PC wont boot 9/10 times

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hey guys, 

(TLDR see below)

i have had big troubles with my PC for a while now and was unable to 
find a solution, neither through google nor though some hardware forums 
where i created threads. i hope that u guys here will be able to help!

a while ago my PC started failing to boot. all fans would be moving, 
but my monitor would say "no signal", the small red LED on my front 
pannel that indicates my harddrive is working would NOT light up, but 
there would be no POST beeps at all. all this started out of the blue, 
no hardware changes shortly before.

i tried to check if all hardware was correctly connected. i tried my 2
 ram sticks separately and while trying around the PC would eventually 
boot and run w/o problems for hours. after shutting it down that day and
 trying to boot on the next day, it would all fail again. fans moving, 
no signal on monitor and red Harddrive led not lighting up. shutting it 
on and off or pressing / holding the reset button would eventually make 
the red led light up and the PC would boot normally and run w/o problems
 for hours.

i tried to find solutions/help in forums but was unable to. i then 
decided i would install windows 10, to see if that helped. installing 
worked, every time it tried to restart during installing win10 i obv had
 to try a couple more times to get it to boot. but it installed and for a
 few days nothing had changed. i was now using win10 but still had to 
give it a couple of tries to get the boot working.

then today after a couple of tries, windows 10 would show a BSOD 
during startup reporting "Inaccessible Boot Device" and that it needed 
to restart. after restarting (again, had to try a couple times), windows
 again showed a BSOD, this time giving optons to restore to a earlier 
restore point (didnt help), restarting and other stuff, none of which 
helped. restarting would just result in the same BSOD cycle again.

my motherboard is a asrock h77 pro4-m 
i tried resetting bios to default which worked but did not help. 
i tried to open the pc and see if i could find any loose hardware and so on.

tldr:

-when trying to boot i get no signal on my monitor and the red 
harddrive LED is not lighting up. fans are running and no POST beeps 
most of the time. 

-sometimes when trying again or hitting the reset button the red led 
would light up and shortly after my monitor would get a signal and 
windows would boot.

-tried my ram sticks: both sticks (dual channel, inserted into the 
correct slots results in post beeps and no boot, ever.) each ram stick 
individually results in sometimes being able to boot and if it doesnt 
there are no post beeps. inserting no ram always gives post beeps.

-new problem: since today even if the boot eventually works, now 
windows is stuck in a BSOD cyclew that tells me "Inaccessible Boot 
Device" and that it needed to restart after eventually managing to 
restart it shows another BSOD saying windows failed to boot system 
restore point and stuff but nothing helps.

would REALLY appreciate any kind of help. pretty sure some part(s) of
 my hardware are failing but how do i figure out which? isnt it strange 
that after failing to boot for a few times, the pc would then finally 
boot and run for hours w/o any problems? and next boot the same problem 
would start again? and now this BSOD bullsh*t...

thanks guys

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gbtg Members Profile Send Private Message Find Members Posts Add to Buddy List Newbie Joined: 18 May 2016 Status: Offline Points: 6	Post Options Post Reply Quote gbtg Report Post Thanks(0) Quote Reply Topic: PC wont boot 9/10 times Posted: 18 May 2016 at 3:40am
	hey guys, (TLDR see below) i have had big troubles with my PC for a while now and was unable to find a solution, neither through google nor though some hardware forums where i created threads. i hope that u guys here will be able to help! a while ago my PC started failing to boot. all fans would be moving, but my monitor would say "no signal", the small red LED on my front pannel that indicates my harddrive is working would NOT light up, but there would be no POST beeps at all. all this started out of the blue, no hardware changes shortly before. i tried to check if all hardware was correctly connected. i tried my 2 ram sticks separately and while trying around the PC would eventually boot and run w/o problems for hours. after shutting it down that day and trying to boot on the next day, it would all fail again. fans moving, no signal on monitor and red Harddrive led not lighting up. shutting it on and off or pressing / holding the reset button would eventually make the red led light up and the PC would boot normally and run w/o problems for hours. i tried to find solutions/help in forums but was unable to. i then decided i would install windows 10, to see if that helped. installing worked, every time it tried to restart during installing win10 i obv had to try a couple more times to get it to boot. but it installed and for a few days nothing had changed. i was now using win10 but still had to give it a couple of tries to get the boot working. then today after a couple of tries, windows 10 would show a BSOD during startup reporting "Inaccessible Boot Device" and that it needed to restart. after restarting (again, had to try a couple times), windows again showed a BSOD, this time giving optons to restore to a earlier restore point (didnt help), restarting and other stuff, none of which helped. restarting would just result in the same BSOD cycle again. my motherboard is a asrock h77 pro4-m i tried resetting bios to default which worked but did not help. i tried to open the pc and see if i could find any loose hardware and so on. tldr: -when trying to boot i get no signal on my monitor and the red harddrive LED is not lighting up. fans are running and no POST beeps most of the time. -sometimes when trying again or hitting the reset button the red led would light up and shortly after my monitor would get a signal and windows would boot. -tried my ram sticks: both sticks (dual channel, inserted into the correct slots results in post beeps and no boot, ever.) each ram stick individually results in sometimes being able to boot and if it doesnt there are no post beeps. inserting no ram always gives post beeps. -new problem: since today even if the boot eventually works, now windows is stuck in a BSOD cyclew that tells me "Inaccessible Boot Device" and that it needed to restart after eventually managing to restart it shows another BSOD saying windows failed to boot system restore point and stuff but nothing helps. would REALLY appreciate any kind of help. pretty sure some part(s) of my hardware are failing but how do i figure out which? isnt it strange that after failing to boot for a few times, the pc would then finally boot and run for hours w/o any problems? and next boot the same problem would start again? and now this BSOD bullsh*t... thanks guys

