Question PC Switching off and on Indefinitely on Power Up

WestonG

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Feb 12, 2013
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Hello,

For a couple months my PC would have trouble waking from sleep or powering up. It would power up then off again repeatedly for after a couple of seconds. After around 3-6 minutes it would eventually boot and run flawlessly. No crashes, no bugs and temps are fine. Working normally. But I noticed the boot cycle would occur every time the PC slept or was powered off. The time until a successful boot would get longer and longer each time. I have heard of Windows 10 having issues waking from sleep with certain Nvidia cards and this issue did only occur when I upgraded to an Nvidia card around a year ago. Had an AMD card before that and I never experienced this issue with it. If not the card, my only guess is a corrupt driver/driver incompatibility. Or a failing PSU.

Today the PC has been repeating this cycle for over 3 hours.

Here are the outcomes:

1) PC powers up then reboots within 2 seconds. Nothing is displayed on screen and the keyboard/mouse do not power up.
2)PC powers up for around 7 seconds but same as above.
3) PC powers up shows motherboard splash screen then freezes loading windows. The loading icon ( rotating dots) would freeze on the windows screen and the PC with it.
4) Happened once. Boots to initial windows load screen and was met with a blue screen crash. Driver_null
5) Happened once. Boots to initial windows screen and displays "Attempting Automatic Repair" Screen went black but computer stayed powered up. Left it for 30 minutes and nothing happened.

Eventually powered down PC and have been met with outcome 1, 2 or 3 indefinitely for over 2-3 hours. I've tried removing all USB devices and there was no change. I then tried removing all hard and ssd drives and the GPU. Plugged a HDMI into the motherboard instead. No change.

As I said the PC would operate fine when it would actually boot. I haven't even had a blue screen, crash or freeze other than this for over 2 years. PC was built around 4 years or so ago. I've only upgraded the GPU and added drives since internally. I did buy a new monitor and keyboard recently, but the issue was present before that. I cannot get into the system in any way to check or troubleshoot anything as it stands. I can't enter the bios in the times when the motherboard splash screen or post boot shows. Because the keyboard does not power up unless I reach the windows load screen.

Not sure what I can do at this point. Without the ability to troubleshoot from within windows or the bios. Any suggestions or troubleshooting tips would be appreciated.

Thanks

Specs:

OS: Windows 10 Pro Activated with latest update (afaik)
CPU: i5 4690k @ 4.4GHz
RAM: 2x 4GB Kingston Hyper X RAM Dual channel @ 1866MHz
MOTHERBOARD: Gigabyte GA-Z97P-D3
GPU: Asus Strix 1070 @ 2100MHz
PSU: EVGA 750W G2
Drives: 1x 250GB 850 Evo SSD, 1x 250GB Integral V SSD 1x 2TB WD Green HDD
Wireless: TP-Link N900 Network Card
Peripherals: Logitech G402 Mouse, Technet Mechanial Keyboard, Logitech LS21 2.1 Speakers, HyperX Cloud 2 Headset, Xbox One Wireless Controller for Windows w/wireless dongle.
 

WestonG

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Feb 12, 2013
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Managed to get to get to the initial windows screen again with the GPU back in, only the monitor keyboard mouse plugged in and the boot drive. It's been on "Preparing Automatic Repair" with the blue windows icon for about 45 minutes thus far. Computer staying powered on but there is no loading, progress or status on this screen. Feels like it will stay here indefinitely.
 

WestonG

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Feb 12, 2013
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Just an update

I've had the PC in this cycle for over 24 hours now. I have managed to reach the windows launch screens multiple times. It always freezes up with the system staying powered on. Also been met with the windows auto repair screen several times. It freezes there also. One time windows displayed the advanced troubleshooting screen with options to enter the recover settings and such. Which was ideal. Unfortunately I had no keyboard or mouse control at all to troubleshoot or attempt repair.

I have purchased a sata to usb enclosure and plan to connect the OS drive to my laptop for repair or wiping. Hopefully I can recover the OS. I had hoped to preserve it. I've had a flawless install of Windows 10 for years after many hours tweaking and editing. And my Skyrim install with about 3000+ mods that took me about a year to perfect 😢
 

WestonG

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Feb 12, 2013
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I connected my OS drive to my laptop and it displays fine. I can view the files of the OS and windows says there is no errors with the drive. I tried to boot from windows disk on laptop to run diagnostics or repair on the drive. My laptop outright refuses to load from the windows disk. Set it as boot and disabled any boot option that may be getting in the way like quick or secure boot. Laptop disk drive fires up then it just boots the laptops OS.

Decided to try and boot from the windows disk on my PC via a usb disk drive and it shows a windows logo (disk drive is loading spinning up) Seems to attempt to boot the disk then it freezes. A circle of dots rotated for a minute then the screen became darker and it froze. I really don't know what to do here. I've unplugged every wire and component, checked and reinstalled them. The PC has this power up and off issue with no drive connected. With or without the GPU. Nothing seems to change that behavior. Yet it will stay powered up on those times when it doesn't immediately shut back down. I just can't boot from anything. It always freezes up on either the windows load screen when trying to boot from the OS drive and the same trying to boot from a windows disk.

Appreciate any advice I'm close to throwing my PC out the window.
 

WestonG

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Feb 12, 2013
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Been troubleshooting a bit.

Stripped the PC to the bare minimum. Issue persists with only the motherboard and CPU connected. Seems most likely to be a failing PSU at this point. Thought the G2 750 would have a bit more it than that tbh. Got about 4 years out of it. Luckily it has a 10 year warranty.

I don't have access to a back-up power supply. But I do have an old Amd Phenom build in the cupboard somewhere. I'm going to use parts from current PC and see if the PSU can run that rig. Hopefully get my answer after that.
 

WestonG

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Feb 12, 2013
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Power Supply runs the AMD Phenom build with the same RAM, GPU AND PSU. Looks like it's the power delivery on the motherboard failing. Guess I'm looking at needing to buy a new Motherboard RAM and CPU, since there is no point replacing tech that old now. Have to be either a 3600x or 9600k. Kind of shit having to spent at least £400 for about 10 fps gain in games.