[SOLVED] Why is my computer stuck at boot

Jun 12, 2019
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When I boot my computer, it comes up through the normal process then gets stuck on the gpu boot screen with the blinking dash line. Recently I had tried to put windows on another SSD with the same key, afterwards it started to do this.
 
Solution
I don't think any further progress is possible until you try a new gpu, and at least consider, if that doesn't work, testing the set up with a different psu. I understand that you have confidence in the psu. Nonetheless 5 to 10% of expensive psus fail in the first 6 weeks to 6 months and probably twice that number of the cheaper ones. So you might have gotten "lucky" in the psu department.

As I said in post above, I think you're at the point where you have to consider the hardware one by one.

Another boot problem may emanate from the RAM, so assuming you have two to four sticks I would try booting with only ONE stick of RAM in your manual's recommended slot for solo RAM stick, and testing the RAM one by one. If you're "lucky" a...

gn842a

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Well the obvious thing to do is to make a mirror of the original SSD on the new SSD. Then it should behave exactly as the old one. There are lots of utilities that will do this. I used a 5 year old CD copy of Acronis just the other day and the new SSD with its OS works fine.

In theory just installing a new drive and putting your OS on it should work, though, if it is Win 10.

If you've had your hands in there make sure everything is still connected correctly to the psu and to the motherboard and to the new drive etc. Make sure the gpu is firmly seated in the slot. Ram too.

Unfortunately this kind of thing often signals a dead psu so at least verify that the fan is turning in the psu.

If you were tempted, while putting in the new SSD, to use power cables from some other build or some other psu--anything that is NOT the one that you are using--then you may have done some permanent damage to your peripherals.

The psu uses the cables that come with it.

If you want to try reinstallling the OS again that might work--especially if you disconnect from the internet during the actual set up.

Greg N
 
Jun 12, 2019
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Well I tried to reinstall windows but it wouldn’t go past the boot up of the gpu. My psu is fine and everything is seated properly. I just can’t get it to move past the gpu start up screen and move into the OS or even the installation setup. I can’t even get into my bios or anything else.
 

gn842a

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Well I tried to reinstall windows but it wouldn’t go past the boot up of the gpu. My psu is fine and everything is seated properly. I just can’t get it to move past the gpu start up screen and move into the OS or even the installation setup. I can’t even get into my bios or anything else.

Well first off I'd say, take the video cable out of the gpu and put it into the video outlet on the mobo, whichever it is for you (DVI, hdmi, displayport). See if in fact you do get a basic boot. You should be able to get into the UEFI that way.

See if you can run setup from the motherboard's connection to the monitor--keep matters simple, disconnect from the internet and refuse connections to cloud services. If it does set up, plug in your ethernet cable and get your gpu drivers right away. Just use the microsoft browser don't install anything else.

Greg N
 

gn842a

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Tried all of that, got no result

It looks like a tough situation. The main thing that points to an OS problem is that you switched SSDs. Make a mental note in the future to do that by making a mirror of the one on the other.

As for the current situation there is little financial risk in getting a new copy of Win 10, they are very cheap, and seeing if you can do a fresh install.

The other option is to make a mirror of the SSD that you were trying to replace. At a minimum it should allow you to determine whether your problems are hardware or software. => Or for that matter just put the original back in and see if any of these problems go away.

To do a mirror you need access to another computer where you can hook up the two drives and mirror the original on to the new one.

Meantime you haven't really said whether you're using Win 10 or 8.1 or 7. It is true that the OS key is wedded to the motherboard (for 8.1 and 7) and, in theory, an install of a new ssd should be easy peasy on a motherboard that already recognizes the key. But the earlier versions of Window were specifically made to be difficult to transfer. If you are attempting "open internet" installations (instead of local) the mind boggles at how much could go wrong. :(

Greg N
 
Last edited:
Jun 12, 2019
9
1
15
It looks like a tough situation. The main thing that points to an OS problem is that you switched SSDs. Make a mental note in the future to do that by making a mirror of the one on the other.

As for the current situation there is little financial risk in getting a new copy of Win 10, they are very cheap, and seeing if you can do a fresh install.

The other option is to make a mirror of the SSD that you were trying to replace. At a minimum it should allow you to determine whether your problems are hardware or software. => Or for that matter just put the original back in and see if any of these problems go away. Meantime you haven't really said whether you're using Win 10 or 8.1 or 7.

