2 drives. The first only works if you have an 11th gen CPU. Mine is in the 3rd spot... should it be in the 2nd? I've seen that issue with SATA drives and RAM wanting to be placed 1 then 2 then 3
• Storage hard drives are plugged into the first and second SATA sockets with OS and programs all on the M.2
• I have the normal ATX 24 or 28 power pin plugged in, but the second one in the top left of the board has the first 8 plugged in but there are 4 more that are open... My power supply didn't have any connections left. It was similar on my old ASUS board but it ran perfectly for 14 years

-All stress tests etc have passed with flying colors. Gaming is a breeze with only the GPU getting warm (127-133f)

Specs
Motherboard - ASUS Z590 - P
CPU - i5 10600K
Pwr Supply - 700 watt Thermaltake
Graphics card - GTX 970
RAM - 16 gig Ballistix 3200 Mhz
Boot Drive - WD Blue SN550 NVMe 2280 1TB
Additional drives - Caviar Black 500 gig and a WD Green 2 TB

https://flic.kr/p/2kG8xdJ

https://flic.kr/p/2kG7XdZ

https://flic.kr/p/2kG8xjW

https://flic.kr/p/2kG7XkH

Any help is greatly appreciated!!
Thanks,
Todd

 

[jojesa]

Remove the GPU and the two additional drives and try installing Windows again.
The NVMe should be in the M.2_2 or M.2_3 slot.
Also, when the the M.2_2 slot is occupied, the SATA 2 port is disabled.
After you are done installing Windows, you could add the GPU and the two additional drives.
Windows setup could write boot partition to other drives during installation..then if you remove any of those drives your system won't boot.

 

[Evil Cotgrevil]

So that sounds like a fresh naked install. Makes sense. Thanks for the perspective.
I'll do that tomorrow morning and report back

Todd

 

[Evil Cotgrevil]

Fresh install worked perfectly until...
I hooked up the graphics card and it all went to hell.
Screen freezes solid.
Or it doesn't boot at all.
Sometimes on with no graphics or mouse or keyboard.
Even said I had to repair it reinstall windows.
I've taken it out, unistalled the software and tried again with the same results.
M.2 is in the 3rd spot and the GPU is in the 1st spot. That shouldn't be an issue but maybe it is.

[Edit]
Moved the GPU down one spot and the M.2 up one and everything is working fine....
Now I'll hook up the other hard drives and see what happens.

 

[Evil Cotgrevil]

Thanks Jojesa!!!!
Everything is working fine.
I was amazed at how plug and play computer builds have gotten that I rushed into everything thinking it would figure itself out as it went.
Not so.

Installing windows with no periphery was fast and smooth and, after I moved the GPU into the secondary expansion slot all those issues were fixed.
The storage hard drives went in with no issue other than a System Reserve drive popped up which has never happened to me before. I read a little into it and it doesn't seem like I need to worry about it.

Thanks again, I was frustrated and wasn't able to step back and see the answers that were right there.


Todd

https://flic.kr/p/2kGrMHA

 

[jojesa]

Glad you got it all sort out.

It is recommended to install Windows with the basic minimum hardware installed.
Let Windows update, then connect the rest of the devices.
That way it will be easier to troubleshoot any issues that could arrived when you start adding additional hardware.