Question PC fine through the day but never in the mornings ?

Aug 29, 2021
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So I've been trying to track down an issue with my pc.

I5 6600K
Z170 Pro Gaming mobo
16gb ddr4 2666mhz
5600xt
Evga supernova 550w gold
1x 500gb hdd 1x 240gb ssd 1x 500gb m.2
Seinhesier headset
Roccat kone xtd
Generic keyboard
Windows 10 pro (not activated)


Started off with an odd issue with hibernating the pc and in the morning it wouldn't wake up into the OS it would start from POST then fail to load hibernation. Restart was required. Failed to boot multiple times, unplugged ssd and replugged in after numerous hard resets, removing sticks of ram etc. Eventually got it to boot after doing a number of things and worked great for 2 days.

Left it on overnight to download a couple steam games and woke up to PC asleep. Turned on and failed to boot after atleast 50 tries. Always hanging when it comes to windows logo and loading screen, circles would stop moving, restart button wont work and caps lock num lock etc not working. Wouldn't boot in safe mode, hang at the same place. Again after doing all sorts of things it eventually booted and worked great for another 2 days, played rust all day on huge maps and everything worked flawlessly.

Then it hapopend AGAIN and I resorted to reinstalling windows as I thought maybe windows.old was playing games with the boot sequence somehow. Then it started giving me watchdog timeout error and machine check exception errors. I removed a stick of ram and it worked FLAWLESSLY. Restarts worked, sleeping the pc worked and hibernation worked. I thought that was it, ordered another stick of ram and thought I had defeated the problem.

Wake up in morning, same thing again.

Is this pointing towards a degraded cpu? Or possibly motherboard? The machine check exception makes me believe its a hardware fault? Really at wits end now
 
So I've been trying to track down an issue with my pc.

I5 6600K
Z170 Pro Gaming mobo
16gb ddr4 2666mhz
5600xt
Evga supernova 550w gold
1x 500gb hdd 1x 240gb ssd 1x 500gb m.2
Seinhesier headset
Roccat kone xtd
Generic keyboard
Windows 10 pro (not activated)


Started off with an odd issue with hibernating the pc and in the morning it wouldn't wake up into the OS it would start from POST then fail to load hibernation. Restart was required. Failed to boot multiple times, unplugged ssd and replugged in after numerous hard resets, removing sticks of ram etc. Eventually got it to boot after doing a number of things and worked great for 2 days.

Left it on overnight to download a couple steam games and woke up to PC asleep. Turned on and failed to boot after atleast 50 tries. Always hanging when it comes to windows logo and loading screen, circles would stop moving, restart button wont work and caps lock num lock etc not working. Wouldn't boot in safe mode, hang at the same place. Again after doing all sorts of things it eventually booted and worked great for another 2 days, played rust all day on huge maps and everything worked flawlessly.

Then it hapopend AGAIN and I resorted to reinstalling windows as I thought maybe windows.old was playing games with the boot sequence somehow. Then it started giving me watchdog timeout error and machine check exception errors. I removed a stick of ram and it worked FLAWLESSLY. Restarts worked, sleeping the pc worked and hibernation worked. I thought that was it, ordered another stick of ram and thought I had defeated the problem.

Wake up in morning, same thing again.

Is this pointing towards a degraded cpu? Or possibly motherboard? The machine check exception makes me believe its a hardware fault? Really at wits end now
As a test.
Disable hibernate and sleep.
When your finished with the pc shut it down.
When you want to use the machine power up.
What's the result?
 
Aug 29, 2021
15
1
15
As a test.
Disable hibernate and sleep.
When your finished with the pc shut it down.
When you want to use the machine power up.
What's the result?

Currently as we speak itll get to the windows logo screen with the spinning circles and it stops there. Will hang at some point during loading screen with windows logo. If I leave it for a bit itll either hang forever or bsod with machine check exception. Currently pulled it off desk and going to blast it with some compressed air to make sure there's no dust build up causing demons then if that fails going to swap to a 600w EVGA 600GD Gold psu.
 
Aug 29, 2021
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Ah, I was looking at the mobo itself. Apologies. Unfortunately dont have a 4pin speaker! It does have led for cpu and vga but they give no useful information AFAIK. Got a little side tracked with cleaning it up going to give it a go now. If not going to try that new power supply and cross fingers.

Not sure if its a function of the powersupply but the fan barely spins/doesn't spin at all. Never looked at it when it was on and underload but I think that could be a cause for concern?

Edit: eco mode was switched on so that explains that.
 
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Aug 29, 2021
15
1
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New powersupply to no effect. Still hanging at loading screen.

Unplugged gpu and tried onboard gfx to no avail.

Tried booting from ssd rather than m.2 drive to no avail.
 
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New powersupply to no effect. Still hanging at loading screen.

Unplugged gpu and tried onboard gfx to no avail.

Tried booting from ssd rather than m.2 drive to no avail.
Change the bios battery.....get it out of the mix.

If no help on a working pc put a copy of memtest86 on a flash stick and make sure it boots.
See if it will boot on the problem pc.

