PC takes two tries to start?

[KingGreGre]

Hello all,

I'm running the following setup:
PC Specifications:
Intel Core i7-4790
Intel H81-M E33
16GB G.SKILL Ripjaws X 1600MHZ
EVGA GTX 970 SC w/ ACX 2.0
Toshiba DTAC000100 1TB HDD
EVGA Supernova 650 G2 PSU
Windows 8.1 64-bit

I'm not entirely sure what the issue is. Just last night, I noticed that it seems my PC is taking two attempts to boot. When I push the power, the PC will begin to power on, display the splash screen and the loading circle, and when the splash screen fades, I hear a click in my PC, which is the hard drive turning off, and the screen blanks out. The HDD then immediately restarts, and the splash screen starts again, booting a second time. During the process, none of the other components in the PC turn off or restart besides the HDD. I've pinpointed the click noise to be the hard drive, for sure, but I haven't made any changes to the PC that would cause this to happen. Everything is stock, no overclocks, no voltages have been changed. SMART tests show that the HDD is/should be fine. Is my HDD dying, or is there some other component that could be causing this? I do not believe it is PSU related. Perhaps it is MB/BIOS related? Once the boot process is over, the system seems to be completely fine. Stress tests and gaming show no signs of any other issues.

Any ideas as to what is happening are much appreciated.

Thanks!
~KingGreGre

 

[jakjawagon]

My guess would be the RAM. First try reseating it. If that doesn't help, check the BIOS to make sure it's all detected and running at the right speed, voltage etc.
If it's not that, and you don't think it's the PSU then I don't know.

 

[leo2kp]

This happened to me with a Gigabyte board, but it was overclocking related. If I unplugged the machine then plugged it back in and turned it on, it would make voltage changes then restart. For me it was a BIOS issue. I picked up a Rev. 2.0 board and the issue was resolved.

 

[KingGreGre]

My guess would be the RAM. First try reseating it. If that doesn't help, check the BIOS to make sure it's all detected and running at the right speed, voltage etc.
If it's not that, and you don't think it's the PSU then I don't know.

I've reseated the RAM, checked BIOS, both sticks are detected and functioning properly.

 

[panathas]

It seems that your whole system is restarting and not just the hard disk. That whole thing seems BIOS or hardware related. Any device you have connected to your system could also keep causing this. Try unplugging the hard drive, SSD, GPU, USB devices and everything else from your motherboard, leaving only one stick of RAM and internal Intel CPU. Then try booting. If it doesn't fix the issue try the other RAM stick. If it works with both RAM modules installed then one of your other devices is responsible. Try plugging one at a time in order to find the one causing this behaviour.

If your system keeps booting twice with the above minimum configuration then it's time to check the BIOS. First try to update the BIOS to its latest version. Then enter into the BIOS and try loading BIOS default options. Finally if the issue keeps happening try resetting the CMOS. You can find further details on how to do that in your motherboard's manual. One last thing is you could check your BIOS and find a setting about quick boot or boot testing or something similar. You have to disable quick boot or enable boot testing. Then the boot process will take longer to complete because it will make more tests to all your devices. That way you may find if one of your devices is failing.

Finally if all of the above fail then you may have a failing motherboard. If it's still under warranty you should consider RMAing it.

EDIT: I forgot about your PSU. As a last and final step and before RMAing that motherboard try testing your system with another PSU, if you can borrow one from a friend. Maybe your PSU is failing although it is good unit. You never know even the best PSUs in the market fail sometimes.

 

[KingGreGre]

It seems that your whole system is restarting and not just the hard disk. That whole thing seems BIOS or hardware related. Any device you have connected to your system could also keep causing this. Try unplugging the hard drive, SSD, GPU, USB devices and everything else from your motherboard, leaving only one stick of RAM and internal Intel CPU. Then try booting. If it doesn't fix the issue try the other RAM stick. If it works with both RAM modules installed then one of your other devices is responsible. Try plugging one at a time in order to find the one causing this behaviour.

