Windows 10 refuses to boot(some error displays, very short, can't read it)

[Ryuji2]

So I recently built a computer for a friend of mine in Canada and everything seemed to be fine, had some hiccups but it looked like things had finally started to work for it.

Then it gave a black screen and a boot looping error. I tried to help her diagnose it but I live in the U.S. and can only give so much help without physically being there. Tried to reset the PC and repair windows 10 by uninstalling every file related to it, to try and wipe it and restart(didn't have anything worth keeping since it was brand new).

Tried fiddling in BIOS but I don't exactly know where the option is to reset it or wipe it to a fresh and clean install of Windows 10 64 bit. Basically start all over from scratch. If left alone it'll show the windows boot screen but then give an error, then a black screen and keep boot looping no matter what you do. All you can do is go into the BIOS. All the hardware inside shows up as it working though.

The motherboard: https://www.asus.com/us/Motherboards/Z170-A/

The manual for it(maybe I'm blind and am missing something here. I don't know where the option is to reset it and wipe the computer to be completely fresh): http://dlcdnet.asus.com/pub/ASUS/mb/LGA1151/Z170-A/E10611_Z170-A_UM_V2_WEB.pdf

I'm better at hardware installation and replacement than data recovery(or in this case, getting windows to actually boot and let her play games and stuff on it) so this is still kind of new to me, especially windows 10 related things. I'm more familiar with 7.

Edit: She has all the CDs that came with everything as well. and when I had shipped it out to her, everything was working fine. I'm not sure if there was any damage incurred while shipping(could be, I don't know for sure) but it was working perfectly fine earlier today up until Skyrim crashed on her with a black screen and hard restart and then it started to boot loop, then go into windows 10 repair(tried repairing but nothing). Tried multiple times, nothing. Tried to uninstall and repair by removing all files for a fresh install, boot loop error. The *only* thing that works on that computer now is BIOS.

Any help would be extremely appreciated.

 

[okcnaline]

Ask her to boot into the Windows installation disk, then repair computer. Once there, look for boot options, boot with whatever crap. After that, it'll restart, and she'll have to select "Disable automatic restart on failure". Then she'll tell you what error code she got (should be 0x0000007B, my guess, but it's 0x, 6 0's, 2 digit to 3 digit error code), and I can help from there.

 

[Ryuji2]

Okay, I'll have to ask her tomorrow since she's asleep right now but I will give an update then and let you know.

 

[Ryuji2]

Well, got it to boot actually, we opted for a fresh install(there wasn't much at all on the SSD/HDD, still have original computer for original files like music/pictures, etc.) and there were no problems until she started using chrome to redownload stuff(however we also opted to remove the windows.old and windows.old.000 etc. folders but the disk cleanup couldn't remove them all for some reason). It messed up when she was downloading malwarebytes on it, and then again when she was looking for wallpapers. Got display errors. Had a driver error crash and recover then freeze her computer.

This is her card: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814121899&cm_re=asus_gtx_970-_-14-121-899-_-Product

Is there something about the 970 that just hates windows 10 or something? I've been going through like 30+ forum threads about people experiencing similar problems with chrome, video games and the like with Windows 10.

 

[joemannumber3]

I have a very similar problem and am very new to the site, so sorry if piggybacking on this thread is against the rules or something, but it's a fairly recent thread and very much on topic.

TL;DR: can't boot windows 10, error 0xc000007b or 0x0000007b depending on troubleshooting, already tried several solutions that haven't worked/I haven't been able to access

What was happening before the initial crash:
Finished episode 7 of One Punch Man while torrenting the last few, clicked on episode 8 to watch not knowing if it was a complete file yet, right clicked on some random window explorer but the lil menu didn't pop up, and then pain. Black screens, awsh hit moment, blue screen came up in low resolution on one of the monitors saying CRITICAL_THREAD_DIED or something of the sort, and after resetting I'm stuck in a boot loop.