If it won't boot remove the gpu and use the igp...test

If no help unplug all disk...test

If no help use one stick of ram in the proper slot...test

If no help swap ram sticks...test
 
Aug 29, 2021
15
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Change the bios battery.....get it out of the mix.

If no help on a working pc put a copy of memtest86 on a flash stick and make sure it boots.
See if it will boot on the problem pc.

If it won't boot remove the gpu and use the igp...test

If no help unplug all disk...test

If no help use one stick of ram in the proper slot...test

If no help swap ram sticks...test

Thank you for your continued help, its much appreciated. 🙏

Changed the cmos battery, no change. Currently on onboard graphics with no changes. Swapped sticks to the recommended single ram slot with no changes. Changed psu with no changes(didnt plug in anything but the 24pin mobo, and cpu mobo plugs). Pointing more and more toward a mobo / cpu problem it seems.

Currently running off a bootable win10 usb and reinstalling windows with my fingers crossed (although it happened on previous installs also).

Another thing to note when it fails to boot and boots in windows repair, it runs fine. Does everything id expect it to.

Just failed installing windows 10 when it came to "Getting devices ready".
 
Aug 29, 2021
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Currently moving data that I need from m.2 drive into my hard drive then going to reformat and reinstall with fingers crossed again. I noticed that there were old windows files on the m.2 from when I cloned my ssd when I switched boot drives. Hoping that leftover files from that ssd were messing with the boot (its a seemingly intermittent issue so I'm being hopeful).
 
Aug 29, 2021
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Houston, we have take off! Had some issues with the windows installation formatting the drive so followed this tutorial

View: https://youtu.be/o4ilMAAk1Q8


And I have now successfully booted into windows!

What a wild goose chase that was... works with both sticks of ram and have successfully rebooted multiple times with no issues!!

Thank you to all who had some input. Really helps to feel like I'm not alone hahaha.
 
Aug 29, 2021
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Reading lots about machine check exception errors and it seems like the intel chipset drivers could be to blame. But not sure on how to install them without being able to get into the OS. Still desperately trying and trying as in here in New Zealand we're on lockdown for another 2 weeks.
 
Aug 29, 2021
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Another thing possibly worth noting is that in the bios the displayed ram speed will change often with seemingly no changes made to the bios settings. One boot itll say its 2133mhz another boot it'll say that is running at the rams rated 2666mhz..
 
Aug 29, 2021
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Have booted into windows 10 pro again after cleaning drive once again and resetting bios again but again not keeping my hopes up. One change I made was removing the pcie wifi card. Hoping this may have been a culprit also.

In device manager pci memory controller is showing yellow, along with sm bus controller. Have installed latest chipset drivers but they remain.
 
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Have booted into windows 10 pro again after cleaning drive once again and resetting bios again but again not keeping my hopes up. One change I made was removing the pcie wifi card. Hoping this may have been a culprit also.

In device manager pci memory controller is showing yellow, along with sm bus controller. Have installed latest chipset drivers but they remain.
I'm a bit late to this thread, but when you boot with the "windows boot stick", you have no issues correct?

i think your boot drive is borked, i would take another drive (be it hdd or sdd) and hook it up as the sole drive

give it a fresh win install, if it boots without issues (maybe test a few times) replace the ssd you have been using

if not, my guess would be a mobo issue, breadboarding may help here
 
Aug 29, 2021
15
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I'm a bit late to this thread, but when you boot with the "windows boot stick", you have no issues correct?

i think your boot drive is borked, i would take another drive (be it hdd or sdd) and hook it up as the sole drive

give it a fresh win install, if it boots without issues (maybe test a few times) replace the ssd you have been using

if not, my guess would be a mobo issue, breadboarding may help here
You missed out on all the fun! The ghost chases and whinging, the whole lot!

Am now in windows and on a clean install on a clean formatted m.2. Even after installing the graphics drivers for the 5600xt it required a restart and booted quicker than ever! Admittedly didnt add each item one by one when I had it running last in windows so it was slapped together and the problems came back. With the pcie wifi card out of it it's doing great now even with restarts for each driver I'm installing. Pci memory controller was the chipset install. I mistook the intel manger engine or some other install as the chipset drivers. Winning!!
 
You missed out on all the fun! The ghost chases and whinging, the whole lot!

Am now in windows and on a clean install on a clean formatted m.2. Even after installing the graphics drivers for the 5600xt it required a restart and booted quicker than ever! Admittedly didnt add each item one by one when I had it running last in windows so it was slapped together and the problems came back. With the pcie wifi card out of it it's doing great now even with restarts for each driver I'm installing. Pci memory controller was the chipset install. I mistook the intel manger engine or some other install as the chipset drivers. Winning!!
good news mate, happy for ya!
 
Aug 29, 2021
15
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good news mate, happy for ya!
Cheers dude, lesson learnt.

Don't slap it back together all at once, place each item in one by one until they're ruled out. Difficult when you're fixated on thinking its ram/cpu/mobo related which are the common causes but.. thats part of the fun I guess.

Now to enjoy the extra 2 weeks lockdown I have... continuing gaming! Cheers lads!
 
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