Solved Win7 64, gigabyte mb. Won't start up anymore.

[Robwan]

Hi,

I turned my com on the this morning and it got to the glowing windows symbol and it just hung.

i hard reset with the power button as its all i could do, and now it just keeps cycling through the initial startup screen and doesn't even get to the glowing windows symbol. In other words it shows the screen of my motherboard, then just cycles through to that again withouth getting any further.

Things ive tried so far:

changed the first boot order to cdrom and tried using windows installation disk aswell as an ubuntu disk - this did nothing and just kept cycling through again.

taken out all other usb connections so im only left with the keyboard.



Things which ive done differently on my computer recently:

pretty much nothing out of ordinary, however i did use ccleaner registry clean the time just before i shut it down last when it was working. although i use registry clean quite often.

Other notes/spec:

i7 920 (which is overclocked to 3.4, but i dont run it constantly in high performance)
computer is around 2 years old, i clean the graphics every couple of months from dust, and ive cleaned the cpu area and heat sink once, about 5 months ago, i re-applied the thermal paste.

Also for as long as i can remember, every time my com starts up, it makes some noise as if something is rattling or vibrating, this last for a min at the most and then goes back to the normal humming of the computer, but its never caused any problems.

many thanks and any help is appreciated

 

[Arc]

When you booted from the windows installation disk, what happened ?

 

[Robwan]

nothing, i changed the boot order to cdrom. saved the settings with f10 and it just kept running through the same cycle again as if nothing had changed.

Does it sound like a corrupt hard drive or anything? cus thats my biggest concern due to date loss lol. I dont mind having to replace anything else

thanks

 

[Arc]

Put ubuntu live disk in the dvd rom and restart the computer. While starting up, press and hold F12 (as it is gigabyte ), upto it lists all the drives to boot from . Select DVD rom using the scroll arrow keys and hit enter . If it loads ubuntu ... very nice.

If it still loads nothing, we are to think differently .

Let us know what happened.

 

[Robwan]

Ok thanks, i had an ubuntu studio but ill burn a live disk now and give it a shot.
ill let u know that happens
thanks again

 

[Dave76]

Do you have any image backups?
Best way to be sure you don't loose any data, and good for situations like this.

Since you are posting we can assume you have another computer to try some recovery methods.
D/L the free version of Macrium Reflect, then make the bootable CD/USB Windows PE version and install it on a USB memory stick.

Try to boot it, if it still won't then disconnect the data cable on your HDD and boot from the Macrium USB stick.
This will tell us if the HDD is the problem, which would be the first thing I would check due to the noise you have been hearing.

Edit: Ubuntu live disk will do the same thing.

Still a good plan to use Macrium Reflect to backup image your HDD, you should save the backup to a different physical HDD in case your HDD ever fails you will still have the backup.

 

[Robwan]

ok thanks ill give that a try too.

although i think the noise is more virbrating of something larger like a fan, im pretty sure its not the hdd.....lol i hope not anyway.

I just in the process of disconnecting ram,gpu, hdd etc and blasting it with some compressed air just to make sure its not that. after this ill try both of the above things

thanks again

 

[Robwan]

hi again, after giving it a clean out, which ive done before many times, the problem seems to be worse, i now have no screen showing, computer is running, but not signal is being sent to the screen.

its a dvi to hdmi connection and the mother board has no onboard graphics card i assume since theres no alternative vga socket area.

gpu issue maybe?

 

[Arc]

gpu issue maybe?

Do you have , or can manage an alternative graphics card to check for ? A few months ago, I faced the same for my friends computer, which later detected as a dead onboard graphics.

 

[Robwan]

annoyingly i dont no and dont know anyone who does. not too sure what to attempt now tbh.

its as if everything seems to be running ok tho, ive got the case open so i can see that gpu fan is running, as are all other fans.

wouldn't have anything to do with using the compressed air maybe? even though ive done that before

thanks

 

[Robwan]

Ok i did some further things to try and eliminate the issue. i unplugged the hdd to make sure its not that making the noise on start up. turns out its not thank god and im now pretty sure its the gpu. it does it for about a min on start up and only when the computer has been off for some time.

is it safe to say the gpu has kicked the bucket? considering i still have no signal and cant see anything, plus ive been running it for about 2 years on a 32" hd screen and use my computer for 3d modelling as well as games a lot.

also, whats the best way for me to get files from my hdd, one of those sata usb connectors maybe?

thanks, any help is really appreciated

 

[Dave76]

Did you check all of the power cables?
Check all cables, maybe one of them got knocked loose.