Xaltar Members Profile Send Private Message Find Members Posts Add to Buddy List Moderator Group Joined: 16 May 2015 Location: Europe Status: Offline Points: 22838	Post Options Post Reply Quote Xaltar Report Post Thanks(1) Quote Reply Posted: 18 May 2016 at 12:32pm
	Disconnect the Hard Disk and try powering up the system without it a few times. If it boots consistently then replace the SATA cable and try it with the drive. Are you using a mechanical Hard Drive? Your post sounds like the drive is taking too long to initialize.


gbtg Members Profile Send Private Message Find Members Posts Add to Buddy List Newbie Joined: 18 May 2016 Status: Offline Points: 6	Post Options Post Reply Quote gbtg Report Post Thanks(0) Quote Reply Posted: 18 May 2016 at 10:08pm
	thank you very much for ur reply! i will do as u said the next time i will shut down the PC. not sure if i got another SATA cable, i guess i can use the one on my CD/DVD drive? (i thought about this already, since the yellow led on my CD drive always lights up when i turn on the pc, but as said the hard drive led only in the cases where it actually manages to boot. i checked the cable from my CD/DVD drive and it did not say SATA if i recall correctly so i was not sure if i could try to use that one.) yes, it is a mechanical drive. i ran a tool called HD Tune last night, which allows to scan the HD for errors. i canceled the scan after it was about 40% through and did not see any errors and went to bed. maybe i should have ran it over night. before that i ran chkdsk /f /r and it was stuck on 12% for what seemed to be forever. but the red harddrive led was still on so so i left the PC for a while and eventually it seemed to have finished. however i was back to no signal on my monitor and the red led was off when i came back. but after turning the pc off and on again for a few times it did boot and went straight into windows iirc. as u can tell already i managed to get through those nasty windows BSODs, so i can boot windows, only it takes time, as described. thanks again for ur reply, i will report back once i tried. (now that i think of it i think i might have already tried disconnecting my HD with the result of still not getting any signal on my monitor. i tried so much stuff i cant remember for sure. i will try again) Edited by gbtg - 18 May 2016 at 10:10pm

gbtg Members Profile Send Private Message Find Members Posts Add to Buddy List Newbie Joined: 18 May 2016 Status: Offline Points: 6	Post Options Post Reply Quote gbtg Report Post Thanks(0) Quote Reply Posted: 23 May 2016 at 10:37pm
	ok so its been a few days but since then i tried disconnecting my hard drive (yes it mechanical) and tried booting w/o it, resulting in fans spinning but not getting any signal on my monitor. i guess i should at least see my bios? today i got a BSOD. after taking many many tries to boot, i was browsing the internet and suddenly this blue windows 10 screen pops up with a :( , saying something about needing to restart, something about memory. it was collecting some info (went from 0% to 100% quite fast), then i restarted. got 3 short post beeps and no signal on monitor again. took me several attempts in between which i took out my ram and placed it in another slot. few more tries then it booted. i had initially 2 ram sticks (dual channel corsair xms3) but since the problem occurred i tried them separately and in different slots and found that using both did not seem to work. using only one sometimes works, but each of them run into the same problem of no signal on monitor and occasionally those post beeps. i guess it has to be the ram, the mobo or the psu. is it likely that both ram sticks become faulty at the same time? is it likely for the mobo to encounter problems with all of its 4 ram slots? or could it be that the psu is having problems and fails to send enough energy to all of the components and as such resulting in sometimes the harddrive LED not even lighting up? if the problem was with the ram, would this lead to the red led on my harddrive not lighting up? all seems really strange to me, no idea how to figure out what the problem is. would appreciate any kind of advice. thanks again.

