Question PC cannot boot into windows installation

Nov 10, 2019
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My PC, a 3 years old Slimline Desktop 450-032d, had a sudden blue screen "UNEXPECTED_KERNEL_MODE_TRAP" and couldn't boot into windows anymore. I tried all troubleshooting options in the recovery environment without success. It was running Windows 10 updated to latest.

So I decided to reinstall W10. I made a boot USB with Rufus but wasn't able to boot into installation either. With GPT setting get stuck at win logo and then automatically initate "prepare for repair". With MBR USB setting, under legacy mode cannot see USB boot option. Both cases had secure boot disabled and top priority USB boot sequence.

Suspecting a hardware issue, I tested the ram and hdd on another PC but were all fine. The hdd was even able to install a copy of W10 flawlessly with that PC. I also saw some rust on the motherboard and replaced it with a new HP geniune motherboard. The only thing I cannot test was the CPU as I do not have a spare MB with the same socket.

To start fresh, I formated the hdd and removed all partition. And with the new motherboard, it start up without the HP logo, which may due to the new MB, but the result is the same. It first showed a summary of hardware info, then win logo appears. 5 seconds later, a dotted circle loading anime appears below the win logo. 5 seconds later the pc restarts itself and repeat the loop. I let it ran for hours, but never move pass this loop. With this new motherboard it is the same when I tried legacy mode, USB was not recognized.

Finally I figured maybe maybe something wrong with my USB drives, so I made a few Lubuntu boot USBs and they are all the same as W10. They were able to boot into an installation menu. But when select installation, pc responded "error: failure reading sector 0x32b40 from 'hd0' error: you need to load the kernel first."

I tried several new sata cables and a brand new hdd, nothing changes. Also swapped ram from another working PC.

Any idea what I did wrong? My setup and PC response were as below:









The Lubuntu setup and PC response:


 
Last edited:
Nov 10, 2019
5
0
10
you could use this to test CPU - https://www.infopackets.com/news/10113/how-fix-bootable-prime95-stress-test-hardware

Do you know if you have latest bios on motherboard?
Finally get to try out your advice. Mersenne Prime end with kernel panic and cannot go forward no matter how I restart again. Tried couple of other troubleshoot from the net but nothing works.

Memory and Hdd test was fine however. Do you think I have a fail CPU?

IMG-20191230-012850.jpg