If your system keeps booting twice with the above minimum configuration then it's time to check the BIOS. First try to update the BIOS to its latest version. Then enter into the BIOS and try loading BIOS default options. Finally if the issue keeps happening try resetting the CMOS. You can find further details on how to do that in your motherboard's manual. One last thing is you could check your BIOS and find a setting about quick boot or boot testing or something similar. You have to disable quick boot or enable boot testing. Then the boot process will take longer to complete because it will make more tests to all your devices. That way you may find if one of your devices is failing.

Finally if all of the above fail then you may have a failing motherboard. If it's still under warranty you should consider RMAing it.

EDIT: I forgot about your PSU. As a last and final step and before RMAing that motherboard try testing your system with another PSU, if you can borrow one from a friend. Maybe your PSU is failing although it is good unit. You never know even the best PSUs in the market fail sometimes.

Thank you, panathas, this was a huge help! For my first test, I unplugged only three things, which were my USB peripherals, my keyboard, mouse, and headset. To my surprise, the PC booted successfully on the first attempt, which means that one of my USB peripherals may have been causing the issue. If that's the case, could it be related to one of my USB drivers? If so, how can I fix this?

EDIT: Figured I should mention what the peripherals are.
The keyboard is a Thermaltake esports Poseidon Z Keyboard
The mouse is a Logitech G300S
The headset is a Logitech G430

 

[panathas]

OK that's a good start but you should know that this doesn't necessarily mean that one of those devices is responsible for this issue. It may as well still be a BIOS related issue and the fact that you unplugged those devices just changed some BIOS configuration settings. It may also be a bad or failing USB port on your motherboard. It has nothing to do with drivers because drivers don't load until windows start and they don't play any role during the boot process.

Did you have a USB hub plugged with all these peripherals or there were plugged individually into the motherboard? If you did have a hub then you probably have found the suspect. If you are using the motherboard USB ports try plugging one by one in a new USB port that you haven't used before and see what happens. If all pass this little test, then it's time to check your USB ports one by one. If one device or one USB port fail you have again found the likely suspect. If by any chance you cannot replicate the boot issue and all your USB peripherals and USB ports work fine then it's time to check your BIOS. Try updating to its latest version and after that do a BIOS/CMOS reset. Just check your motherboard's manual for the process.

Finally it may have been an isolated incident and something in your BIOS may have stuck and the simple thing of plugging or unplugging a peripheral fixed it. In those situation it is also recommended to do a CMOS reset as I said above. It will fix a lot of stubborn BIOS issues. Good luck.

 

[KingGreGre]

OK that's a good start but you should know that this doesn't necessarily mean that one of those devices is responsible for this issue. It may as well still be a BIOS related issue and the fact that you unplugged those devices just changed some BIOS configuration settings. It may also be a bad or failing USB port on your motherboard. It has nothing to do with drivers because drivers don't load until windows start and they don't play any role during the boot process.

Did you have a USB hub plugged with all these peripherals or there were plugged individually into the motherboard? If you did have a hub then you probably have found the suspect. If you are using the motherboard USB ports try plugging one by one in a new USB port that you haven't used before and see what happens. If all pass this little test, then it's time to check your USB ports one by one. If one device or one USB port fail you have again found the likely suspect. If by any chance you cannot replicate the boot issue and all your USB peripherals and USB ports work fine then it's time to check your BIOS. Try updating to its latest version and after that do a BIOS/CMOS reset. Just check your motherboard's manual for the process.

Finally it may have been an isolated incident and something in your BIOS may have stuck and the simple thing of plugging or unplugging a peripheral fixed it. In those situation it is also recommended to do a CMOS reset as I said above. It will fix a lot of stubborn BIOS issues. Good luck.

After some more tinkering with USB ports, removing/replacing GPU and other peripherals, I decided to clear the CMOS and see what the result would be. After replacing the battery, I booted in to BIOS, reset the date/time, and manually configured my RAM to run at the proper voltage/speed. (I noticed the frequency on the RAM was lower than it should be) I then saved settings and shut down. Upon rebooting a few times, every single boot was perfectly normal, and super speedy. I believe the problem is solved! I will update tomorrow to confirm for certain that everything is good to go. Thank you for your help!