Xaltar Members Profile Send Private Message Find Members Posts Add to Buddy List Moderator Group Joined: 16 May 2015 Location: Europe Status: Offline Points: 22838	Post Options Post Reply Quote Xaltar Report Post Thanks(0) Quote Reply Posted: 24 May 2016 at 4:30am
	I would look into trying another PSU at this point. If you have another PSU to try or can buy/borrow one give that a try and get back to us with the results.


gbtg Members Profile Send Private Message Find Members Posts Add to Buddy List Newbie Joined: 18 May 2016 Status: Offline Points: 6	Post Options Post Reply Quote gbtg Report Post Thanks(0) Quote Reply Posted: 28 Jul 2016 at 1:34am
	hey, ok, so it has gotten worse and worse. was usually able to boot the PC at least once during a 24hr period of occasionally trying it. atm it has not booted in days. i did not try replacing the PSU because i simply did not have another one at hand to test and did not want to spend money on a wild guess. now i found a post online where someone described the EXACT same problem: https://www.reddit.com/r/techsupport/comments/2dmigp/pc_wont_boot_3_short_beeps_followed_by_3_more/ same beeps, similar motherboard, same situation where IF it boots, it runs stable, but only rarely boots. so it seems to be a MB problem. is there ANYTHING i can do about it besides buying a new one? is there ANY explanation for why the motherboard would sometimes boot and run stable but for the most time not get past POST? any screws i could try tightening? andthing i could try wiggling around? any way to tell WHAT actually broke about the motherboard? Edited by gbtg - 28 Jul 2016 at 1:35am

gkar Members Profile Send Private Message Find Members Posts Add to Buddy List Newbie Joined: 28 Jul 2016 Location: New Zealand Status: Offline Points: 4	Post Options Post Reply Quote gkar Report Post Thanks(0) Quote Reply Posted: 28 Jul 2016 at 10:43am
	Try going right back to basics. Not sure if you are comfortable/confident with PC internals, I assume you are from your posts. In case you aren't, do some basic research on working safely with PC components first. First, remove ALL non-essential components/devices (so ONLY graphics card [if needed], 1xmemory, & OS HDD is fitted) from the system. Then remove the power switch leads from the mobo headers -then plug power back in. Bridge the header pins with a metal object , like a screwdriver (DON'T allow the metal to touch anything else on the mobo. See if this allows your system to boot propely. I had my preesent HTPC's power button play up, with weird side-effects. The case now uses the reset as the power button. If no-go, try removing the mobo from case & placing on non-conductive surface like cardboard. See if it will power up, with minimal components connected, to make sure it ain't shorting from a screw, etc. Also, if external video card, try another. I recently had to reinstall everything on my bedroom media streamer HTPC after ransomware attack. It would install OS & work perfectly with generic drivers, but boot to blank screen when I tried installing Nvidia drivers. Turned out to be failed video card. PC components can give strange side effects. See how you go. All the best.

parsec Members Profile Send Private Message Find Members Posts Add to Buddy List Moderator Group Joined: 04 May 2015 Location: USA Status: Offline Points: 4996	Post Options Post Reply Quote parsec Report Post Thanks(0) Quote Reply Posted: 28 Jul 2016 at 11:53am
	Given your first post in your thread, it sounds like the problem could be the Windows HDD, or one of the cables used with that HDD. Your first post said you would not see the HDD activity LED flashing when the PC would not boot. When the PC would boot occasionally, you would see the HDD activity flashing. IMO, this is clue #1 that the HDD or its cables is the problem. Next you said you installed Windows 10 on that HDD, which took several attempts (more cases of clue #1.) When the PC boots Windows 10, you get a BSOD during startup, with the message Inaccessible Boot Device. IMO, this is clue #2 that the HDD or its cables is the problem. The only other clue, which seems strange, is the monitor not getting a signal. It seems you have a POST beep speaker on the board. If the memory or video source was bad, POST should fail while testing them, and beep accordingly. Three short beeps is a memory error. Your testing of the memory is confusing to me. There was no indication it was at fault, but when you moved it around, it then did not seem to work. I can't understand the sequence of events testing the memory. If you disconnected power from the Windows HDD, the PC should start and prompt you to go into the BIOS, since there is no boot device. If you still get failures with the PC starting with the HDD not powered up, then something else is the cause. What is your video source, a video card or Intel integrated graphics? What model of PSU are you using? How old is it? Do you have another PSU you can use as a test? gkar's suggestion of reducing the PC to a minimal system is a good way of finding problems. But you don't need to do that to test a different PSU, or try new cables for the HDD.


wardog Members Profile Send Private Message Find Members Posts Add to Buddy List Moderator Group Joined: 15 Jul 2015 Status: Offline Points: 6447	Post Options Post Reply Quote wardog Report Post Thanks(0) Quote Reply Posted: 28 Jul 2016 at 1:08pm
	Caps on the MB and or in the PSU itself gone bad ? http://www.badcaps.net/index.php?pageid=identity ,, and there are pics on the left side. DO NOT disassemble the PSU DO NOT go poking around inside the PSU EXTERIOR visual inspection only