Windows 7 Boots To Black Screen Blinking Cursor Intermittently. Switching off power supply Fixes it by giving "load defaults"

[kimokalihi]

When it won't boot I flip the PSU switch off for a couple seconds and turn it back on and then the pc recognizes the pc was shut down incorrectly and gives options including "Hit F2 to load default settings" which I choose and windows boots fine no issues. Used to only happen occasionally then it did it every time and then it went away for a year. Came back intermittently and now it's doing it every time again.

Hard drive or ram? Or something else? I'd rather not guess and start replacing parts left and right.

 

[digitaldoc]

Look at the SMART data for the drive using a program like Defraggler.

Also, try to run the system with only 1 stick of RAM inserted and see if that makes any difference.

 

[kimokalihi]

This is an SSD. I've read that defragging an SSD is not a good idea. Should I still use defraggler? I replaced the battery on the motherboard with a new duracell battery and the problem still exists.

 

[digitaldoc]

You are correct that you should not defragment an SSD.

Defraggler should still read the SMART data ok, as long as you do not press to defragment it. What would be 100% safe is most of the SSD manufacturers have software tools on their websites that can access this data without worrying about an accidental defrag.