PC boot/display problem

[Jimmytwohand]

Hi all,

I ordered a PCS PC about 2 years back and have been incredibly pleased with it and never had an issue. Today however while playing a game the monitor went blank and would not display. My warranty is in to labour only now.

A) I tried powering off and on and I get one beep, the pc specialist logo and the f2 to enter bios message. I then get the logo with a swirly circle. Then the monitor goes blank and says no signal.

B) I restarted again and it displays the recovery, "windows did not load correctly screen". If I choose restart my pc it goes to A again. I have tried disconnecting all peripherals before booting.

C) Advanced repair options >troubleshoot>startup repair attempts repairs and says "couldn't repair, log file c:\windows\system32\logfiles\srt\stttrail.txt"

Any advice would be appreciated.....

Many thanks,
James

-----------------

Case
COOLER MASTER SILENCIO 452 QUIET MID TOWER CASE
Processor (CPU)
Intel® Core™i5 Quad Core Processor i5-4690 (3.5GHz) 6MB Cache
Motherboard
ASUS® Z97-P: ATX, LG1150, USB 3.0, SATA 6GBs
Memory (RAM)
8GB Kingston DUAL-DDR3 1600MHz (1 x 8GB)
Graphics Card
8gb AMD RADEON™ R9 390 - DVI, HDMI, DP - DX® 12 - VR Ready Premium
1st Hard Disk
120GB SAMSUNG 750 2.5" SSD, SATA 6Gb/s (upto 540MB/sR | 520MB/sW)
2nd Hard Disk
1TB SATA-III 3.5" HDD, 6GB/s, 7200RPM, 32MB CACHE
1st DVD/BLU-RAY Drive
24x DUAL LAYER DVD WRITER ±R/±RW/RAM
Processor Cooling
INTEL STANDARD CPU COOLER
Power Supply
CORSAIR 650W CS SERIES™ MODULAR 80 PLUS® GOLD, ULTRA QUIET

 

[ubuysa]

Boot the Windows installation DVD that came with the PC and select 'Repair this computer'. In there select 'Startup Repair' and see whether that helps.

If that doesn't help use the command prompt in the repair system of the install DVD to run a 'chkdsk /f' (without the quotes) on the SSD. That will check and correct any filesystem errors on there.

 

[Jimmytwohand]

Thank you. Startup repair from the DVD did not help. Chkdsk finds errors in the uppercase file but chkdsk /f says it is write protected. I ran " chkdsk c: /f" and " d: /f" (I think those are my drive letters). No errors found although it "failed to transfer logged messages with event log status 50.

 

[ubuysa]

Thank you. Startup repair from the DVD did not help. Chkdsk finds errors in the uppercase file but chkdsk /f says it is write protected. I ran " chkdsk c: /f" and " d: /f" (I think those are my drive letters). No errors found although it "failed to transfer logged messages with event log status 50.

You need to find out which drive letter your boot drive is in the repair system, it may not be C:. Keep changing drives and listing the contents until you find the boot drive, then chkdsk /f whatever drive letter that is.

 

[Jimmytwohand]

I'm booting from c:. Chkdsk thinks it is fine.

 

[Jimmytwohand]

I've been trying a few things I have read around the net. I took out the ram and tried to boot and I got one long beep and two short ones. This repeated until I turned it off. I then put the ram in to a different slot ( I have four slots, 2 black, 2 grey and chose the other grey one on the basis that it was the same colour). The PC then booted ok.

I'm happy it now (seems) to be working but does this show an underlying issue I need to resolve?

Edit: a few minutes later the screen once again went black. On restart there is lots of visual errors on the loading screen before it goes black again.

Many thanks,
James

 

[SpyderTracks]

I've been trying a few things I have read around the net. I took out the ram and tried to boot and I got one long beep and two short ones. This repeated until I turned it off. I then put the ram in to a different slot ( I have four slots, 2 black, 2 grey and chose the other grey one on the basis that it was the same colour). The PC then booted ok.

I'm happy it now (seems) to be working but does this show an underlying issue I need to resolve?

Edit: a few minutes later the screen once again went black. On restart there is lots of visual errors on the loading screen before it goes black again.

