Question Is my motherboard dead?

[Myronazz]

Hello...

What happened:
Today morning, I woke up to study. So I opened my computer and it booted as normal, but when I tried to hit the space key to unlock the Windows 10 startscreen, it didn't respond. I tried to do it with my mouse and I instantly noticed that the mouse movement was stuttering really badly, and that the whole operating system had frozen. This is the same symptom that I had on another computer that had a dead motherboard. I rebooted it, expecting the worst, and sure enough it wasn't booting anymore... it wasn't even seeing the SSD either.

I tried rebooting it multiple times to see if it would pop up in the EUFI screen and sometimes it would, sometimes it wouldn't. It booted once more, but now it cannot do that again. Funny thing is, it boots into simple things like memtest but when it comes to Windows it doesn't.

I downloaded Hiren's BootCD, which has a pre-installed environment of Windows 10, and it did boot into it once, but never did again. So that increases the chances that the motherboard is dead, and not the SSD. I tried to use that pre-installed environment to do a checkdisk on my SSD but no luck because it won't boot anymore. Windows 10 would just load forever, just like in the SSD, or not boot at all.

I am actually running a memtest right now to make sure that it's not memory that causes all these hiccups. I also checked my voltage levels and they are all good. My PSU is not the best, but okay, it's a CX550 from Corsair, so no issues there.

I bought the motherboard a few months ago, along with the new Corsair supply, and a processor. The motherboard I bought used, but everything else was new (Processor and PSU)

Help I need:
What do you think based on what I already deducted, any ideas? maybe some other test I can do to make sure that it's actually the motherboard? Can I assume my motherboard is dead if memory, PSU and SSD are all good? I need to make sure before I go out and buy a new one. Mobos are not exactly cheap.

System Specs:
CPU: Ryzen 5 2400g
GPU: GTX 950
Memory: HyperX 1x8GB (2400MHz)
Motherboard: ASUS B350-PLUS
PSU: Corsair CX550
SSD: Samsung Evo 840 (128GB)

 

[rocktalkrock]

Have you cleared the CMOS?
Have you tried removing the graphics card and boot using the 2400g graphics?
Can you boot into the BIOS with no drives connected to the motherboard?

 

[Myronazz]

Pretty much tried all that, yes.

I can boot into BIOS fine. It gave me a POST error once, but never again. It's very quirky and inconsistent with errors as you can see, which makes me believe that the motherboard died even more. Booting into the BIOS and then performing a boot override to my SSD or other media works, that is if I am lucky enough for them to show up at all. If it does boot, sometimes it would just freeze at Windows 10 loading, or Windows 10 will try to repair itself which results in a black screen. Not even Hiren's pre-installed environment works anymore.

My computer case is far from ideal, it does fit the ATX motherboard but spacing is limited and everything is sort of crammed in there, not to mention that there are no intake or exhaust fans either and cable management features suck. I am thinking heat was building up over time, damaging some component in the motherboard. I always load my computer lightly, either streaming low-res video or working with Office apps like Word, so nothing special that will cause too much heat.

Either way, it looks like I'll have to get a new motherboard, this one is definately shot. I'll also get a new case, because I don't want the same fiasco to repeat. If anybody has recomendations on cases with good management, i'd appreciate it. Motherboard recommendations are also appreciated, I highly prefer expansive motherboards because

 

[Myronazz]

Update:

So I reset the CMOS, and now it boots into Windows everytime. But with a catch, BIOS is really slow. Booting into BIOS takes about a minute, and so does booting into Windows 10. Those BIOS times are not normal. But perhaps it's not the motherboard to blame after all, so I removed the SSD and now the motherboard boots into BIOS setup instantly.... so my SSD is dying? Perhaps not the flash memory part, but the SATA part of it. Which also causes the motherboard to malfunction because it's not responding properly as a device.

But what about Hiren's pre-installed Windows loading infinitely as well? Maybe the malfunctioning SSD also caused the pre-installed environment to see a strangely behaving device, which caused it to hang as well.

In the end, when I was having issues with booting, it seemed that only my SSD was not showing up, but I blamed the motherboard because Hiren's pre-installed environment was also misbehaving, which as we went through already could be because of the SSD.

When my motherboard rebooted into the SSD for a 2nd time after so many failures, I noticed Windows 10 reporting that it was being updated as the operating system was loading (not the blue-screen, but the black one with the spinning dots and the Windows logo) so perhaps Windows updated, Removed itself, and the bootsector along with it, causing odd boot issues? That would explain the slow boot response and BIOS delays. I am not really sure. But Windows 10 has been famous for update screw ups.

But why is it working now, and not before?
I am not really sure on that one either, it just suddenly started working again, it boots with alot of delay, but it still does. I don't know why it wasn't before, and if Windows 10 updated itself, screwing up the bootsector, that shouldn't of have stopped it from showing up on SATA devices (not boot options, but SATA devices) so perhaps my SSD IS dying and Windows is not to blame, or perhaps even a combination of both.

So, you are saying your motherboard is fine?
For now, it seems like it. BIOS delays and weird hiccups dissappear when I disconnect the SSD. So there is DEFINATELY something up here, I just don't know what exactly. In my opinion, if the motherboard had issues seeking drives, then my other two hard drives should be disappearing too from time to time as the SSD did, but they always remained, so for now, my motherboard seems okay. Well, i've had another case of a dying motherboard, and it seemed fine too, until it started dying again. So, I don't really know, but i'll definately blame the SSD for now.

I think it's best not to use the computer, if the SSD is on it's last legs, then it's best to buy a new one and clone it before it's too late. If anyone has any suggestions about this, I would appreciate them dearly. Thank you all.

 

[rocktalkrock]

Is Fast Boot enabled in the BIOS? Recheck all your setting in the Boot section of the BIOS.

 

[Myronazz]

Is Fast Boot enabled in the BIOS? Recheck all your setting in the Boot section of the BIOS.

I did. Removing my SSD fixed it. No more delays. So when I replug the SSD I should expect the delays to comeback, right? Well they didn't. Now the whole system seems to work normally as if nothing ever happened... I am not buying it. Something has to be dead, I am not trusting this yet. How did my system go from non-working with completely unpredictable behaviour to perfectly stable so suddenly? None of it makes sense, I can't seem to isolate this issue.

This is a long shot, but could this have to do anything with static electricity or some other mumbo jumbo rogue electrons? I noticed a bunch of other things in my room weren't working yesterday, but today they suddenly came back to life as if nothing ever happened... Just like the computer. So idk, seems extremely unlikely and nothing more than a coincidence.

At this point, I want to know if my SSD is okay, are my data safe? Or is it going to work for a few days and then die again? Or is that going happen to the motherboard instead? I don't know, this is so weird, I've never faced such a strange scenerio for as long as I have been fiddling with computers.