My PC won't boot to Windows 10

films&games

Enthusiast
Hi,

This is my PCS build and the full spec is below.

CaseCORSAIR OBSIDIAN SERIES™ 750D FULL TOWER CASE
Processor (CPU)AMD Ryzen 7 3700X Eight Core CPU (3.6GHz-4.4GHz/36MB CACHE/AM4)
MotherboardASUS® TUF X570-PLUS GAMING (USB 3.2 Gen 2, PCIe 4.0, CrossFireX) - RGB Ready!
Memory (RAM)16GB Corsair VENGEANCE DDR4 3200MHz (2 x 8GB)
Graphics Card8GB NVIDIA GEFORCE RTX 2070 SUPER - HDMI, 3x DP GeForce - RTX VR Ready!
1st Storage Drive3TB SATA-III 3.5" HDD, 6GB/s, 7200RPM, 64MB CACHE
1st M.2 SSD Drive1TB CORSAIR MP600 GEN 4 PCIe NVMe (up to 4950MB/R, 4250MB/W)
DVD/BLU-RAY Drive16x BLU-RAY WRITER DRIVE, 16x DVD ±R/±RW & SOFTWARE
Power SupplyCORSAIR 750W RMx SERIES™ MODULAR 80 PLUS® GOLD, ULTRA QUIET
Power Cable1 x 1 Metre UK Power Cable (Kettle Lead)
Processor CoolingCorsair H115i RGB Pro XT CPU Cooler
Thermal PasteSTANDARD THERMAL PASTE FOR SUFFICIENT COOLING
LED Lighting50cm RGB LED Strip
Sound CardONBOARD 6 CHANNEL (5.1) HIGH DEF AUDIO (AS STANDARD)
Wireless/Wired Networking10/100/1000 GIGABIT LAN PORT (Wi-Fi NOT INCLUDED)
USB/Thunderbolt OptionsMIN. 2 x USB 3.0 & 2 x USB 2.0 PORTS @ BACK PANEL + MIN. 2 FRONT PORTS
Operating SystemWindows 10 Professional 64 Bit - inc. Single Licence
Operating System LanguageUnited Kingdom - English Language
Windows Recovery MediaWindows 10 Multi-Language Recovery Image - Unlimited Downloads from Online Account
Office SoftwareFREE 30 Day Trial of Microsoft® Office® 365 (Operating System Required)
Anti-VirusBullGuard™ Internet Security - Free 90 Day License inc. Gamer Mode
BrowserMicrosoft® Edge (Windows 10 Only)
MonitorIIYAMA G-MASTER GB2760QSU-B1 27"
Warranty3 Year Silver Warranty (1 Year Collect & Return, 1 Year Parts, 3 Year Labour)

My PC won't boot Windows 10, which is installed on my M.2 SSD. This has been occurring intermittently. When I first turn the machine on, it boots POST and all of the motherboard's Q-LEDs light one-by-one and go out.

I have had either the yellow or green/yellow Q-LED light up and stay on at boot, but this doesn't happen everytime.

When the TUF-Gaming splash screen is displayed, the spinning circle of dots is shown. After this happens there is either a blank screen with no cursor or it goes to auto repair. The Startup-Repair option does not work.

The M.2 SSD is shown in the BIOS, along with my HDD. I boot can using either USB or CD/DVD by pressing F8 as the machine is booting up.

When the machine has booted normally and Windows 10 loads okay to the desktop, the drive(s) are shown in This PC.

The machine crashed when I tried to image the M.2 SSD using Macrium Reflect free, which displayed a BSOD and restarted. When I tried to copy files from my M.2 SSD to my HDD, which is installed internally, the files were copied over reaching 100% without any error.

Any advice or suggestions would be appreciated, please.

Thank you.
 
Last edited:

Bhuna50

Author Level
My first suggestion is that if you had a BSOD, have a look at these instructions here and see what you can manage to put together (if the machine lets you) file wise from whats asked for in this post:


This might give a big insight into what might be wrong - theres a really nice person known as @ubuysa on here who is really good at diagnosing and analysing BSODs for people.

