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Trying to troubleshoot my PC and am getting nowhere with tech support

JohnnyFootball

GerAlt-Right. Ciriously.
Since it will inevitably get suggested, I will mention that yes I have tried NUMEROUS times of doing a clean driver install using DDU. I unplugged the LAN and everything. That doesn't fix the issues. Booting into safe mode doesn't really change anything either. Although I have never had an issue

I have two issues that may or may not be related:

The first issue:
It almost without fail occurs whenever my system requires a restart due to a driver or something being updated. The short version of my issue is that my computer will not allow me to cleanly Restart it. Whenever, I use the Restart function on my computer, I can get to the login screen just fine and type in my pin, but the desktop doesn't load, but it shows a blacks background with a flashing taskbar, no loading icons, and the start button doesn't work and I cannot get information on how to fix it. I can get to the Task Manager with Crtl+Alt+Del. If I try to shutdown or restart, the system just stays in an endless "Windows is shutting down" loop and I am forced to use the power button (my case has no reset button) Whenever I press and hold the power button it will reboot and windows will USUALLY load just fine. Sometimes it will take multiple reboots. But once the desktop properly loads I can game just fine without issues. No gaming related crashes. While the this issue isn't completely breaking it is VERY annoying and would like to be able to boot and restart my computer without issues. It is almost always guaranteed to occur whenever I update a driver or a piece of software or use the generic restart function. I have disabled things like Fast Boot.

The second issue, which may or may not be related to the first is similar:
Where the desktop will load, but the Start Bar is inaccessible, The dead giveaway to when this happens is when the OneDrive icon on the bottom right has a slash through it. When that happens I can't run MS based apps, I have the same shutdown/restart issues present in my first issue. I did research and it seemed like Eset and the Xbox app for PC Gamepass were not playing nice. So I prevented Eset from doing a startup scan and I also disabled the Xbox app from loading on startup and I don't believe I have seen that specific issue since, but the first issue 100% remains.

I am so fed up with this issue and would like some suggestions.

My drivers are up-to-date
Specs:
AMD Ryzen 3900X
Asrock Taichi X570
32GB RAM
EVGA Geforce 2080 Ti
Corsair 500 GB M2 PCI-E 4.0 SSD
2TB Sabrent M2_SSD
 
How long have you had the problem ? , Have you tried system restore or tried to repair windows using the installation media ?... Maybe try a pc refresh from recovery in settings app if none of the above work... Can also try event viewer to get some insight of what's actually happening.
 

Krappadizzle

Gold Member
Have you reinstalled windows? Seems like your install didn't happen properly or has become corrupted. I do a reinstall every 2 years or so because updates seem to collectively mess something up inevitably.
 

JohnnyFootball

GerAlt-Right. Ciriously.
I am really concerned I just may have a fucked GPU. I bought a 2080 back in Dec. 2018 and used EVGA’s step up program to get a 2080 Ti, but they will only allow you to step up to the Black Edition which is their bottom of the barrel version.

I realize whining about a GPU isn’t going to get many friends around here given the current situation.
 
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Knightime_X

Member
You can try to alt ctrl del and end tasks apps starting up to see if it's something software related. If it is then uninstall them.

Also i wonder if it's from windows error report log that restarts your pc a few times then stops if something doesn't boot right.

I know you can change how that behaves.
 

JohnnyFootball

GerAlt-Right. Ciriously.
How long have you had the problem ? , Have you tried system restore or tried to repair windows using the installation media ?... Maybe try a pc refresh from recovery in settings app if none of the above work... Can also try event viewer to get some insight of what's actually happening.
The event viewer doesn’t tell me much. It has a ton of error messages but nothing useful.
 
I am really concerned I just may have a fucked GPU. I bought a 2080 back in Dec. 2018 and used EVGA’s step up program to get a 2080 Ti, but they will only allow you to step up to the Black Edition which is their bottom of the barrel version.
I know your pain. My 1080 has seemingly died this week and has accelerated my upgrade plans. Unfortunately there is a massive chip shortage driving GPU prices to the moon.
 

