[SOLVED] Windows fails to boot, no recovery works

[elliethesnowfaerie]

Intel 9700k / asus prime-a z390 / mushkin 16 / (2x8) 970 sli / w10 pro / corsair rm 750 / 2x wd 500 hdd / intel 510 ssd / pny 480 ssd / hp m2 ssd

PC was working fine, just installed new board and processor and ram on sunday, until today everything was fine.

I walk away from my pc for a moment, i come back to a black screen. I restart my PC and get "critical process died." so i tried again, i kept getting it. safe mode didn't even work, kept getting it. So i ran sfc, wouldn't work. tried to repair the boot loader, well my drive is gpt so didn't work. I tried the dism, didn't work. Tried restore points, wouldn't work. Tried resetting, wouldn't work. Either the path wasn't found or it bsod'd. Also tried different ram positions, reseating the cpu.

finally i just reinstalled windows on a different drive and it posted, but then it crashed again and I'm back at square one. Help?

 

[elliethesnowfaerie]

OP here:
I was able to get it to boot into windows on the new installation and ran the intel diagnostics, no issues were found.

windows memory diagnostics haven't found an issue either.

I was able to check one of the BSOD dumps and it had something to do with a nvidia driver. I can't see all these issues happening over a nvidia driver? however I haven't had the critical process died error when i took the Gpu's out.

That said, i still can't boot into my original installation.

 

[elliethesnowfaerie]

i put my gpu's back in, now I'm getting "video scheduler error" for bsod

 

[QwerkyPengwen]

see if you can boot into safe mode.

If so that's good.

 

[QwerkyPengwen]

When you installed windows the first time, and even now the second time, did you remove all other storage devices leaving only the one you were installing to when you did it?

 

[elliethesnowfaerie]

With the gpu's in the pc, i cannot boot into safe mode. Mind you, no video drivers were installed on the fresh install.

And yes i did, I only had one drive connected.

 

[QwerkyPengwen]

are you overclocking anything?
even if you're not, try resetting BIOS to defaults.

If that doesn't work, then try bread boarding your system

How To - Breadboarding, stripping it down to the basics for troubleshooting

If you have to read this, something is very wrong with your PC such that you need to fully troubleshoot your system at the most basic hardware level, Breadboarding. A little background: breadboards were what we called our lab equipment in electronics school. I don't know why they started...

forums.tomshardware.com

 

[elliethesnowfaerie]

not overclocking, I've reset the bios to defaults multiple times, turned on/off csm, turned on/off fastboot as well, changed up the boot orders and that doesn't help. I've also changed the Cmos

As for the breading, that's essentially what my PC is. I can't listen to any beeps since I don't have the speaker, and the board doesn't have any led post blink.

old installation: with gpu = doesn't do crap
without gpu = doesn't do crap

new installation: with gpu= doesn't do crap
without gpu: boots up fine

 

[QwerkyPengwen]

are you trying with just a single GPU or with both at the same time?

 

[elliethesnowfaerie]

tried both ways, 1 gpu, 2 gpu, swapping slots, trying 1 at a time in each slot, with and without sli bridge. makes no difference

 

[QwerkyPengwen]

do you have access to another system where you can try the GPU's in there?
If so, do that and see if they work in the other system.
If they do, then it's an issue most likely with the PCIe slots on the motherboard.

If they don't work, then something is wrong with your cards.

 

[elliethesnowfaerie]

update: just tried another complete fresh install of windows 10 (with the sel disk / clean command) it booted loaded windows, then this happened. (will update when i figure out how to add photos.)

 

[QwerkyPengwen]

upload photo to https://postimages.org, then grab the direct link to the image and copy that.
Then on your post here, click the little icon of a picture, and paste then insert then post.

Or just share the link. either way.

 

[elliethesnowfaerie]

https://i.postimg.cc/1tm8bzxP/20190626-014233.jpg


Fresh install:
{Gpu A top slot
Gpu B bottom slot} = fail

{gpu B top slot
Gpu A bottom slot} = fail

{gpu B in bottom} = good
{gpu B in top} = good

{gpu A in bottom} = bad
{gpu A in top } = bad

no matter what, if gpu A is in my pc, it does not work. Gpu B is fine. Seems that my GPU failed and decided to corrupt my windows installation while it was at it. Does this seem like a reasonable conclusion?

 

[QwerkyPengwen]

I would say so.

And at this point too, if a single 970 isn't good enough for you in terms of performance, you could go out and find another one used for a cheap price, or take the opportunity if you have to money to upgrade to a used 1080/1080 Ti or the new 20 series with just a single GPU.

Depending on where you live, you may just be able to get a used 1080 Ti for $500 or less local with cash in hand.

If in America, I recommend using Craigslist and OfferUp to search your area for cards.

 

[elliethesnowfaerie]

Yeah after 5 years of having them overclocked and killing the fans and replacing them 2 times I suppose it's time to say goodbye. (can't argue, they weren't very pretty looking.)

I'm looking at getting a single rtx 2070 to replace them 🙂

I appreciate your help so much. relieves me of the stress. Just had to replace my z87 sabertooth, 4700k and psu 3 days ago and now this, i guess it's better it all goes bad at once. Least I have one gpu that works for the time being.

 

[Colif]

i know its fixed...

"critical process died." - 2 types of windows files are covered by this error. Boot files and User files, if either is corrupted then windows 10 cannot run and crashes. Its one of the few BSOD that auto kills the system. You should be able to access most of files on drive if you boot off other drive.

Safe mode: You can't boot into safe mode on win 10 unless you can get as far as the login screen or have set up a function before you try - you can set F8 to work but it has to be preset, its off by default.