Secondly, have you tried a clean install of Windows? Hopefully having rescued the files you wanted first.
 

films&games

Enthusiast
My first suggestion is that if you had a BSOD, have a look at these instructions here and see what you can manage to put together (if the machine lets you) file wise from whats asked for in this post:


This might give a big insight into what might be wrong - theres a really nice person known as @ubuysa on here who is really good at diagnosing and analysing BSODs for people.

Secondly, have you tried a clean install of Windows? Hopefully having rescued the files you wanted first.
Hi,

I can't currently boot to Windows 10, but I will try a cold boot by unplugging the machine from the mains and leaving it unplugged for a little while.

I currently have just the GPU connected my monitor using the Displayport cable, along with my mouse and keyboard connected via USB ports on the I/O Board on the motherboard.
 

Bhuna50

Author Level
Hi,

I can't currently boot to Windows 10, but I will try a cold boot by unplugging the machine from the mains and leaving it unplugged for a little while.

I currently have just the GPU connected my monitor using the Displayport cable, along with my mouse and keyboard connected via USB ports on the I/O Board on the motherboard.
Not even safe mode?
 

films&games

Enthusiast
Not even safe mode?
I have booted the machine and Windows 10 loaded normally to the desktop. I then opened MSConfig and checked safe mode. The machine then restarted and I logged on into safe mode with minimal settings. After this I shut down the machine using the shut down option in the Start menu.
 

SpyderTracks

We love you Ukraine
I have booted the machine and Windows 10 loaded normally to the desktop. I then opened MSConfig and checked safe mode. The machine then restarted and I logged on into safe mode with minimal settings. After this I shut down the machine using the shut down option in the Start menu.
I thought you said you couldn't currently boot it?

So is the issue that it only boots intermittently?

Have you tried startup repair from a windows installer?
 

films&games

Enthusiast
I thought you said you couldn't currently boot it?

So is the issue that it only boots intermittently?

Have you tried startup repair from a windows installer?
I managed to cold boot the machine with only the GPU, mouse and keyboard plugged in.

I have tried the startup repair option using a Windows 10 installation disc and it displayed the message "Startup Repair couldn't repair your PC.

I also tried sfc /scannow and no corrupt files were found.

When I managed to boot the machine normally into Windows, I looked at the M.2 SSD drive C: in This PC I noticed that the drive needed optimisation.

I the tried to check the drive for errors and the scan failed to begin and the machine crashed with device error BSOD.

Should I try to use the Windows 10 installation DVD and run check disk?

Any advice or suggestions would be appreciated, please.

Thank you.
 

SpyderTracks

We love you Ukraine
I looked at the M.2 SSD drive C: in This PC I noticed that the drive needed optimisation.
You don’t optimise an SSD, that’s for HDDs, it actually reduces the lifetime of an SSD as they have finite write cycles

No real need for a chkdsk as again a repair will actually further damage the drive, just a smart check with something like crystaldiskinfo

How full is the SSD?
 

films&games

Enthusiast
You don’t optimise an SSD, that’s for HDDs, it actually reduces the lifetime of an SSD as they have finite write cycles

No real need for a chkdsk as again a repair will actually further damage the drive, just a smart check with something like crystaldiskinfo

How full is the SSD?
Okay. I will check the drive using Crystal Disk Info, which I currently have installed.

The M.2 SSD has 712GB of free space according, which is shown in This PC of a total usable capacity of 930GB. This a 1TB Corsair Force MP600.

Should I disable optimisation, which is on by default when Windows 10 was clean installed?
 

SpyderTracks

We love you Ukraine
Should I disable optimisation, which is on by default when Windows 10 was clean installed?
Leave it as it was.

Worth running the following in an elevated cmd prompt: dism.exe /online /cleanup-image /restorehealth

Can you post a screenshot of your optional updates page? I'm not convinced this is actually an issue with the SSD

When you say
I managed to cold boot the machine with only the GPU, mouse and keyboard plugged in.
What do you mean by this, what did you disconnect?
 

ubuysa

The BSOD Doctor
Should I disable optimisation, which is on by default when Windows 10 was clean installed?
No, that needs to be enabled for SSDs - that's how the important TRIM is done.