What I am able to do:
After turning on the comp and seeing both the mobo and windows splash screen, bsod with the stupid and error message 0xc000007b, auto reset, mobo splash and windows splash with 'diagnosing' underneath, Automatic repair starting. At least it's a little helpful.
.Tried restarting again as per advice of AutoRepair screen, does the loop and I end up back at AutoRep.
.Open Advanced options, "Continue- Exit and continue to windows 10" fails and loops back to AutoRep
.Open Troubleshoot, where 'Reset this PC' and 'Keep my files' seems to be working, but after resting says it failed and nothing changed, then looped back to AutoRep
.Open Advanced options
- System restore, Windows can find my restore points, but after trying to use them resets with a message that it didn't work, and nothing was changed, and then it loops back to AutoRep
- System Image Recovery, I back up like once a week but never made an image because... idk why not. Just never got around to it :/ So couldn't use that
- Startup repair, took five seconds to say it couldn't repair my pc, but it printed a log file to D:\WINDOWS\...
- Command prompt, used chkdsk, chkdsk /f, and chkdsk /r but nothing appeared to be wrong
- Startup settings, I reset and tried a couple of these.
.5 Enable safe mode with networking, 4 enable safe mode, and 9 disable automatic restart after failure. All of these failed, and gave me the same 0xc000007b error, all but 9 looped back to Auto rep.
- Go back to previous build looked scary and I was tired and annoyed so i didn't try it.

Other strange things I've tested to try and find the problem:
I took the hard drive (Windows XP) out of my dinotop and tried to get it to boot in the rig, wanted me to start it in safe mode so I did, good ol' fashion bsod. Note that this bsod came very, very quickly after windows printed out all this junk looking in multiple(0)disks(0)disks(0)array(2)/asdf/asdf/asdf/DRIVERS/asdfasdf or something like that, which I get is more a problem of trying to use an old hdd in a new rig, but still. After it prints a whole screen and a half of that, 1 sec of blue screen, and then it restarts asking if I want to start in safe mode. I took a slow mo vid of it, and found the error message 0x0000007b yet again.
I also took the ssd that has windows 10 on it (that was in the rig) and put it in the dinotop just for fun, and the dinotop said it couldn't find the boot directory or a bootable device. Idk, I wasn't writing things down cause I thought it would be a simple quick fix. There was an option to troubleshoot stuff, so I said what the hell and tried it out. tests 1-3 passed (making sure cpu time was alright or something?) but test 4 failed, again I don't remember what it was testing but the error was 0000 0141- quick google search to jog my memory, and ah yes no hard drive detected. Again, this might just be a problem of new tech in old tech, but maybe not.
I took out the 970 graphics card and tried poking through Auto repair again, cause idk maybe it was causing problems with an outdated driver?
Took out the mobo cmos and put it back in after a bit to see if that would impact anything. Nope

Other info that is most likely irrelevant, but might possible help somehow:
Read on a thread somewhere that maybe my ssd is using (something) wrong, and that I should go into the registry and change the value of something to 0? Something about Sata and hd_ _... but even though that seems like something I should definitely try and what is probably the solution, I can't get to the registry to attempt it. (to my limited understanding, if I can but don't know it yet please correct me)
I've been modding hardcore on Skyrim recently, originally only subscribing to mods on the steam workshop and then letting the launcher sort things out, but recently I've installed Nexus mod manager and actual mods, but then I lost all auto and quick saves and burned with regret for a little while, actually went in with likt LOOT and SKSE and TSDEK5 or whatever all those things are, and got stuff actually sorted and without errors. Didn't get the saves back tho :/
I installed a program called hotkey edit or something, and wrote a quick script that overrides 'alt+tab' so I could sprint and open inv in Skyrim without flipping out of the active window. Idk, that might have been doing something weird, most likely not but that's the most recent program I installed to the comp before all this bs.
While doing all the troubleshooting, I unplugged all the other hard drives from the rig besides the backup in hopes that it would simplify or speed things up some how. I have a PCIe RAID adapter that slows down startup speed, but the disks it uses aren't involved with booting in any way. There is also a terebyte hdd that used to be the backup now used for storing random stuff that I unplugged, and then a 2Tb hdd that after the first cycle of trying all options in the Auto repair, I unplugged as well. It wasn't able to help in the long run.
I have been running windows 10 since it first came out (as the free upgrade from 7) with a 970 with generally no problem, any time I would mess up terribly I was able to troubleshoot or restore anything from backup. Recently (as in maybe starting at the beginning of December, month and half from this post ago) a driver update came through the Geforce experience program for the card, as usual, but past downloading it I was never able to apply the update. Updater would just stop progressing, I could continue doing other things and even abort the update, but it would never instal.
I've gotten BSOD on windows 10 before, but most of the time windows would repair itself after resetting, so no biggy.


Any help or suggestions are appreciated, even if they turn out to not lead to a solution. Good news is it's a fast rig, so it doesn't take long to test anything. Also, sorry if my horrible formatting with spaces and periods here doesn't actually look good after posting.

 

[Ryuji2]

This is a very late response but the solution was that the graphics card was sagging and caused the system to hard restart. We RMA'd the card and put a different one(same model) in and it works just fine. No sagging, happy windows.