Krappadizzle

Gold Member
I am really concerned I just may have a fucked GPU. I bought a 2080 back in Dec. 2018 and used EVGA’s step up program to get a 2080 Ti, but they will only allow you to step up to the Black Edition which is their bottom of the barrel version.

I realize whining about a GPU isn’t going to get many friends around here given the current situation.
Yeah, sounds like it. I'll trade my 1080ti to ya for it I guess. You just have to pay for shipping.

nothing you've typed indicates it as a GPU issue as far as I can tell.

Do a fresh windows install. Reseat your GPU and ram and see if that fixes your issue.
 
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Kenpachii

Member
Format your windows partition and reinstall windows. Your windows is fucked.

If it was your GPU, your screen will freeze or u will see lines through your screen. So i highly doubt its your GPU. Also nothing wrong with black edition gpu's.
 
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JohnnyFootball

GerAlt-Right. Ciriously.
It seems like I am perfectly fucked and may have no choice but to do a fresh install. I can’t do anything to get it to get into Windows.
 
The event viewer doesn’t tell me much. It has a ton of error messages but nothing useful.
It should at least tell you a brief description of any kind crash followed by an event Id which you can then use to Google the actual problem in more detail ... But I'd probably clean install the os if you can .
 

JohnnyFootball

GerAlt-Right. Ciriously.
Before I do a fresh install, I plan to secure erase my Corsair M.2 and go into the BIOS and set the PCI-Express bus down to 3.0, since nothing I am using really takes advantage of PCI-Express 4.0 and by the time GPUs really need to use that bandwidth I will likely have long needed to replace that motherboard anyway. I have noticed that if you have multiple drives installed Windows wont always put all of the information on the correct drive. My friend had an issue where we installed Windows on the M.2, but also had some HDDs installed and he later had to remove those HDDs and then windows wouldn't boot requiring all sorts of tedious and unnecessary command line prompts to rebuild the boot sector (?). I have several M.2 drives hooked up and would rather avoid having to go through the trouble of removing those, just so I can install windows.
THANKS!
 

Kenpachii

Member
Make sure u have your rm2 drive as boot drive or first boot priority in the bios after USB.

It sounds to me that those hdd's had boot priority over his m2 drive and he probably still had old windows data on those HDD's. Also what has pci-e3 and 4 to do with anything related towards windows booting? is that a amd problem or something? because that makes zero sense. If you have 4 specially with a 2080ti bar and m.2 drive being a 4 version, never put that shit on 3.
 
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Lol in the year 2021 we still have “just nuke Windows and start over” as the recommendation to bizarre problems somehow only encountered with Microsoft’s own apps. Meanwhile on Steam, everything just works fine.

OP, I would say try to reset the Windows Store cache and uninstall any drivers you have first. Then download any pending Windows updates and see if that gets you past the first problem. If so, introduce drivers one by one between restarts.

Resetting the Windows Store cache:

It’s unbelievable how everything Microsoft touches is plagued with problems. I have had more frustration than fun with PC Game Pass.
 

JohnnyFootball

GerAlt-Right. Ciriously.
It should at least tell you a brief description of any kind crash followed by an event Id which you can then use to Google the actual problem in more detail ... But I'd probably clean install the os if you can .
But it hasn't been a crash per se. When I had my bluescreen issue last year, there were very obvious files I could pin down. Now, not so much.
 

Kenpachii

Member
Lol in the year 2021 we still have “just nuke Windows and start over” as the recommendation to bizarre problems somehow only encountered with Microsoft’s own apps. Meanwhile on Steam, everything just works fine.

OP, I would say try to reset the Windows Store cache and uninstall any drivers you have first. Then download any pending Windows updates and see if that gets you past the first problem. If so, introduce drivers one by one between restarts.

Resetting the Windows Store cache:

It’s unbelievable how everything Microsoft touches is plagued with problems. I have had more frustration than fun with PC Game Pass.

If your windows is fucked at its core, nothing will fix it until u reinstall the entire OS. Which takes on a m2 drive what? 10 minutes or something?

Why waste your time, reinstalling and fixing shit with reboots when he clearly has some major windows issue's going on. Its a waste of time.

