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#1
Erratic startup success, fan spins but nothing on screen
This is a problem that my desktop has been having off-and-on for the past couple of years. I've tried troubleshooting it several times, always with mixed success. I just had a great experience on these forums fixing a BSOD that cropped up a couple days ago and figured this is the place to go now to get some new ideas on the start-up issue.
On a normal boot, I hear the fans whirr into action loudly, then suddenly go much quieter as the boot-up process begins. Occasionally (so far I've not been able to identify a specific pattern of activity that triggers it), the fans will whirr, but not quiet down, which always signals that nothing further is going to happen. When this occurs, I have to manually power down by pressing and holding the power button (a single button push does nothing).
When this first happened a couple years back, I worked out that the fan that kept whirring was on the graphics card, and assumed that was the problem. I did some troubleshooting and found someone online talking about error lights that were supposed to show up on this particular card if there was an issue. Those lights were there, so I replaced it as it was still under warranty. The problem seemed to go away, but then came back again not long after.
I've tried all sorts of things, and everything I've tried seems to work sometimes and then other times not, leading me to believe that the actual cause and/or cure is something entirely different that I haven't identified yet. My attempts include: unplugging and replacing the graphics card; unplugging and replacing the connectors on the graphics card; unplugging the power supply for several minutes; simple repetition of manually powering down and powering up again until it works.
Something to note that may or may not be applicable: I recently attempted to flash the BIOS, as I realized I'd never updated it and wondered if that might be the problem. Not long after that was when my BSOD appeared, which I've just recently fixed (see link above). Not sure if the two issues are connected, as the solution to the BSOD was to uninstall Symantec.
Also of note is that when booting up (when it's successful), the Asus Express Gate installation no longer succeeds, and provides the following information: "EXPRESS GATE INSTALLATION IS INCOMPLETE. VERSION-POST CODE: (L11209 - 8C000002)". Unfortunately I don't remember if this had been happening before the BSOD or if it coincided with that. Also not sure how connected this may or may not be to the main issue.
I'm attaching a System Info file in case it helps. Please let me know what other information I can supply. At this point I have no idea what else to try and I'm willing to attempt anything. Thanks!