The chkdsk command is useful for SSDs, but only in the chkdsk /f configuration - that checks the NTFS filesystem for errors.

You mentioned that you'd had a BSOD? Please follow these instructions and upload the data requested.
 

films&games

Enthusiast
Leave it as it was.

Worth running the following in an elevated cmd prompt: dism.exe /online /cleanup-image /restorehealth

Can you post a screenshot of your optional updates page? I'm not convinced this is actually an issue with the SSD

When you say

What do you mean by this, what did you disconnect?
I can't boot back into Windows 10, either selecting Safe Mode or just trying to boot the machine normally.

Would it be possible to use the Command Prompt in the Recovery Enviroment to run
dism.exe /online /cleanup-image /restorehealth

When you say
I managed to cold boot the machine with only the GPU, mouse and keyboard plugged in.
What do you mean by this, what did you disconnect?

I disconnected my game controller, printer and Ethernet cable.

When did a cold boot, I shut down the machine, pressed the rocker switch on the power supply and then uplugged the machine from the mains.
 

films&games

Enthusiast
No, that needs to be enabled for SSDs - that's how the important TRIM is done.
Okay. I will leave this alone then.

The chkdsk command is useful for SSDs, but only in the chkdsk /f configuration - that checks the NTFS filesystem for errors.
Will it be okay for me to run the chkdsk /f on my M.2 SSD, which is my Windows 10 boot drive using the Recovery Enviroment Command Prompt because I can't boot in to Windows 10 normally or into Safe Mode.

I got the 2 BSOD error messages WHEA_UNCORRECTABLE_ERROR and SYSTEM_THEAD_EXCEPTION_NOT_HANDLED.

Unfortunately, there are no BSOD dumps, due to the percentage remaining at 0%.
 

SpyderTracks

We love you Ukraine
Okay. I will leave this alone then.


Will it be okay for me to run the chkdsk /f on my M.2 SSD, which is my Windows 10 boot drive using the Recovery Enviroment Command Prompt because I can't boot in to Windows 10 normally or into Safe Mode.

I got the 2 BSOD error messages WHEA_UNCORRECTABLE_ERROR and SYSTEM_THEAD_EXCEPTION_NOT_HANDLED.

Unfortunately, there are no BSOD dumps, due to the percentage remaining at 0%.
CMD from the recovery environment is no different to cmd in windows, it's simply running from the USB, it's still the same CMD. You just have to navigate differently to the relevant pathways as it will run from X: as it's not on the PC.
 

ubuysa

The BSOD Doctor
Will it be okay for me to run the chkdsk /f on my M.2 SSD, which is my Windows 10 boot drive using the Recovery Enviroment Command Prompt because I can't boot in to Windows 10 normally or into Safe Mode.
Yes
I got the 2 BSOD error messages WHEA_UNCORRECTABLE_ERROR and SYSTEM_THEAD_EXCEPTION_NOT_HANDLED.

Unfortunately, there are no BSOD dumps, due to the percentage remaining at 0%.
Ok, then please export and upload your System and Application logs as explained in the linked post.
 

films&games

Enthusiast
I have had the BSOD error WHEA_UNCORRECTABLE_ERROR before when was trying to run Malwarebytes, but I uninstalled Malwarebytes and the machine had been running ok for the last few months.

I first saw the SYSTEM_THREAD_EXCEPTION_NOT HANDLED BSOD error message yesterday when I selected the 'Boot logging' option 2 in the Startup Settings.
 

SpyderTracks

We love you Ukraine
I have had the BSOD error WHEA_UNCORRECTABLE_ERROR before when was trying to run Malwarebytes, but I uninstalled Malwarebytes and the machine had been running ok for the last few months.

I first saw the SYSTEM_THREAD_EXCEPTION_NOT HANDLED BSOD error message yesterday when I selected the 'Boot logging' option 2 in the Startup Settings.
If you can upload the logs as in the guide?
 
Top