Question Older refreshed desktop fails updates and black screens at me

[Astralv]

Hi, friends!

I confiscated Haswell based computer from my son, who was using it for gaming. This computer has 4770K Haswell processor (so you can estimate it's age). It went in to repair loop and we built new gaming PC for him few years ago, but I need computer for the office use and I decided to refresh this Haswell. I reinstalled Windows 10 clean, and installed drivers from the Asus website. It was booting and working fine for a day, then it went in to a Black Screen. I was trying several recovery options, and I think I was able to uninstall some kind of update and it turned on again. Then my son said- I needed to install Graphic card driver. I forgot about it, I think. It has mid grade AMD graphic card from 5-7 years ago. It was probably 400$ back then. I can get model number from him. So while he was installing a driver from AMD site, the computer went back to black screen and I was not able to revive it. I really need to make it work. Why is it keeps failing? I can reinstall Win 10 again, but then I will have to look for all the drivers again and then- if it fails Win updates or graphic card drivers, I dont have time for all this. What can cause this? Could it be SATA 3 SSD issue? Do I need to buy better SSD? Thank you for your help.

 

[Lutfij]

When posting a thread of troubleshooting nature, it's customary to include your full system's specs. Please list the specs to your build like so:
CPU:
CPU cooler:
Motherboard:
Ram:
SSD/HDD:
GPU:
PSU:
Chassis:
OS:
Monitor:
include the age of the PSU apart from it's make and model. BIOS version for your motherboard at this moment of time.

I can reinstall Win 10 again, but then I will have to look for all the drivers again and then- if it fails Win updates or graphic card drivers, I dont have time for all this.
Ideally you should recreate your bootable USB installer for the OS, then disconnect all drives except for the drive you wish to install the OS onto, installing the OS in offline mode. While in offline mode, install all necessary drivers in an elevated command, i.e, Right click installer>Run as Administrator.

It's very likely that perhaps the PSU is unable to deliver necessary power to your platform and by that your discrete GPU, resulting in the black screen. Either that or your OS is trying to install the wrong drivers. Perhaps see if you can get into Safe Mode, then use GPU-Z. Pass on a screenshot of what you see using said app.

 

[Astralv]

When posting a thread of troubleshooting nature, it's customary to include your full system's specs. Please list the specs to your build like so:
CPU:
CPU cooler:
Motherboard:
Ram:
SSD/HDD:
GPU:
PSU:
Chassis:
OS:
Monitor:
include the age of the PSU apart from it's make and model. BIOS version for your motherboard at this moment of time.

I can reinstall Win 10 again, but then I will have to look for all the drivers again and then- if it fails Win updates or graphic card drivers, I dont have time for all this.
Ideally you should recreate your bootable USB installer for the OS, then disconnect all drives except for the drive you wish to install the OS onto, installing the OS in offline mode. While in offline mode, install all necessary drivers in an elevated command, i.e, Right click installer>Run as Administrator.

It's very likely that perhaps the PSU is unable to deliver necessary power to your platform and by that your discrete GPU, resulting in the black screen. Either that or your OS is trying to install the wrong drivers. Perhaps see if you can get into Safe Mode, then use GPU-Z. Pass on a screenshot of what you see using said app.

Thank you for your reply.
Graphic Card:
ASUS ROG STRIX AMD Radeon RX 5700 XT Overclocked 8G GDDR6 HDMI DisplayPort Gaming Graphics Card
CPU: 4770K
CPU cooler: Stock
Motherboard: ASUS Z87-PRO (V EDITION) LGA 1150 Intel Z87 HDMI SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX Intel Motherboard
Ram: G.SKILL Ripjaws X Series 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR3 1866 (PC3 14900) Desktop Memory Model F3-14900CL10D-16GBXL
SSD/HDD:

Intel 240GB 530 Series SATA 5.25-Inch Solid State Drive​

PSU: Can't find it, but it was 3rd party- not Corsair or EVGA- something less expansive but should be 800W, minimum 650.

OS: Win 10 Pro

I downloaded installer from Microsoft via USB, so it must be early version of Win 10 Pro, or what ever they have latest available to download. The drivers were installed in Online mode as I re-downloaded them from Asus for specific motherboard. Their drivers accurate. I did not use Run as Admin. With Asus, it has Asus installer exe file, I have been using those on all my builds (8 builds experience).

The computer worked for at least 5-6 years. Then it had very dramatic issues- we had to rebuild in in a new case- it was acting like there was shortage between motherboard and case- we could not figure out, so when we took everything out of the case, it started working again, and we reinstalled it in a new case- it worked another year or two. I remember all the green lights on motherboard turning red (LEDs by memory, I think). The memory was tried back then one at a time, and I think we added extra sticks and had 24Gb. I am not near that computer- I took it to the office. It had strange behavior- we ended up diagnosing it with case shortage issue. So it worked after rebuild.

I was not able to boot in "Safe mode with networking". Thank you.

 

[stonecarver]

Being as this could be anything I would remove the GPU as the 4770K does have an IGPU.

https://www.intel.com/content/www/u...r-8m-cache-up-to-3-90-ghz/specifications.html

If you have not did so in a while change the motherboard battery ASAP. That little battery plays more havoc than people realize.

If the battery is dead and your clock is off on the PC Windows Updated gets freaked out and issues happen.


I would try out a loaner power supply and see what happens.

Yes you may need to reinstall Windows but do it UNPLUGGED from the internet. Same with the motherboard drivers go get and again install off line and as administrator.

It also could be a bad stick of memory. Start with one stick and If you get life install Windows. Mark that stick as ok. Shut down remove and test the next stick. Again If it boots rinse and repeat to weed out any bad memory that fails to boot PC.

If these steps get you life with the PC later you could try again the AMD GPU but with the loaner power supply.

Have you cleaned and repasted the CPU? Just asking.