[SOLVED] PC not booting into Windows after being without power

[Chaii]

My PC was without power for over 2 weeks and when I booted it up again it would hang at the motherboard splash screen. I can press the keys to get it to the boot menu or BIOS but it takes a couple minutes for it to get there. After I make sure the SSD with Windows 10 is selected as the boot option and restart it will just show a black screen. I also tried booting into a USB windows installation but still it would just show a black screen.

Other things I've tried:

• I've read the troubleshooting checklist sticky and triple checked everything
• checked all connections
• reset CMOS via paperclip
• replaced the CMOS battery
• reset BIOS
• updated BIOS
• unplugged all peripherals including all other drives
• switching between UEFI/Legacy modes
• disabling CSM (The SSD wasn't even detected with it off)
• Reseating RAM and GPU

I've had this system for several years now so it's possible there's hardware failure somewhere but the motherboard gives a short beep when it starts up which according to the manual means everything is OK. Also everything is detected fine and working in BIOS when it finally shows up and everything was working perfectly before I powered it off.

Specs:

• Motherboard: Gigabyte b360m-ds3h
• CPU: Intel Core i5 8400
• GPU: RTX 2070
• RAM: HyperX Fury 2400MHz DDR4 4gb x4
• PSU: EVGA 600B1
• SSD: Samsung 860 EVO 500gb

 

[Darkbreeze]

If you unplug ALL drives, do you still have a problem with it taking a long time to get into the BIOS?

And by "unplug" I mean remove both the SATA data and power connections from each drive, or remove the drive entirely if it's an M.2 drive.

 

[Chaii]

If you unplug ALL drives, do you still have a problem with it taking a long time to get into the BIOS?

And by "unplug" I mean remove both the SATA data and power connections from each drive, or remove the drive entirely if it's an M.2 drive.

Yes, no matter what I do it always takes a long time.

 

[Darkbreeze]

What are your FULL hardware specs? Please include ALL model numbers if possible for CPU, graphics card, power supply, memory kit, etc.

 

[Chaii]

Sorry, I should have listed everything. I'll update my original post with the specs

 

[Darkbreeze]

First thing you need to do is get rid of that EVGA B1 600w piece of crap. I'd be surprised if that wasn't half your problem, or at least the initial cause of half your problems.

So, aside from replacing that POS, and it IS a major POS of a PSU, I'd bench it all as outlined in my guide, but I'd connect only a single stick of memory, in the A2 slot, no graphics card (Use the integrated graphics through the motherboard outputs) and no drives attached, to see if the problem with the slow POST into the BIOS goes away. If not, try a different stick of RAM. If that doesn't work, it's just about got to be the motherboard if it isn't the PSU.

What CPU cooler are you running?

How To - Motherboard bench testing

Finding the problem through bench testing If you are here then it’s likely you have encountered a serious hardware issue and have been unable to resolve it using the standard no-POST troubleshooting procedures. If you have not yet attempted to resolve your issues using the no-POST...

forums.tomshardware.com

 

[Chaii]

OK, so I ran it with no drives plugged in and it jumped straight into the BIOS. I even tried it with the other drives plugged in except for the boot drive (don't know why I didn't think of that before) and it went into an automatic repair screen. One of the HDDs used to be my boot drive before I got the SSD so there's gotta be something left over from that. Now that I think about it the SSD was never listed as Windows Boot Manager in the BIOS but the HDD sometimes was.

Even if I try to boot directly into the installation USB or anything else, if I have that SSD plugged in it won't work. Does all of that mean the SSD failed? I find that strange because there weren't any issues before I shut the system down.

What CPU cooler are you running?

Cooler Master Hyper 212 Evo.

 

[Darkbreeze]

Ok, so if you had Windows previously installed on one of the other drives, and it was attached when you installed Windows on your primary drive, you probably need to reinstall because the EFI boot partition probably wasn't created from scratch and the installation used the one on the other drive. ANY time you install Windows, ALL other drives except the flash drive you are installing from and the drive you are installing TO should be disconnected until after the installation is complete.

I would recommend that you disconnect all drives except for the SSD and your flash drive with Windows installation media on it, and reinstall Windows. If you are unable to do it with the SSD, try it with another drive, without the SSD attached. If that works, then it's very likely there is a problem with the SSD and you may need to do a warranty return (RMA).

 

[Chaii]

If that SSD is connected it won't boot from the installation media so I won't be able to repair or reinstall Windows onto the SSD. I was planning on upgrading to an M.2 drive soon anyway so I'll just take this opportunity to do that and see if I can recover anything from the SSD afterwards. I'll get a better PSU while I'm at it. The new drive will arrive in a couple days so I'll update after I get that installed. Thanks for all your help so far.

 

[Darkbreeze]

You are welcome, and regarding the power supply, you want a GOOD 550-650w unit, and I'd highly recommend that you use the information at the following two links, one of which is my guide and is a bit out of date (I need to refresh it with some additional more recent models but still offers valuable assistance with knowing what to look at and what to avoid) and also the PSU cultists tier list which has a few anomalies on it as far as accuracy IMO but overall is mostly trustworthy. If you get something off the A or B tiers on that list, you are very unlikely to end up with a piece of crap.

Discussion - PSU recommendations and power supply discussion thread - Tom's hardware

Below you will find MY standard list of recommended power supplies and beyond that this thread is intended as a landing place for questions or discussions regarding specific units, platforms or related PSU tech, all of which are all welcome to be discussed here. If it's related to power supplies...

forums.tomshardware.com

Article - [psucultists] PSU tier list rev. 14.8 (Final Update Jul '21)

PSU Tier List 4.0 rev. 14.8 (outdated) Last Update: 12-07-2021 Legend : Gray - EoL/obsolete and/or otherwise not recommended for purchase. Green - small form-factor (gold and blue colors are disregarded due to scarcity of SFX PSUs) Gold - best units in the tier (includes requirements for blue...

forums.tomshardware.com

 

[Chaii]

So with just the new drive installed and nothing else I was able to get into Windows installation. Something must have happened to the SSD while it was without power that the motherboard just didn't like. I ended up ordering a new motherboard as well just in case there was an underlying issue with it somewhere. As for the PSU, I got a Seasonic Focus GX-750 on sale. It's more power than I need but it was cheaper and I'll be upgrading more in the near future anyway. Thanks Darkbreeze for all your help.

 

[Darkbreeze]

Glad it all worked out man. Good luck to you.