If they are all ok, then be sure you eliminate static electricity by grounding yourself with a grounding strap, then remove and re-seat the graphics card and RAM. Check the slots for any debris/dust when the cards are out.

To copy the files off of you HDD, if you have access to another desktop you can plug in your HDD and copy the files out.
If you only have a laptop you can buy an external HDD enclosure, eSATA cable will work the best (more speed) but a USB connection will work also.

 

[Dwarf]

Do you have a speaker connected? Something is causing this problem, and the beep codes might help us to pinpoint what it is.

 

[Robwan]

Hi, sorry for late reply, been trying to sort stuff out regarding the problem lol.

• I checked all cables, etc everything seems fine.
• I tried to use the 2 molex to 1 pci-e instead to make sure it wasn't a duff pci-e, but no luck
• I managed to get a caddy, and all is safe on the harddrive
• I connected speakers/headphones and hear nothing, and im pretty sure i have no internal mobo speaker....damn it
  

• i went to a pc store and they kindly tested my gpu in a tower, however they only plugged one pci-e external power into it (my gpu needs 2). But it still powered up.....and no signal, which is what i hoped as i can say it's the gpu. Or maybe not? must i have both pci-e slots plugged in?

Ok so i've found someone who said they will test it for me once again in a few days (lets hope he has more power cables this time). presuming we test it properly and still no signal, shall i just go ahead and order a new gpu?


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Furthermore, if its not the gpu and i need to test other things, like taking the mobo bat out for a while to reset the cmos, then i figure i will want put it back to its overclocked settings it came with.


to do this, must ram be overclocked with the cpu? I'm quite curious about this in general.



I found these settings from someone who basically has the same build and oc as me do they look ok assuming i need to redo the overclocking in bios and is there anything else missing in the screens?
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/7618572/TitanGoliath_overclock/overclock_01.jpg
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/7618572/TitanGoliath_overclock/overclock_02.jpg
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/7618572/TitanGoliath_overclock/overclock_03.jpg


Thanks again, sorry for the long text lol

 

[Dave76]

Test your GPU with two power cables before you decide to get a new one.

If you are having any problems the first thing you need to do is set your BIOS to factory defaults, this means no overclock.
Overclocking can cause many different kinds of errors due to stability.
Set your BIOS to defaults and test for stability, this is the best way to find the cause.

If it is stable at default BIOS settings, then the cause was your OC settings.

 

[Robwan]

Ok im back again, with good news.

firsty i was being a complete dumbass....basically when i reseeded the ram, i didnt push it hard enough, on the account that i pushed it pretty dam hard and it did not slot in....so i thought maybe im not meant to push it this hard as i didnt want to break anything. So i just put the clips up and assumed thats how its done. So i was being too careful haha.

anyways, i figured i should push harder just incase and it popped in correctly.

now i have signal...and windows booted up normally.

However i reset the cmos bat before, so i went to bios and reset the date to now....booted up windows and it remembered all my overclocked settings??

How has this happened even though i reset the cmos? i didnt load any optimized defaults either lol

also, apart from backing up. is there anything else i could do now in regards to what initially happened (the system crashing at startup) and constantly rebooting

Thanks all for time in helping me out though i really appreciate it

 

[Dwarf]

You're welcome, Robwan. It's good to know that you're back up and running.

 

[Dave76]

Glad to hear you found the cause.

Most newer motherboards have saved BIOS settings function, even though re-setting CMOS should have returned them to default, it must have used the saved settings.

If you are still having crashes and reboots we can look into it further, hopefully seating the RAM will solve this.
Let us know if your system is stable.

 

[Robwan]

Yea i think the bios settings must have something to do with the date. upon first boot i left them, windows loaded and thought the date was 2009, the cpu was not overclocked either (factory settings in effect i guess). I restarted and changed the bios date to now, and it seems to have automatically loaded the oc settings.

I'll take a note of them anyhow, as i may put the cpu back to normal speeds to prolong the life, although 2.6 oc'd to 3.4 idol temp 45c isn't too heavy for now.

Think i'll back up properly now too lol.

If you are still having crashes and reboots we can look into it further, hopefully seating the RAM will solve this.
Let us know if your system is stable.

Everything seems to be running now thanks, I've done a chkdsk in cmd and had no errors. I don't wanna get too excited though so i'll see how things go over the next few days.

thanks again guys

 

[Dave76]

You're welcome.

Let us know if you have any crashes and if you don't.