Question I've decided to take apart most of ny PC and put it back together again. What should I do before turning on my PC?

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Faibra

Jun 24, 2023
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I took out my GPU so that I could take out the CMOS battery. I took out my CPU cooler so that I could get to the RAM and remove it and place it back in. I took out my CPU and placed it back in just in case it might have been out of position, which I don't think it was, but I did anyway just in case. My downloaded Windows 10 installation media on my USB again. I don't want to run into another issue where the PC will automatically boot Windows from the M.2 SSD. What should I do to ensure everything is as close to being default as possible?

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I don't understand why you pulled things apart before reinstalling Windows. You risked bending the pins in the CPU socket and ruining the motherboard. Did the CMOS battery need replacing? If it ain't broke, don't fix it.

All you need to do is disconnect any other SSDs and hard disks, apart from the M.2 drive which will contain the new Windows installation. You may have to set the drive boot order to USB first. That's all that's necessary before installing Windows. Good luck with the update.
 
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Faibra said:
I took out my GPU so that I could take out the CMOS battery. I took out my CPU cooler so that I could get to the RAM and remove it and place it back in. I took out my CPU and placed it back in just in case it might have been out of position, which I don't think it was, but I did anyway just in case. My downloaded Windows 10 installation media on my USB again. I don't want to run into another issue where the PC will automatically boot Windows from the M.2 SSD. What should I do to ensure everything is as close to being default as possible?

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What are you trying to accomplish? Are you trying to do a Windows 10 fresh installation?
 
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Faibra said:
I took out my GPU so that I could take out the CMOS battery. I took out my CPU cooler so that I could get to the RAM and remove it and place it back in. I took out my CPU and placed it back in just in case it might have been out of position, which I don't think it was, but I did anyway just in case. My downloaded Windows 10 installation media on my USB again. I don't want to run into another issue where the PC will automatically boot Windows from the M.2 SSD. What should I do to ensure everything is as close to being default as possible?

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tried installing Windows 10 again through a USB drive
Click to expand...

Misgar said:
I don't understand why you pulled things apart before reinstalling Windows. You risked bending the pins in the CPU socket and ruining the motherboard. Did the CMOS battery need replacing? If it ain't broke, don't fix it.

All you need to do is disconnect any other SSDs and hard disks, apart from the M.2 drive which will contain the new Windows installation. You may have to set the drive boot order to USB first. That's all that's necessary before installing Windows. Good luck with the update.
Click to expand...
Should I uninstall the m.2 SSD then? Even if I take it out and put it back in, it's still going to have the previous installation of Windows in it, and there's no way for me to wipe it before I can put it back in the PC. So what should I do?
 
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Clean Install Guide.

Have not heard about any issues or problems.

The guide should still be good.

Frequently recommended or referred to by myself and others.

= = = =

After reading back:

Update your post to include full system hardware specs and OS information.

Go online to the motherboard's manufacturer's website and find the applicable User Guide/Manual.

First read through the manual for an overview of the motherboard and supported components and configurations.

Second, use the manual to go step-by-step and double check everything that you did.

For example: some motherboards require that the first installed RAM be placed in a specific slot.

Hopefully the problem is some simple error of omission or commission.
 
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To give further context, I tried installing Windows 10 again through one of my USB drives and went into the bios settings to set the UEFI USB key as the first boot option. Despite this the PC kept booting into the SSD with the windows installation instead and it kept crashing and restarting. Eventually for whatever reason the PC eventually booted using the USB drive, even though I did nothing. I didn't even remove the USB or anything, but the PC decided to finally boot up using the USB drive. After it downloaded Windows it seemed everything was working fine as usual. I saw a message pop up on the screen requesting for me to restart my PC to add other things that are necessary for the PC, so I did that. I restarted once and it showed the message again, so I restarted the PC again. After that Windows started crashing and restarting. Nothing I have tried has worked so far. I think at this point I've reached an impasse and I might just have to return everything and start over again. I never had any issues with my Intel CPU or motherboard. This very well could be a RAM issue too, because I'm using a ram kit that was made for Intel Motherboard specifically, but I was told that it was okay to use them. I noticed that one of the ram kits wasn't situated all the way in, potentially because the clip at the top wasn't closed so maybe that was the cause of all my issues. Hopefully this fixes everything.
 