Also with a fresh windows and u do have hardware isssue's the issue's stay and u will know its not software related. which u cannot do with a barked windows.
 
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JohnnyFootball

GerAlt-Right. Ciriously.
Make sure u have your rm2 drive as boot drive or first boot priority in the bios after USB.

It sounds to me that those hdd's had boot priority over his m2 drive and he probably still had old windows data on those HDD's. Also what has pci-e3 and 4 to do with anything related towards windows booting? is that a amd problem or something? because that makes zero sense. If you have 4 specially with a 2080ti bar and m.2 drive being a 4 version, never put that shit on 3.
It is something I have seen before and it makes no sense. In the past, I would not worry about it by doing simple disconnect of all other drives, but that is tedious when I have 3 M.2s connected underneath the motherboard. No way am I doing that!
 

hlm666

Member
If your going for the reinstall just try a repair install first. Might save you having to reinstall all your other software.
 

Kenpachii

Member
It is something I have seen before and it makes no sense. In the past, I would not worry about it by doing simple disconnect of all other drives, but that is tedious when I have 3 M.2s connected underneath the motherboard. No way am I doing that!

Everything makes sense when it comes to computers. If u need to disconnect your harddrives because your windows won't boot on the right drive. that means that your boot priority isn't working or it's configured or he / you simple messed something up in the bios.

If that problem persists and your motherboard is allowing that configuration if its within its spec, then either update the bios maybe its a bug in there bios, or else replace the board. Because it shouldn't happen.
 
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JohnnyFootball

GerAlt-Right. Ciriously.
Well I wiped everything out and the system won’t load now… it’s now in an endless reset/restart cycle. Something deep is truly fucked and im thinking it must be ssd related.
 
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Chris23

Member
You could retry resetting your bios. Turn off the power. remove the cmos battery on the motherboard and hold the power button down for a few seconds to discharge then put the battery back and see if you can boot.

Remember to only keep the essentials plugged in e.g one boot drive, mouse/keyboard etc to eliminate any potential interference.
 

I_D

Member
Before I do a fresh install, I plan to secure erase my Corsair M.2 and go into the BIOS and set the PCI-Express bus down to 3.0, since nothing I am using really takes advantage of PCI-Express 4.0 and by the time GPUs really need to use that bandwidth I will likely have long needed to replace that motherboard anyway. I have noticed that if you have multiple drives installed Windows wont always put all of the information on the correct drive. My friend had an issue where we installed Windows on the M.2, but also had some HDDs installed and he later had to remove those HDDs and then windows wouldn't boot requiring all sorts of tedious and unnecessary command line prompts to rebuild the boot sector (?). I have several M.2 drives hooked up and would rather avoid having to go through the trouble of removing those, just so I can install windows.
THANKS!
This exact issue was mentioned in a Linus video recently, but I can't remember which one.
The cause had something to do with the version of Windows you're trying to install, in terms of "Home" versus "Pro" and so forth, if I remember correctly.

Well I wiped everything out and the system won’t load now… it’s now in an endless reset/restart cycle. Something deep is truly fucked and im thinking it must be ssd related.
It sounds like you're either not removing the USB in time, or you didn't actually do a complete reformat.
 

A.Romero

Member
Restoring Windows 10 is really easy, you don't even need to lose your files.

Going by your recent update I'd unplug everything but the bare minimum (specifically 1 ssd). If that doesn't work, try with one stick of RAM. If that doesn't work, try with another stick of RAM (just one). If your MB supports it, try different slots too. If that doesn't work try another one of your SSD's.

If that doesn't work and you restored Windows from within Windows, download a new image and try again.

If you have reasons to think it's your GPU try using the iGPU or another one.

The least likely option would be a CPU issue. Update your BIOS.

Alternate steps: install another OS like a linux distro. Try some of the components on another computer.

If everything works in another system but yours it could only be your MB.
 

JohnnyFootball

GerAlt-Right. Ciriously.
This exact issue was mentioned in a Linus video recently, but I can't remember which one.
The cause had something to do with the version of Windows you're trying to install, in terms of "Home" versus "Pro" and so forth, if I remember correctly.


