Qs Laptop
Thinks s/he gets paid by the post
- Joined
- Mar 11, 2018
- Messages
- 4,410
OK, this was weird. I'm hoping with all the knowledgeable people here someone might have an answer.
Computer: Home built in 2014, ASRock Z87 Extreme4 motherboard, Intel i5-4670, 16GB Ram, Nvidia GEForce GTX 760 GPU, Sandisk 240GB SSD (Windows 10 is installed here) 136GB used, 1TB Seagate data drive, 56GB used.
Symptoms:
1. Computer would not boot properly. Computer would start to boot up for maybe 2-3 seconds, then power down. This would repeat a couple of times. If I got lucky the computer would not power down after 2-3 seconds, would boot up and eventually I would get to the Windows 10 login screen. If I got lucky with this boot up process, it would take about 90 seconds to get to the Windows login screen. Typically, when working properly the boot up process would take 20 seconds or so. With the lengthy boot up process I would get no POST beep codes.
2. Computer would not power down properly. It would just sit idling, no HDD shut down activity, HDD busy light would not flash. I would have to press and hold power button down for 5 seconds to get the computer to shut down.
What I did:
I cleaned the dust out of the box, from all fans, and from the CPU cooler. It wasn't that dusty, but as long as I had the case open...
I replaced the CMOS battery, hoping this would reset BIOS and allow me to boot the computer normally. This did not fix the problem.
I pulled RAM sticks, cleaned the edge connectors with a fresh pencil eraser and reseated them.
Pulled the GPU, reseated it.
Pulled all power cables connecting to motherboard, HDD's, and GPU and reseated them.
None of this fixed the problem.
When I had all power cables disconnected I tested the 24 pin motherboard power connector for proper voltage levels. All were within specs. Still, all these symptoms made this smell like a power supply problem to me.
I hooked everything back up and immediately after pressing the power button I pressed the CMOS reset button on the motherboard. This caused it to boot the computer, but in the slow, 90 seconds "lucky" method previously described. Still, it was something.
I restarted the computer, pressing the CMOS reset button again and this time I entered BIOS. I looked at the boot menu and was shocked to see the SSD drive, containing the Win 10 OS, was not to be found. The boot menu sequence was Windows Boot Manager, then 1 TB data HDD. I also noticed the POST beep sound was disabled. I put the SSD back in the boot sequence and enabled the POST beep sound.
Since then computer has been running normally. But...what caused the SSD to be removed from the boot sequence? Is it starting to fail? Should I replace it?
Computer: Home built in 2014, ASRock Z87 Extreme4 motherboard, Intel i5-4670, 16GB Ram, Nvidia GEForce GTX 760 GPU, Sandisk 240GB SSD (Windows 10 is installed here) 136GB used, 1TB Seagate data drive, 56GB used.
Symptoms:
1. Computer would not boot properly. Computer would start to boot up for maybe 2-3 seconds, then power down. This would repeat a couple of times. If I got lucky the computer would not power down after 2-3 seconds, would boot up and eventually I would get to the Windows 10 login screen. If I got lucky with this boot up process, it would take about 90 seconds to get to the Windows login screen. Typically, when working properly the boot up process would take 20 seconds or so. With the lengthy boot up process I would get no POST beep codes.
2. Computer would not power down properly. It would just sit idling, no HDD shut down activity, HDD busy light would not flash. I would have to press and hold power button down for 5 seconds to get the computer to shut down.
What I did:
I cleaned the dust out of the box, from all fans, and from the CPU cooler. It wasn't that dusty, but as long as I had the case open...
I replaced the CMOS battery, hoping this would reset BIOS and allow me to boot the computer normally. This did not fix the problem.
I pulled RAM sticks, cleaned the edge connectors with a fresh pencil eraser and reseated them.
Pulled the GPU, reseated it.
Pulled all power cables connecting to motherboard, HDD's, and GPU and reseated them.
None of this fixed the problem.
When I had all power cables disconnected I tested the 24 pin motherboard power connector for proper voltage levels. All were within specs. Still, all these symptoms made this smell like a power supply problem to me.
I hooked everything back up and immediately after pressing the power button I pressed the CMOS reset button on the motherboard. This caused it to boot the computer, but in the slow, 90 seconds "lucky" method previously described. Still, it was something.
I restarted the computer, pressing the CMOS reset button again and this time I entered BIOS. I looked at the boot menu and was shocked to see the SSD drive, containing the Win 10 OS, was not to be found. The boot menu sequence was Windows Boot Manager, then 1 TB data HDD. I also noticed the POST beep sound was disabled. I put the SSD back in the boot sequence and enabled the POST beep sound.
Since then computer has been running normally. But...what caused the SSD to be removed from the boot sequence? Is it starting to fail? Should I replace it?