z97-a USB3.1 wont boot past BIOS

[potatoatak]

My PSU died yesterday. Unfortunately, it died with a loud 'pop' and the smell of smoke. It shut off randomly, when I was not using it actively, just letting it play music. I reached over to hit the power button and when I did it 'popped'.

I bought a new PSU and the computer boots up the BIOS, but won't go past it. My OS (windows 10 64bit) is on an SSD, and I have a 1TB HDD for additional storage. The HDD is not even recognized in the BIOS as being connected but the SSD with the OS is. It is the first and only item in the list of 'boot priority'. After swapping the cables that the SSD was using with the HDD, the HDD does not show up still so I think the HDD is dead as well.

I updated the BIOS via EZ FLASH 2 utility to the latest BIOS version and the issue still persists.

I also reset the CMOS by moving the jumper over to the 2-3 pin slot and it still hangs at the BIOS.
I also removed the battery and reset CMOS again and it still hangs at the BIOS and will not boot onto my SSD.

The 'boot_device_led' is on sometimes but not everytime I restart it.

My biggest concern is that with the initial 'pop' sound I heard fried something else. How can I test for additional failure points/is there a solution to this?

Am I missing something obvious here? The PC is 3 years old.
ASUS Z-97A USB 3.1 mobo BIOS v 2801
intel i5-4690k 3.5ghz
ddr3 1333mhz 8g X2
nvidia 970

 

[jr9]

- Power supply failures can cause damaged hardware. Anything that was connected to the motherboard could be damaged. Hard drives are the most sensitive to PSU failures.

- Try booting using integrated video if it is possible with the motherboard ports. Remove the video card and hook up to the motherboard ports if they are there.

- Try booting with the HDD disconnected

- Try booting with a USB drive with ultimate boot CD or a Linux live ISO to see if you can get a session going. If you can't even get it to boot to a USB operating system, you are looking at possible damage to the motherboard or CPU or RAM.

- Try removing the HDD or SSD and trying it in another PC. You can also try as SATA to USB 3 adapter and another PC/laptop to see if it will read the drive.

 

[potatoatak]

- Power supply failures can cause damaged hardware. Anything that was connected to the motherboard could be damaged. Hard drives are the most sensitive to PSU failures.

- Try booting using integrated video if it is possible with the motherboard ports. Remove the video card and hook up to the motherboard ports if they are there.

- Try booting with the HDD disconnected

- Try booting with a USB drive with ultimate boot CD or a Linux live ISO to see if you can get a session going. If you can't even get it to boot to a USB operating system, you are looking at possible damage to the motherboard or CPU or RAM.

- Try removing the HDD or SSD and trying it in another PC. You can also try as SATA to USB 3 adapter and another PC/laptop to see if it will read the drive.

I can boot without GPU using integrated graphics. Got same error, at least I can eliminate that as the problem.

I removed HDD very on in debugging process. It would not read USB sticks until I took the HDD out for some reason.

I tried booting from USB early on in the process with and old linux ISO I had, it didnt make it far into the boot but made it past BIOS and I saw the flash of the Ubuntu screen. Just tried again and it does not recognize the USB as bootable. I removed the RAM and the computer did not even boot to BIOS, is this expected?

 

[jr9]

- Graphics card appears undamaged or unaffected, this is good.

- Try a newer version of a Linux ISO on your USB drive. Also try Hiren's Boot CD ISO on it, it contains a miniaturized version of Windows XP that is like a live CD operating system. If neither of those work, it means there is a low level hardware failure. The goal is to get into the desktop environment on either of these choices. Rufus is good for creating bootable USB drives.

- You won't get into BIOS settings with no RAM, the system will fail its power on self test the second after it turns on. A good idea would be to try another stick of RAM from somewhere else so we can also cross RAM off of the list.

 

[potatoatak]

- Graphics card appears undamaged or unaffected, this is good.

- Try a newer version of a Linux ISO on your USB drive. Also try Hiren's Boot CD ISO on it, it contains a miniaturized version of Windows XP that is like a live CD operating system. If neither of those work, it means there is a low level hardware failure. The goal is to get into the desktop environment on either of these choices. Rufus is good for creating bootable USB drives.

- You won't get into BIOS settings with no RAM, the system will fail its power on self test the second after it turns on. A good idea would be to try another stick of RAM from somewhere else so we can also cross RAM off of the list.

Tried a different OS on the bootable USB. It says 'no bootable medium found' or something like that. When I get to my BIOS it shows the USB stick under boot media, after navigating to and selecting it, the screen goes black for a few seconds and just returns to the BIOS screen. This same thing happens with my SSD.

I tried different RAM, made it to the BIOS menu still.

I'm thinking its the motherboard if all this other stuff seems to work well enough. Why would I be able to make it to the BIOS if the motherboard was busted though?

 

[jr9]

Getting into your motherboard settings is a good way to ensure that your motherboard is at least not completely destroyed but doesn't guarantee it's working properly by any means.

It should be able to boot to that USB drive and you even tried booting from it directly. Can you verify that drive is written correctly to be bootable on another PC by testing it?

If you can't boot to anything at all with different RAM and confirmed working boot devices, the motherboard may need to be replaced. There is a very small chance it could be the CPU but generally if the CPU is fried you won't get into BIOS.

If you want to sure which part it is and not gamble on it being the motherboard you could try another socket 1150 CPU or motherboard if you have a spare (unlikely), or have a shop do a diagnostic. I always recommend against buying parts guessing which one is the problem even if it's a fairly safe bet.

 

[potatoatak]

Hello again. My mobo was under warranty so I sent it back to ASUS, they determined it was FUBAR and sent me a new one. I can boot from my bootable USB now, but still not from my SSD. I managed to borrow a USB -> SATA cable, and am able to recognize the drive and its contents on other computers.

If something with the boot process or windows image is bad on the SSD, is there a way to recover it?

 

[jr9]

- Does it give you any boot errors?

- Did they send you back the exact same motherboard model?

- Is your Windows install UEFI based?

 

[potatoatak]

No boot errors, using the linux image on my usb it boots up just fine. Using the SSD with windows on it it goes to BIOS then when I select the SSD the screen goes black for about 3 seconds and takes me back to the BIOS.

Yes same motherboard model.

When checking

 C:\Windows\Panther\setupact.log

I see

Code:Callback_BootEnvironmentDetect: Detected boot environment: BIOS

My BIOS recongnizes the drive as

UEFI: NTFS Samsung SSD

 

[jr9]

- Try disabling "Launch CSM" in BIOS settings

- Try disabling "Secure Boot" in BIOS settings

 

[potatoatak]

I did both of those. So I said screw it and nuked the SSD, put a linux ISO on it, boots fine. So I guess this issue is resolved? I just need a windows install disc or something to be back up and running. Thanks for all your help and your time.

 

[jr9]

It sounds like either it was a UEFI based Windows install that is detecting it's no longer attached to the same motherboard anymore and refusing to boot or some kind of issue with the written BCD/MBR on the drive not working with the new config.

Either way Windows installs generally don't migrate well especially if the install is UEFI. I'd go ahead and clean install Windows when the install media is available to you. Recommend installing a Linux distro fully and see if everything works especially the SSD. When power supplies fail, drives can be damaged.