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Ralston18 said:
Clean Install Guide.

Have not heard about any issues or problems.

The guide should still be good.

Frequently recommended or referred to by myself and others.

= = = =

After reading back:

Update your post to include full system hardware specs and OS information.

Go online to the motherboard's manufacturer's website and find the applicable User Guide/Manual.

First read through the manual for an overview of the motherboard and supported components and configurations.

Second, use the manual to go step-by-step and double check everything that you did.

For example: some motherboards require that the first installed RAM be placed in a specific slot.

Hopefully the problem is some simple error of omission or commission.
Click to expand...
To give further context, I tried installing Windows 10 again through one of my USB drives and went into the bios settings to set the UEFI USB key as the first boot option. Despite this the PC kept booting into the SSD with the windows installation instead and it kept crashing and restarting. Eventually for whatever reason the PC eventually booted using the USB drive, even though I did nothing. I didn't even remove the USB or anything, but the PC decided to finally boot up using the USB drive. After it downloaded Windows it seemed everything was working fine as usual. I saw a message pop up on the screen requesting for me to restart my PC to add other things that are necessary for the PC, so I did that. I restarted once and it showed the message again, so I restarted the PC again. After that Windows started crashing and restarting. Nothing I have tried has worked so far. I think at this point I've reached an impasse and I might just have to return everything and start over again. I never had any issues with my Intel CPU or motherboard. This very well could be a RAM issue too, because I'm using a ram kit that was made for Intel Motherboard specifically, but I was told that it was okay to use them. I noticed that one of the ram kits wasn't situated all the way in, potentially because the clip at the top wasn't closed so maybe that was the cause of all my issues. Hopefully this fixes everything.
 
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rickypicky5 said:
What are you trying to accomplish? Are you trying to do a Windows 10 fresh installation?
Click to expand...
Yes. To give further context, I tried installing Windows 10 again through one of my USB drives and went into the bios settings to set the UEFI USB key as the first boot option. Despite this the PC kept booting into the SSD with the windows installation instead and it kept crashing and restarting. Eventually for whatever reason the PC eventually booted using the USB drive, even though I did nothing. I didn't even remove the USB or anything, but the PC decided to finally boot up using the USB drive. After it downloaded Windows it seemed everything was working fine as usual. I saw a message pop up on the screen requesting for me to restart my PC to add other things that are necessary for the PC, so I did that. I restarted once and it showed the message again, so I restarted the PC again. After that Windows started crashing and restarting. Nothing I have tried has worked so far. I think at this point I've reached an impasse and I might just have to return everything and start over again. I never had any issues with my Intel CPU or motherboard. This very well could be a RAM issue too, because I'm using a ram kit that was made for Intel Motherboard specifically, but I was told that it was okay to use them. I noticed that one of the ram kits wasn't situated all the way in, potentially because the clip at the top wasn't closed so maybe that was the cause of all my issues. Hopefully this fixes everything.
 
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Misgar said:
I don't understand why you pulled things apart before reinstalling Windows. You risked bending the pins in the CPU socket and ruining the motherboard. Did the CMOS battery need replacing? If it ain't broke, don't fix it.

All you need to do is disconnect any other SSDs and hard disks, apart from the M.2 drive which will contain the new Windows installation. You may have to set the drive boot order to USB first. That's all that's necessary before installing Windows. Good luck with the update.
Click to expand...
To give further context, I tried installing Windows 10 again through one of my USB drives and went into the bios settings to set the UEFI USB key as the first boot option. Despite this the PC kept booting into the SSD with the windows installation instead and it kept crashing and restarting. Eventually for whatever reason the PC eventually booted using the USB drive, even though I did nothing. I didn't even remove the USB or anything, but the PC decided to finally boot up using the USB drive. After it downloaded Windows it seemed everything was working fine as usual. I saw a message pop up on the screen requesting for me to restart my PC to add other things that are necessary for the PC, so I did that. I restarted once and it showed the message again, so I restarted the PC again. After that Windows started crashing and restarting. Nothing I have tried has worked so far. I think at this point I've reached an impasse and I might just have to return everything and start over again. I never had any issues with my Intel CPU or motherboard. This very well could be a RAM issue too, because I'm using a ram kit that was made for Intel Motherboard specifically, but I was told that it was okay to use them. I noticed that one of the ram kits wasn't situated all the way in, potentially because the clip at the top wasn't closed so maybe that was the cause of all my issues. Hopefully this fixes everything.
 
