Computer royally screwed. Time to diagnose

guavaball

guavaball

Extremely [H]
Joined
Apr 16, 2008
Messages
44,518
So I came home tonight to a message "save your data! your hard drive is corrupted" in boot or something like that. I have a dual boot but it wont let me in at all. When I rebooted I got a BSOD saying "something went wrong"

Then it went through a series of reboots. I think 3 before it posted again and went right back to the same message. I removed the main drive. No effect. Removed the video card and booted off the onboard video. No effect.

I do have a Q code board and when it wouldn't post it stayed at 00. When it finally did post the numbers were all over the place and really fast but it settled on "AD" before it became a brick.

My first guess is the motherboard but I've never seen this before so I'm clueless.

Any ideas would be appreciated.

Specs in the sig
 
Sounds like quite the pisser.
My only advice at this stage is to remove everything. Take the board out. Take the battery out. Unplug everything and let it sit over night.
Next day plug in the power and clear the CMOS and see what happens with one stick of RAM (try diff slots if poor results) and the CPU and onboard video only. See what happens. Additional options are go into BIOS and disable most everything.
If it starts to boot fine try a usb PE and see if it is stable. If that works try you Windows drive.
Good luck
 
Last edited:
mem/controller, cpu, psu, mb...maybe not in that order.

Any (in os) diagnosis should probably be done using a live/read-only OS on a flash drive, to eliminate corrupted OS files causing other random issues.
 
Sometimes I've seen the CPU fan and/or heatsink come loose and cause instability/no post. Check that while you're popping the case open and sniff around for a terrible funky smell. It's indescribable until you've smelled it, but it's kind of like crushed up sugar ants mixed with burnt plastic, if you have that smell we could be in bigger trouble...

Next I would take out everything including M.2 NVME except the mobo/psu/cpu/ and 1 stick of ram, and/or disconnect both power and data cables to any drives minimize any damage if something has failed: remove graphics, remove storage drives including nvme, basically we want the PSU connected to only the motherboard via 24-pin and the 4+4, and nothing else other than the motherboard, CPU, 1 RAM, no gpu or expansion cards. See if it will post then. If it does then one of those components has failed, probably one of your NVME drives.

If it turns off instantly or wont turn on at all it COULD be a bad PSU. You can test the PSU by disconnecting it from EVERYTHING, turning the switch on the back of it to OFF if it has one, jumping the green wire to any ground wire, and then plugging in AC power and flipping the switch on the back to ON if it has one.. If all the wires are black you'll need to reference an image and count the pins. I like to make a jumper out of paper clips or bobby pins that I clip in half, any metal will do including pliers, tweezers, an old staple, an old twist tie, the only limit is your imagination and what metals will fit inside the pin holes. I've attached a picture showing the pinout if your PSU wires are all black, it's pin 16 to any ground such as 15 or 17. This trick is the same thing the motherboard does, so it won't hurt anything if you do as prescribed.

If the PSU turns on it is probably OK, then it's either motherboard most likely or CPU. If not it most likely died and you're other components may be OK. Usually the board will die before the CPU but it's hard to say without knowing if you were overclocking and other specifics.

molex 24pin.png
 
no overclocking and no smell. I'll try the psu first thanks.
 
Last edited:
I would like to thank you all for your input. I did end up taking the mobo cpu and ram to be tested at microcenter. The culprit was the cpu. I'll be RMA'ing it and selling the mobo cpu and ram once the new chip is here and going with a 690 chipset and cpu instead.
 
Surprised it was the CPU but glad MC is taking care of you!

Good luck, and if you need the files on the drives you'll probably need to run chkdsk for possible corruption. Most of any corruption should only affect OS files though so chances of recovering important files are high, if the drive isn't fine as is.
 
guavaball said:
I would like to thank you all for your input. I did end up taking the mobo cpu and ram to be tested at microcenter. The culprit was the cpu. I'll be RMA'ing it and selling the mobo cpu and ram once the new chip is here and going with a 690 chipset and cpu instead.
Click to expand...
Glad it got figured out.
I'm Confused though your going from a z690 rig to a z690 rig?
 
guavaball said:
I would like to thank you all for your input. I did end up taking the mobo cpu and ram to be tested at microcenter. The culprit was the cpu. I'll be RMA'ing it and selling the mobo cpu and ram once the new chip is here and going with a 690 chipset and cpu instead.
Click to expand...
Glad it got figured out.
I'm Confused though your going from a z690 rig to a z690 rig?
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top