SSD boots to Windows and red artifacts appear

[Thesaurus Rex]

Hi,
About a month ago I built a new PC. After installing Windows and everything. (I have a boot SSD and a 1TB hard drive) A few days ago my screen began flickering and then my PC froze, I looked at the GPU and it had turned off, it then came back on but the screen was still frozen. I rebooted my computer and it worked fine after that. The next day it did the same, this repeated a few times. Finally yesterday, when in the middle of an Overwatch game, the computer did the same thing but this time it went to a blue crash screen. After I restarted my computer the Windows logo appeared and then, after a few seconds, red artifacts appeared. I tried multiple things such as clearing the CMOS, clearing my SSD and trying to reinstall Windows. I know that something is wrong with the SSD as my hardrive will boot Windows normally.
Thanks in advance.

 

[thejackal85]

I don't think this is a hard drive issue, I think something is preventing the hard drive from starting correctly. I would start with your graphics card. Do you have a spare you can put in there to test with?

 

[Thesaurus Rex]

I don't have another GPU to test with.
The strange thing is the system works fine when I boot from the hard drive.

 

[thejackal85]

If the system works fine from booting from the HDD then the problem is apparently the SSD. Here's what I would try. Check out firmware for the SSD you have and get it installed. Make sure BIOS is setup correctly for the boot options and try again. If there's no change, then it sounds like the SSD may have some issues or its compatibility may not be there.

Did you have to supply third party drivers when installing the operating system?

 

[Thesaurus Rex]

Hi,
Last night I tried reinstalling Windows one more time. It said my SSD is locked and I don't know how it managed to do that. This morning I contacted Samsung and they said tat I will have to send in the SSD to be unlocked by them.
Thanks for the help

 

[thejackal85]

A SSD being locked? It gets even more interesting. Please let us know what they say about why.

If you feel this has been answered to our fullest extent, please mark "best solution" on your way out!

 

[Thesaurus Rex]

I realised that the SSD was not locked (it was the partition).
I reinstalled Windows, after wiping both my drives, to find that the SSD is working fine.
However when I change the resolution to 1920x1080 I end up with artifacts everywhere. I tried to install the Nvidia drivers and they say restart and then after the system reboots the drivers are not installed.

 

[thejackal85]

Ah, the partition being locked makes sense. It's always best to reformat a drive when installing a new OS, that will do it every time.

It says to restart at what point?

 

[Thesaurus Rex]

I click check for updates.
Then install.
Then restart now.
PC restarts and the drivers are not installed.

 

[thejackal85]

Where/how are you checking for updates? Through Windows Updates? If so, download the driver manually from its website and install it that way.

 

[Thesaurus Rex]

I've tried downloading manually and that did the same thing. I also tried the old version of the drivers and that didn't work.
When I check for updates I'm using Nvidia Gedorce expierience to check for updates.

 

[thejackal85]

I'm thinking its failing out because it might have to do a clean install. Uninstall the current drivers and try installing again.

 

[Thesaurus Rex]

I uninstalled the drivers and something strange has happened.
No signal is output from HDMI (even when I plug the cable into the motherboard.
When I use DVI however I get to the Windows logo and red artifacts appear, then after restarting the recovery mode screen.
Although I said I didn't think that it was the GPU as the graphics were find when I booted from the HDD, I don't think that the HDD had graphics drivers on it. Could there be a problem with the drivers or even the GPU?

 

[Thesaurus Rex]

Well I have now concluded that something is wrong with the GPU/drivers. Something could be wrong with the drivers or the GPU and until I finish testing things I won't know for sure.
The strange thing is as soon as I download (not even run) the drivers the PC goes to a black screen with re artifacts.
If my last test doesn't work I will try the GPU in a different motherboard slot and see what happens.
Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

 

[Thesaurus Rex]

I'm not sure how but everything is now stable.
The only problem is when I have no graphics drivers and I change the resolution to 1920X1080 I see artifacts. When I install the graphics drivers then I'm forced into 800X600.
Every time I restart the system the drivers need to update which is strange as I just updated to the newest drivers (today).

 

[thejackal85]

It honestly sounds like the GPU is defective. If it is, it would make sense that it has issues when you raise the resolution and have that problem right after uninstalling the drivers. If its recently purchased, I would RMA it.