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When you boot up from the Windows USB key, you can use the built in Partition Manager to wipe all the existing partitions off your M.2 drive. Then you can perform a clean install on a blank drive.

What you managed to do instead was to Refresh the existing Windows installation, keeping all the old junk.

Keep a close eye on the screen when trying to boot up the installation media. You sometimes get a prompt asking if you want to boot from the installation drive. If you don't accept, the system returns to the SSD and boots from that instead.
 
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I'm getting confused between your SATA drive and your M.2 drive. I thought you wanted to reinstall Windows on your M.2 drive.

If you can boot Windows from the SATA drive, you can use Disk Manager to wipe the partitions on the M.2 drive. Alternatively, just wipe the partitions off the M.2 drive after booting from USB, then install Windows.

When installing Windows, do not leave any other drives connected, apart from the destination drive, in case the boot partition ends up on the wrong drive.
 
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Misgar said:
I'm getting confused between your SATA drive and your M.2 drive. I thought you wanted to reinstall Windows on your M.2 drive.

If you can boot Windows from the SATA drive, you can use Disk Manager to wipe the partitions on the M.2 drive. Alternatively, just wipe the partitions off the M.2 drive after booting from USB, then install Windows.

When installing Windows, do not leave any other drives connected, apart from the destination drive, in case the boot partition ends up on the wrong drive.
Click to expand...
Ok. I'm in the bios settings. Things feel smooth for now, but I have not done anything else. Where would the settings for fast boot and secure boot be? I'm using an MSI motherboard. I went into the boot options and I don't see anything related to fast or secure boot.
 
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Hang on. I thought you were installing Windows 10? The default requirements for Windows 11 include Secure Boot (and TPM 2.0). Why are you asking about Fast Boot and Secure Boot? They're not essential for Windows 10. In any case, Fast Boot is how Windows 10 configures itself.
 
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Misgar said:
Hang on. I thought you were installing Windows 10? The default requirements for Windows 11 include Secure Boot (and TPM 2.0). Why are you asking about Fast Boot and Secure Boot? They're not essential for Windows 10.
Click to expand...
Sorry, I thought you were @Ralston18. They are one of the other members in this thread that are trying to help me. They me to follow this guide, https://forums.tomshardware.com/threads/windows-10-clean-install-tutorial.3170366/.
In the guide it says to turn off fast and secure boot. It says, "It is recommended that you disable both Secure Boot and Fast Boot in the BIOS/UEFI settings as some systems may not support booting from USB or Flash drives with them". enabled.
 
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Sorry we got our wires crossed.

Of course that poses another problem for people trying to install Windows 11. If you need to disable Secure Boot to boot from USB, but you need Secure Boot enabled to install Windows 11, you're stuck in no man's land.
 
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Misgar said:
Sorry we got our wires crossed.

Of course that poses another problem for people trying to install Windows 11. If you need to disable Secure Boot to boot from USB, but you need Secure Boot enabled to install Windows 11, you're stuck in no man's land.
Click to expand...
I'm trying to install Windows 10 though
 
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Misgar said:
Sorry we got our wires crossed.

Of course that poses another problem for people trying to install Windows 11. If you need to disable Secure Boot to boot from USB, but you need Secure Boot enabled to install Windows 11, you're stuck in no man's land.
Click to expand...
While I was installing Windows 10, during the process of setting up the security questions, the screen flickered on and off, which I think signal that the GPU drivers were installing. But now the questions are completely gone from the screen. I'm only faced with the blue screen and my mouse and keyboard are completely turned off. I unplugged the mouse and keyboard to see if that would change anything, but it did not do anything
 
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Misgar said:
Are you using HDMI, Display Port or DVI. If HDMI, try using a different output.
Click to expand...
I'm using a display port cable. But the problem is not only the screen is showing only a blank blue screen, but the mouse and keyboard completely turned off and even when I unplugged them and plug them back in they don't turn on.
 
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