It sounds like you're either not removing the USB in time, or you didn't actually do a complete reformat.
Nope. It’s just fucked up right now. It’s possible my m2 is just bad. Which will suck because that will be the second one that has gone bad on me.
 
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JohnnyFootball

GerAlt-Right. Ciriously.
UPDATE:

For a while it looked like my motherboard may have been totally fucked, but it appears that my Corsair MP 600 500 GB M.2 was the culprit, but it was not easy coming to that conclusion and I'm still weary that my Asrock Taichi X570 may be fucked as far as PCI-Express 4.0.

The MP600 no longer appears when trying to install Windows on it so I can assume it's toast.

Why am I weary? Well, I tried on several occasions to get Windows installed on my 250 GB Samsung EVO and it was having the same problems, where it would not load. I played with some settings in the BIOS and then the system wouldn't boot period (A9 error)! Yikes.

So I hit the reset CMOS reset button on my motherboard and then the system was able to boot, I was then able to install WIndows on my 250 GB Evo with it being the only drive attached to the motherboard. I gradually reconnected other drives and that is where I am at the moment, getting other devices and such back up and running. I am going to try and see if the MP600 will work in my friends computer. Otherwise I will end up RMAing it.

The thing I do not currently know at this time is if my system will function with a PCI-Express 4.0 drive. My motherboard settings are all back to normal. XMP is running. I'll do some game tests later.
 

Spidey Fan

Banned
Since it will inevitably get suggested, I will mention that yes I have tried NUMEROUS times of doing a clean driver install using DDU. I unplugged the LAN and everything. That doesn't fix the issues. Booting into safe mode doesn't really change anything either. Although I have never had an issue

I have two issues that may or may not be related:

The first issue:
It almost without fail occurs whenever my system requires a restart due to a driver or something being updated. The short version of my issue is that my computer will not allow me to cleanly Restart it. Whenever, I use the Restart function on my computer, I can get to the login screen just fine and type in my pin, but the desktop doesn't load, but it shows a blacks background with a flashing taskbar, no loading icons, and the start button doesn't work and I cannot get information on how to fix it. I can get to the Task Manager with Crtl+Alt+Del. If I try to shutdown or restart, the system just stays in an endless "Windows is shutting down" loop and I am forced to use the power button (my case has no reset button) Whenever I press and hold the power button it will reboot and windows will USUALLY load just fine. Sometimes it will take multiple reboots. But once the desktop properly loads I can game just fine without issues. No gaming related crashes. While the this issue isn't completely breaking it is VERY annoying and would like to be able to boot and restart my computer without issues. It is almost always guaranteed to occur whenever I update a driver or a piece of software or use the generic restart function. I have disabled things like Fast Boot.

The second issue, which may or may not be related to the first is similar:
Where the desktop will load, but the Start Bar is inaccessible, The dead giveaway to when this happens is when the OneDrive icon on the bottom right has a slash through it. When that happens I can't run MS based apps, I have the same shutdown/restart issues present in my first issue. I did research and it seemed like Eset and the Xbox app for PC Gamepass were not playing nice. So I prevented Eset from doing a startup scan and I also disabled the Xbox app from loading on startup and I don't believe I have seen that specific issue since, but the first issue 100% remains.

I am so fed up with this issue and would like some suggestions.

My drivers are up-to-date
Specs:
AMD Ryzen 3900X
Asrock Taichi X570
32GB RAM
EVGA Geforce 2080 Ti
Corsair 500 GB M2 PCI-E 4.0 SSD
2TB Sabrent M2_SSD
You have a damaged hard drive. You need new ssd, and redownload the entire package.

I have a pc that have hard drive failure. a previous laptop did the same. Had to get new one for that laptop, since hard drive couldnt be removed. and as for pc, well its working, but cant use microsoft, or download anything. entire system is fked up. and worst is i cant change hard drive, since its old pc.

maybe that could help you.
 

Spidey Fan

Banned
UPDATE:

For a while it looked like my motherboard may have been totally fucked, but it appears that my Corsair MP 600 500 GB M.2 was the culprit, but it was not easy coming to that conclusion and I'm still weary that my Asrock Taichi X570 may be fucked as far as PCI-Express 4.0.

