[SOLVED] Next step in troubleshooting

[Wailing Souls]

Hello everyone,

This is my first post on this forum. So if this is not the best place to ask this question please redirect me and I'll be happy to relocate the thread.

I’m looking for some help with troubleshooting a computer. I'm beginning to get a little out of my depth here, which is a crummy feeling, and I'm looking for any advice that might spark insight into what to try next.

The machine is windows 10, has an asrock z370 pro4, i3 8100, EVGA 1060 3g, 850 evo 500g ssd, and 2x4g Corsair Ram.

It is very slow to boot, and stays on the motherboard screen for a long time, then lags after booting, including mouse lag and audio stuttering every couple of seconds.

Hardware temps are normal and nothing is working near 100% according to speccy and task manager. SSD read/write speeds are normal. I’ve tried different ram configurations with known working sticks (1 at a time) with no success. I’ve done a safe boot, and complete reinstall of windows 10 with driver updates and no success. I’ve updated the bios with no success.

When I try to run sfc /scannow or DISM /online /cleanup-image /restorehealth as admin, nothing happens, like the command does not start to execute.

I'm really unsure what to do next to troubleshoot the problem. I'm leaning towards having to buy new hardware, but really want to pin down the problem so I know what to replace if I have to go that route.

Side note: The computer has functioned without issue for about a year and a half, and nothing was changed to the system prior to the onset of the problem. This same issue happened a few weeks ago, and was fixed after trying the above + replacing the SATA cable to the SSD. This may have been a fluke, because replacing the cable now does not fix the issue.

Thanks for any advice!

 

[Aeacus]

My next step would be trying with another OS drive since it's possible your SSD is dying. That would also explain slow boot up time and lagging once in OS. Either that, or plug your SSD into another SATA port on MoBo. E.g when your SSD is plugged to SATA0 port, try plugging it into SATA1 or SATA3 port and look if it makes a difference.

 

[Deleted member 14196]

you can always look at what starts up under the Startup tab on Task Manager and also use Autoruns from sysinternals to view everything that is starting up

you can also use Msconfig to do a diagnostic of your startup. And all that will waste a fair amount of time. I would perform a Clean install and not bother looking for needles in haystacks. Back up all your data and verify it is good before doing a Clean install

if it's still slow after that, you are looking at hardware issues.

 

[Wailing Souls]

you can always look at what starts up under the Startup tab on Task Manager and also use Autoruns from sysinternals to view everything that is starting up

you can also use Msconfig to do a diagnostic of your startup. And all that will waste a fair amount of time. I would perform a Clean install and not bother looking for needles in haystacks. Back up all your data and verify it is good before doing a Clean install

if it's still slow after that, you are looking at hardware issues.

Thanks for the feedback! If I end up not being able to find the original windows installation disc, is there a way to find out my product key and create an installation media USB without the disc? I'm going to try this tonight. If this doesn't work, how can I tell if it's the SSD, motherboard, or CPU that needs replacing? I really appreciate your help.

 

[Wailing Souls]

My next step would be trying with another OS drive since it's possible your SSD is dying. That would also explain slow boot up time and lagging once in OS. Either that, or plug your SSD into another SATA port on MoBo. E.g when your SSD is plugged to SATA0 port, try plugging it into SATA1 or SATA3 port and look if it makes a difference.

I'll definitely try switching the SATA ports. As for trying another drive, do you mean just taking a boot drive out of a different computer and plugging it in? I had heard that windows will only run on one motherboard if you try to do that. Will that in any way screw things up for the computer the drive was originally in, once it's reconnected?

 

[Deleted member 14196]

use the microsoft windows media creation tool to make a bootable usb or dvd

https://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=691209

you can make it from a different pc.

so, with your current OS, have you registered with MS yet so they can store your license for that machine? if it's an OEM copy then you are not moving to another machine, it should work. You can use windows 10 as long as you like for free, you just get nags once in a while and can't change the background wallpaper is all.

 

[Aeacus]

I'll definitely try switching the SATA ports. As for trying another drive, do you mean just taking a boot drive out of a different computer and plugging it in? I had heard that windows will only run on one motherboard if you try to do that. Will that in any way screw things up for the computer the drive was originally in, once it's reconnected?

By another drive i mean that you get 2nd, known to work empty drive (SSD or HDD) where to install your OS on. That would show if your 850 Evo is an issue or not hardware wise.

Taking another drive from 2nd PC, with Win already installed on it is bad idea since that drive has different drivers, specific to 2nd PC, on it.

 

[Wailing Souls]

use the microsoft windows media creation tool to make a bootable usb or dvd

https://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=691209

you can make it from a different pc.

so, with your current OS, have you registered with MS yet so they can store your license for that machine? if it's an OEM copy then you are not moving to another machine, it should work. You can use windows 10 as long as you like for free, you just get nags once in a while and can't change the background wallpaper is all.

Thanks for all your help.

So I did a clean install and that seemed to fix the problem. I got the GPU drivers installed and everything was working, did all the windows 10 updates and everything was working, except the CPU hit a few 100% usage marks while downloading firefox and other programs. So I went to the Asrock website (https://www.asrock.com/MB/Intel/Z370 Pro4/index.asp#Download) and tried to download and install the drivers in order. After downloading the intel RST driver, upon restart the computer boots and goes to the windows loading screen where it gets stuck spinning the circle forever. I suppose I'll try another clean install tomorrow and leave out the mobo drivers.