Hi all, I want to start this post by talking about what led up to my current issue:
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
So one night I tried to launch Team Fortress 2 on steam, but as I started the game, I got a source engine error popup message. I tried to relaunch the game, but then the game said that I needed to update, so I tried doing that. The update got to 99% and would not finish, and I tried pressing the update button many times, and steam gave me the "Corrupt Disk" message next to the download bar. I also tried to verify the integrity of the game files, which said that there was nothing wrong.
At this point I just decided to call it a night and went to bed. The next morning when I launched my computer, for some reason, I had no internet connection even though I was connected via ethernet. I tried to launch steam, but nothing was showing up on my screen. I right clicked the steam app on my taskbar and pressed "exit steam", and waited a bit before trying to relaunch the application, but nothing was showing up still.
I should mention that the only thing installed on my secondary internal hard drive itself is Team Fortress 2 and some other miscellaneous files, and none of my apps or windows files are there. I also want to note that in the past, launching TF2 in particular has had a seemingly 50% chance to cause my entire monitor image to look sharpened for some reason, and it will make it look slightly blurry as well. This is a system-wide effect and affects the windows desktop even after closing the game, and it only ever goes away with a full restart of the computer. This is not a resolution issue. I've tried turning the monitor on and off and messing with it's settings, and I've refreshed my refresh rate (causes the screen to blink) in the Nvidia control panel, and neither fixes the issue. This is part of the reason why I feel like the game may have caused this to happen.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Troubleshooting:
After steam wouldn't open, I tried restarting my computer, but once I did, the only thing that popped up on my monitor was the "DP" signal that shows up when it detects something. No system POST or anything showed up. The EZ-debug light for VGA on my motherboard was glowing, so I was worried that my GPU had died. I also was not able to turn the computer off anymore with the power button on my case after turning it on, it just didn't do anything. The reset button worked, but I had to flip the switch on my PSU to turn off the computer.
I tried many troubleshooting steps, like reseating the cables and components, switching ram slots, switching DisplayPort ports and trying HDMI on both the GPU and MOBO, etc. Clearing CMOS allowed the power button to actually function in turning off the computer, but it still didn't make anything show up on the screen. Eventually I unplugged the hard drive containing the game.
Unplugging the hard drive seemed to do the trick, as everything is working again. A few days later, I tried plugging the hard drive back in, and sure enough the issue came back, where I get nothing showing up on the screen, and no POST.
Update: I bought a USB to SATA drive connector on Amazon, but the drive is still not registering in windows on multiple computers, even after waiting multiple minutes. The drive does not seem to make any noise either when plugged in.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
My questions: Does anyone know what is happening here? How does having my hard drive connected cause the entire system to fall to its knees? Why does launching TF2 in particular *sometimes* cause my screen to get a sharpened effect? Is there any chance of recovering my files and how?
Specs:
GPU: Founders RTX 3070
MOBO: MSI Z390 gaming pro carbon
RAM: Gskill RIPJAW 3600 mhz 16 gb x 2
CPU: Intel i7-9700k
PSU: EVGA 800 W gold rated (forgot the name, probably superNOVA)
SSD: samsung 970 EVO plus
Secondary Hard Drive: Seagate 3.5' internal barracuda 2 TB Hard Drive
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
So one night I tried to launch Team Fortress 2 on steam, but as I started the game, I got a source engine error popup message. I tried to relaunch the game, but then the game said that I needed to update, so I tried doing that. The update got to 99% and would not finish, and I tried pressing the update button many times, and steam gave me the "Corrupt Disk" message next to the download bar. I also tried to verify the integrity of the game files, which said that there was nothing wrong.
At this point I just decided to call it a night and went to bed. The next morning when I launched my computer, for some reason, I had no internet connection even though I was connected via ethernet. I tried to launch steam, but nothing was showing up on my screen. I right clicked the steam app on my taskbar and pressed "exit steam", and waited a bit before trying to relaunch the application, but nothing was showing up still.
I should mention that the only thing installed on my secondary internal hard drive itself is Team Fortress 2 and some other miscellaneous files, and none of my apps or windows files are there. I also want to note that in the past, launching TF2 in particular has had a seemingly 50% chance to cause my entire monitor image to look sharpened for some reason, and it will make it look slightly blurry as well. This is a system-wide effect and affects the windows desktop even after closing the game, and it only ever goes away with a full restart of the computer. This is not a resolution issue. I've tried turning the monitor on and off and messing with it's settings, and I've refreshed my refresh rate (causes the screen to blink) in the Nvidia control panel, and neither fixes the issue. This is part of the reason why I feel like the game may have caused this to happen.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Troubleshooting:
After steam wouldn't open, I tried restarting my computer, but once I did, the only thing that popped up on my monitor was the "DP" signal that shows up when it detects something. No system POST or anything showed up. The EZ-debug light for VGA on my motherboard was glowing, so I was worried that my GPU had died. I also was not able to turn the computer off anymore with the power button on my case after turning it on, it just didn't do anything. The reset button worked, but I had to flip the switch on my PSU to turn off the computer.
I tried many troubleshooting steps, like reseating the cables and components, switching ram slots, switching DisplayPort ports and trying HDMI on both the GPU and MOBO, etc. Clearing CMOS allowed the power button to actually function in turning off the computer, but it still didn't make anything show up on the screen. Eventually I unplugged the hard drive containing the game.
Unplugging the hard drive seemed to do the trick, as everything is working again. A few days later, I tried plugging the hard drive back in, and sure enough the issue came back, where I get nothing showing up on the screen, and no POST.
Update: I bought a USB to SATA drive connector on Amazon, but the drive is still not registering in windows on multiple computers, even after waiting multiple minutes. The drive does not seem to make any noise either when plugged in.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
My questions: Does anyone know what is happening here? How does having my hard drive connected cause the entire system to fall to its knees? Why does launching TF2 in particular *sometimes* cause my screen to get a sharpened effect? Is there any chance of recovering my files and how?
Specs:
GPU: Founders RTX 3070
MOBO: MSI Z390 gaming pro carbon
RAM: Gskill RIPJAW 3600 mhz 16 gb x 2
CPU: Intel i7-9700k
PSU: EVGA 800 W gold rated (forgot the name, probably superNOVA)
SSD: samsung 970 EVO plus
Secondary Hard Drive: Seagate 3.5' internal barracuda 2 TB Hard Drive
Last edited:
Facebook
Twitter
Instagram