The MP600 no longer appears when trying to install Windows on it so I can assume it's toast.

Why am I weary? Well, I tried on several occasions to get Windows installed on my 250 GB Samsung EVO and it was having the same problems, where it would not load. I played with some settings in the BIOS and then the system wouldn't boot period (A9 error)! Yikes.

So I hit the reset CMOS reset button on my motherboard and then the system was able to boot, I was then able to install WIndows on my 250 GB Evo with it being the only drive attached to the motherboard. I gradually reconnected other drives and that is where I am at the moment, getting other devices and such back up and running. I am going to try and see if the MP600 will work in my friends computer. Otherwise I will end up RMAing it.

The thing I do not currently know at this time is if my system will function with a PCI-Express 4.0 drive. My motherboard settings are all back to normal. XMP is running. I'll do some game tests later.
My hunch was correct. That hard drive is damaged. It wont work sadly. You might need to get a new one.
 

kiphalfton

Member
I was having both these issues, and I want to say it was related to the Bluetooth driver wrecking havoc. I only say that as after I deleted the stock driver, it was fine.

Every time I get that first issue, where it refuses to shut down and just gets stuck on that screen I hold down the agut down button until it shuts down and then turn the PC back on. Same with the flashing black taskbar.
 

JohnnyFootball

GerAlt-Right. Ciriously.
I was having both these issues, and I want to say it was related to the Bluetooth driver wrecking havoc. I only say that as after I deleted the stock driver, it was fine.

Every time I get that first issue, where it refuses to shut down and just gets stuck on that screen I hold down the agut down button until it shuts down and then turn the PC back on. Same with the flashing black taskbar.
Bluetooth on my PC was disabled. But ill be on the lookout.
 

rofif

Banned
inaccessible start menu you say?
I had that recently when I connected razer hntsman mini keyboard. it fucks shit up but they released new firmware
 

Danknugz

Member
If you have a spare hard drive, throw a fresh copy onto that and see if it happens still, that way you can rule out hardware being the issue. If a fresh install is fine that indicates your os was hosed possibly malware.
 

JohnnyFootball

GerAlt-Right. Ciriously.
If you have a spare hard drive, throw a fresh copy onto that and see if it happens still, that way you can rule out hardware being the issue. If a fresh install is fine that indicates your os was hosed possibly malware.
See my update post. I am using my old 250 GB Samsung Gen 3 M.2. System seems to be stable. It is more than likely the drive. The only other thing it could be is a circuitry issue on the motherboard that affects PCI-express 4.0 drives, but not 3.0 drives. Not likely, but I won't know until I can actually test another 4.0.

In the mean time, the MP600 is getting RMAed.
 

JohnnyFootball

GerAlt-Right. Ciriously.
Thanks for all the responses. SO yeah, the Corsair MP600 was clearly fucked. Ive been using my old Samsung 250 GB since yesterday and I haven't had a single issue. Games are running smoothly. Played Doom Eternal on PC yesterday for 5 hours. No restart issues whatsoever.

Unfortunately, Im still wondering what lead to this. I had it for a year and several months worked without issue and then somewhat out of the blue little issues here and there crop up.
 

A.Romero

Member
Thanks for all the responses. SO yeah, the Corsair MP600 was clearly fucked. Ive been using my old Samsung 250 GB since yesterday and I haven't had a single issue. Games are running smoothly. Played Doom Eternal on PC yesterday for 5 hours. No restart issues whatsoever.

Unfortunately, Im still wondering what lead to this. I had it for a year and several months worked without issue and then somewhat out of the blue little issues here and there crop up.

Glad you were able to fix it and that it wasn't the GPU
 

SJRB

Gold Member
Glad your issues are fixed, OP. PC troubles can be a real bitch.

I know I'm definitely sweating when my PC is acting up. I replaced some RAM sticks just the other day and my PC was going apeshit and I though "O my god here we go, this is the end".

[It wasn't, just triple-check if your RAM sticks "clicked" into place]
 
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