Question PC Cycles on any drive

[morphing]

Hello, I was wondering if anyone has any idea if I can fix this issue I am having.

Unfortunately I do not have a list of components now, though I would be very surprised if components are the issue.

My friend had factory reset his PC with no backup, and fallen asleep. Once he woke up he tried to boot up the PC and go through the fresh windows setup and at random points the mouse cursor would stop as if the PC was freezing. He had me come over to take a look to see what issue could be as im more knowledgeable than him when it comes to computers.

I was able to replicate his issue. Once I booted up through his SATA SSD Windows setup would launch and begin running him through his personalization options, country, etc. At random points during this process the PC cursor would freeze as if the computer had froze, but it wouldn't shutdown, bluescreen, or reset.

Me believing this to be an issue with files potentially corrupted during the reinstallation of windows, I downloaded Windows Media Creation Tool on a flashdrive, reformatted his SSD through the bios, plugged it in and ran through the process. Then at random points during the reinstallation of Windows it would also continue to freeze.

At this point, I was extremely confused as his PC was working perfectly fine before the reset. And I couldn't see any issues with any of the components and everything seemed to be at normal temps and running as intended in the BIOS.

I decided to reset his BIOS to default settings and clear cmos, now when the PC loads into BIOS and I attempt to boot my uefi flashdrive partition in the boot manager to attempt another Windows installation, the PC makes noise as if it is beginning the boot but then quiets down, during the process it shows his motherboard manufacturers logo, and begins to load then resets, and continues to cycle itself in this way over and over.

I put my flashdrive back into another computer and check to see that it is formatted in FAT32 and it was. There didn't seem to be any issues with the Windows Media Creation files inside though I probably should have reformatted and reinstalled Windows Media Creation onto the drive again.

As it was late I left his house and will be going back tonight to see if I can continue to troubleshoot the issue. If anyone has any idea why my flashdrive is now refusing to boot after the cmos reset or why windows setup and installation would freeze randomly through the process please leave any suggestions or comments.

 

[JohnBonhamsGhost]

i would first check for new BIOS version and install, or maybe even reinstall the latest if already installed.

also try a different SATA drive.
you can just let the Media Creation Tool's created flash drive installation package do the formatting.

How To - Windows 10 clean install tutorial

If you are looking for the Windows 11 Clean install tutorial, you can find that here: Windows 11 Clean install tutorial (Click here) Otherwise, welcome to the Windows 10 Clean install tutorial This tutorial is intended to help you, step by step, to perform a clean install of Windows...

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[morphing]

i would first check for new BIOS version and install, or maybe even reinstall the latest if already installed.

also try a different SATA drive.
you can just let the Media Creation Tool's created flash drive installation package do the formatting.

How To - Windows 10 clean install tutorial

If you are looking for the Windows 11 Clean install tutorial, you can find that here: Windows 11 Clean install tutorial (Click here) Otherwise, welcome to the Windows 10 Clean install tutorial This tutorial is intended to help you, step by step, to perform a clean install of Windows...

forums.tomshardware.com

Sounds good, I'll give it a try. I already attempted to update his BIOS through EZFlash in his BIOS via the Internet. EZFlash said the latest version of BIOS was already installed. I will bring another flashdrive and attempt a reinstallation of his BIOS tonight. As far as the SATA SSD is concerned I don't believe I have another spare lying around though I can check my old PCs for one. I do have an M.2 in my main computer though but for obvious reasons, I would prefer to not remove it and attempt to use it on his motherboard.

I will also get a full list of his components once I return as I will be able to actually physically see the components myself, I don't want to go off memory and misidentify any of his specs. I guess I could also attempt to install Windows onto his hard drive and see how that works out, and if it works fine that would rule out the SATA drive as the issue. This is all if my flashdrive decides to boot the windows installation after I rerun the Windows Creation Media setup onto it. Thank you for your suggestion though I will give it a try and update with any new information.

 

[punkncat]

Check this:

When you load in on the installer go through on the install to the 'advanced' option and check to see how many partitions and installs there are on the drive. According to various factors you should see either 3 or 4 partitions, 2 or 3 will be small (recovery, cache, etc.) and one large one for the OS itself. At this point I would go on the assumption that the personal info is already backed up or gone. Rather than having Windows auto install on whatever is on the disk, use the feature to delete everything back to unallocated space then hit next and see how that goes.

 

[morphing]

Check this:

When you load in on the installer go through on the install to the 'advanced' option and check to see how many partitions and installs there are on the drive. According to various factors you should see either 3 or 4 partitions, 2 or 3 will be small (recovery, cache, etc.) and one large one for the OS itself. At this point I would go on the assumption that the personal info is already backed up or gone. Rather than having Windows auto install on whatever is on the disk, use the feature to delete everything back to unallocated space then hit next and see how that goes.

Okay will do and will keep posted tonight. Thank you!