Many thanks,
James

It could be a graphics issue. Can you remove the graphics card and then try booting with the screen in the motherboard output (igpu)?

 

[Jimmytwohand]

Wow. I'll give it a go (looks like a couple of screws and some cable ties holding wiring in the way), however from the googled picture I have found of my Motherboard it looks like the igpu (also had to Google) hdmi output is sealed with a plastic cover that I can't take off without removing it from the case.

 

[SpyderTracks]

Wow. I'll give it a go (looks like a couple of screws and some cable ties holding wiring in the way), however from the googled picture I have found of my Motherboard it looks like the igpu (also had to Google) hdmi output is sealed with a plastic cover that I can't take off without removing it from the case.

That shouldn’t be the case, can you take a photo of the motherboard IO panel?

 

[Jimmytwohand]

 

[SpyderTracks]

View attachment 11826

Thanks, that’s perfect. I’ve never seen them like those before, might have to get someone else’s opinion on how to shift them.

Usually they’re just held in with friction, a male to female approach, but those as you say look a little more difficult to remove.

 

[Jimmytwohand]

Thank you for trying. The top two are exactly as you describe but the igpu cover is actually inside the case so even if it is the same design I doubt I could get it off.

Edit: I managed to superglue a kebab skewer to it and yank it off that way. I'll attack the gpu with my leatherman and see what I can report back.

 

[SpyderTracks]

Thank you for trying. The top two are exactly as you describe but the igpu cover is actually inside the case so even if it is the same design I doubt I could get it off.

Edit: I managed to superglue a kebab skewer to it and yank it off that way. I'll attack the gpu with my leatherman and see what I can report back.

When removing the gpu, be aware there is the PCIe lever catch at the end of the lane you need to release...

 

[Jimmytwohand]

Thanks, nearly learned that the hard way. Small amount of blood in the case, but it's away from anything critical. Ok, so it's been running on the igpu for about 5 minutes and apart from the horror of 800x600 resolution the original error has not reoccurred. Does that mean new graphics card or can I just tap it with a hammer a few times and give it another try?

 

[SpyderTracks]

Thanks, nearly learned that the hard way. Small amount of blood in the case, but it's away from anything critical. Ok, so it's been running on the igpu for about 5 minutes and apart from the horror of 800x600 resolution the original error has not reoccurred. Does that mean new graphics card or can I just tap it with a hammer a few times and give it another try?

That suggests the problem was likely with the graphics card, but it could just be down to the fact it wasn’t seated properly, so plug it back it, reseat the cables to it and try booting again.

 

[Jimmytwohand]

Back to the same issue with the graphics card in so It looks like the culprit.....

 

[SpyderTracks]

Back to the same issue with the graphics card in so It looks like the culprit.....

All in all though, not a bad time to upgrade, the 770 must have been getting a bit long in the tooth?

The 1000 series are seeing price drops at the moment with nvidia admitting there's a massive surplus of cards out there and the imminent release of the 1100 series.

 

[Jimmytwohand]

To be honest the system and r9 390 were still doing everything I wanted to a good enough level. I'll have to scout around and see what the 1000s are going for although if the the next gen is imminent I suppose it might be worth waiting in the expectation of even bigger price drops for the 1000s when they are released. I'm guessing it will probably need a bigger psu though.

 

[SpyderTracks]

To be honest the system and r9 390 were still doing everything I wanted to a good enough level. I'll have to scout around and see what the 1000s are going for although if the the next gen is imminent I suppose it might be worth waiting in the expectation of even bigger price drops for the 1000s when they are released. I'm guessing it will probably need a bigger psu though.

Your CS650 psu will be ample for any current or next gen card, 550 would be recommended for a top end card so you've got a little headroom even on that.

Sorry, I thought you had a GTX770 for some reason... it may be worth contacting PCS about warranty, if they're not able to cover, then it would definitely be worth creating a ticket with the manufacturer of the card, often they have a 3 year warranty and some go up to 5 year warranty.

Do you know what model of R9 390 it is?

 

[Jimmytwohand]

Thanks again, it is quite alright they are the same ballpark cards. I Think it is the xfx r9390 dd 868. I have sent a message to PCS but it looks like it has a 2 year warranty which I'm now outside of.