I have tried to reinstall it with a usb but it won’t move past the boot screen of the GPU. It stays at the Nvidia start up screen and goes no where. I’m using windows 10
 

gn842a

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I have tried to reinstall it with a usb but it won’t move past the boot screen of the GPU. It stays at the Nvidia start up screen and goes no where. I’m using windows 10

So what happens if you put back in the SSD you took out. I hope you still have it. Whenever I change something I hang on to whatever it is I took out because at least I know that it was functioning. When I look at a box with stored computer stuff in it and I no longer remember what is inside then I consider it safe to landfill.

Greg N
 

gn842a

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it does the exact same thing.

I confess that I'm running out of tricks that don't involve new hardware. If you had a gpu that didn't work properly, you would not be the first. I suggest you go to Newegg and read the (bad, one star) comments for your gpu and see if you find similar symptoms. You can of course also search the net more generally combine terms like "black screen" or "won't boot" with your gpu model. You may land up in a bunch of different fora where people discuss your problem.

I will say though that for the RX 500s I read tons of articles and even though symptoms were often the same solutions were not. Frankly I think my psu started working because I got a new cable.

I was, incidentally, hung up in a situation tonight that had some similarities. I was changing some hardware (swapping one gpu for another) and decided to boot into safe mode to put in latest drivers. I never got that far. So soon as I was in Safe Mode the mouse switched off and I couldn't do anything. If I rebooted I came back into safe mode. After getting very frustrated I remembered I had a mirror of the OS in the closet and by swapping them got the machine to boot.

My thought on this topic is that somehow I did something in the hardware switching that fried one or more drivers. But when the drivers are missing the hardware essentially disappears from the system. But the hardware can also "disappear" from the system if it out and out fails as a unit. But when you put your old SSD in it had all the drivers from its previous service. We have to assume the drivers are there. So it's not lack of drivers.

So now we're looking at hardware and the "big three" are psu, mobo, and gpu.

The ideal thing would be to test by gpu by putting it in another computer. And test the mobo by providing it with a known working gpu from somewhere else.

Brute force trial and elimination.

GN
 
Jun 12, 2019
9
1
15
I confess that I'm running out of tricks that don't involve new hardware. If you had a gpu that didn't work properly, you would not be the first. I suggest you go to Newegg and read the (bad, one star) comments for your gpu and see if you find similar symptoms. You can of course also search the net more generally combine terms like "black screen" or "won't boot" with your gpu model. You may land up in a bunch of different fora where people discuss your problem.

everything I try seems to give me the same result. It goes through boot bottom right says the same B4, A2, and B2 codes, then after a few minutes it shows “GeForce GT710 2GB PCIe Version 80.28.A6.00.15 Copyright (C) 1996-2015 NVIDIA Corp ” blinking “” and nothing else. I can’t get into BiOS at all with or without the gpu.
 

gn842a

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Oct 10, 2016
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I don't think any further progress is possible until you try a new gpu, and at least consider, if that doesn't work, testing the set up with a different psu. I understand that you have confidence in the psu. Nonetheless 5 to 10% of expensive psus fail in the first 6 weeks to 6 months and probably twice that number of the cheaper ones. So you might have gotten "lucky" in the psu department.

As I said in post above, I think you're at the point where you have to consider the hardware one by one.

Another boot problem may emanate from the RAM, so assuming you have two to four sticks I would try booting with only ONE stick of RAM in your manual's recommended slot for solo RAM stick, and testing the RAM one by one. If you're "lucky" a faulty stick of RAM may be gumming up your boot. And I say "lucky" because it's an easier fix than gpu or psu.

Greg N
 
Solution
Jun 12, 2019
9
1
15
As I said in post above, I think you're at the point where you have to consider the hardware one by one.

Another boot problem may emanate from the RAM, so assuming you have two to four sticks

I can test my psu to see if it’s a power problem, I only have one motherboard and only one stick of ram, the other thing I can think of is the mobo but I don’t have another one to test with. Plus since I can’t get into the bios I don’t think I can flash it and update the mobo bios to see if that fixes it. From what I see, I have to be able to get to the bios to flash it
 

gn842a

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Well you shouldn't give up on the mobo till you have tested another gpu.

Unless someone is willing to step in with a fresh look and better wisdom, you may be looking at a new build.

How much that will cost will depend on what you determine is working/not working on your current build.

GN
 

gn842a

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Either way, in other words, you're going to do a component by component test to figure out what you can keep and what you can't, so it would be helpful if you could get access to another computer to test some of your stuff.