Hardware & Technical Dying PC

[Matt168]

My machine is in a sorry state at the moment and I could use some help in working out a logical approach to finding out what is wrong.

I came home on Friday to be told by my son that the PC had been asking for a system disk, but when I started it up everything appeared to be working as normal and I got a couple of hours use before stopping for the evening. Yesterday he tried using it again and this time I saw the system disk request and watching it boot up, could see the primary SSD was showing a SMART error. I checked connections and then ended up with the system failing to recognise anything in that port.

Next job was to swap some disks around and that led to the alternative drive not being recognised by the BIOS. The machine couldn't boot in to Windows though... it showed me the swinging balls under the Windows 10 logo for ages before eventually powering down. I don't know if that was because it was trying to boot to a drive that wasn't attached to its normal port on the motherboard.

Trying again this morning, everything is very slow. It takes the BIOS thirty second or more to identify the disks (SSD x 2, HDD, DVD). I got as far as a Windows self diagnosis that doesn't tell you what it's trying to do and on a reboot it let me log in to Windows, but only to a black screen. It has been powering down for about ten minutes (blue screen with swinging balls).

I had initially thought it was the SSD failing, but now it feels more like a motherboard issue. I don't understand why everything is now going so slowly and if that tells me anything.

I think the next job is to connect only the primary SSD and see if that helps narrow down what's causing the problem. If I can get in to Windows, are there any particular diagnosis tools I should use?

Any other thoughts about what I should look in to?

 

[Porina]

Depends on what other bits you have on hand... certainly you need to rule in or out if it is the SSD. If you have another SATA cable try that. Try another port on the mobo. Windows might complain but as long as it is on the same chipset it should still work. Some mobos may have multiple controllers so be careful. Try it as a secondary drive in another PC if you have access to one.

If you get as far as Windows, or use another PC, download any software that can read SMART and see what it says. Actually, first stop, try your SSD manufacturer's page for any diagnostic software there.

 

[Surfinjo]

As Porina says, it needs investigation.

But you must do this systematically. Not simply assume it is one thing. The request for a system disc, for example, may seem to be a problem with the SSD, but not necessarily. SSDs are very reliable and this problem is more likely to be caused by some other component failure.

Or it could be something else entirely.

Please post details of your system.

The CPU, which make, how old it is, how much RAM it has, has it been upgraded from W7, what peripherals do you usually have on it?

We need a lot more information.

 

[Matt168]

Thank you both for offering such speedy assistance. I upgraded (painlessly) from Win 7 to Win 10 just a few weeks ago.

Main PC specs are as follows:

CPU- Intel i5 760 2.8Ghz
Motherboard - Gigabyte GA-P55M-UD2
Memory - Corsair XMS3 4GB (2x2GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit

Those are all around four to five years old now, built at the same time. I have always had a slight issue with this system, where if you start from cold there will be a memory error within a few minutes leading to an immediate crash and reboot. If you start, shut down and then restart (the hard reset button alone isn't sufficient) it will be fine and if you use the sleep function it will restart happily most of the time. Generally I would say that last bit was not relevant, however when I shuffled the SATA cables around, I found that the drive moved to port 0 would not register at all on a cold start, but after a subsequent restart it showed up again. I believe that the drive moved to port 0 then showed a SMART error. This setup clearly has some sensitivity to cold starts.

This post is actually being made using the original SSD as the only drive plugged in to the mobo, on port 2 or 3. The only issues I can see at present are simply ones caused by the HDD not being plugged in (the folder with my desktop pics in is on that drive). Next job is to shut down and boot it up with this cable moved to port 0.

Does it seem more likely that a mobo failure would trigger all ports to stop working rather than one in particular? When I shifted drives around yesterday, I actually moved the SSDs and left the cables plugged in the same ports so it could be something as simple as that cable failing.

The drives I have available are:
System SSD - Crucial RealSSD C300 128GB 2.5" SATA 6Gb/s
Storage HDD - 1TB Samsung HD103SJ Spinpoint F3
DVD - Samsung SH-S223C 22x Internal DVD±R/RW SATA

These are from the original build. Then a few weeks ago I added an extra SSD (Crucial BX100 500GB SATA SSD).

Peripheral wise, nothing has been plugged in beyond the mouse and keyboard. When running ED I will use a USB headset, X52 and an EDTracker, but only plug in when actually using them.

 

[Matt168]

System SSD in port 0 is currently working too, however on the first boot up I got as far as the Windows logo and it just cut dead with everything off. I tried again and here we are. I was even able to log in to Elite (the only game worthy of a place on my system drive).

Again, we have this inconsistent behaviour between boots that really puzzles me.

 

[SpionKop]

When SSD's became popular (4-5 years ago) there was some initial problems with their reliability, which has since been rectified. I had one of the older 128gb SSD drives which gave me some trouble but since installing a newer 240gb I've had no problems at all.

p.s.

4gb RAM is pretty low for gaming. You should get 8gb or 16gb RAM (best for modern games) for a more enjoyable experience.

 

[Porina]

If there was some problem with the mobo or ram, I'd expect the crashes to be largely random. That once it starts working, it usually stays working, could be pointing towards a power supply problem.

On the old SSD thing, that would be another reason to check the manufacturer's page. Many earlier drives had firmware updates for various reasons.

 

[Matt168]

System SSD to port 1 gave me the same issue of initially everything switching off while Windows loaded but is behaving itself on the reboot.

The mobo has the following SATA connections:
0 and 1 on one block of connectors just under my graphics card
2 and 3 on another directly adjacent
4 a little lower down on the surface of the mobo

There is also a block of two slower ports (GSATA) and an external SATA connector too. These go unused.

The block with ports 0 and 1 is very close to the new GTX970 card in my machine; I wonder if heat from that could have affected the block?

PS to SpionKop... yeah, but I'm going to hold out on that upgrade for a while yet. 16Gb is cheap nowadays but the DIMM slots are half obscured by my CPU cooler and I will only do that job when I need to.

 

[Surfinjo]

Thank you both for offering such speedy assistance. I upgraded (painlessly) from Win 7 to Win 10 just a few weeks ago.

Main PC specs are as follows:

CPU- Intel i5 760 2.8Ghz
Motherboard - Gigabyte GA-P55M-UD2
Memory - Corsair XMS3 4GB (2x2GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit

Those are all around four to five years old now, built at the same time. I have always had a slight issue with this system, where if you start from cold there will be a memory error within a few minutes leading to an immediate crash and reboot. If you start, shut down and then restart (the hard reset button alone isn't sufficient) it will be fine and if you use the sleep function it will restart happily most of the time. Generally I would say that last bit was not relevant, however when I shuffled the SATA cables around, I found that the drive moved to port 0 would not register at all on a cold start, but after a subsequent restart it showed up again. I believe that the drive moved to port 0 then showed a SMART error. This setup clearly has some sensitivity to cold starts.

This post is actually being made using the original SSD as the only drive plugged in to the mobo, on port 2 or 3. The only issues I can see at present are simply ones caused by the HDD not being plugged in (the folder with my desktop pics in is on that drive). Next job is to shut down and boot it up with this cable moved to port 0.

Does it seem more likely that a mobo failure would trigger all ports to stop working rather than one in particular? When I shifted drives around yesterday, I actually moved the SSDs and left the cables plugged in the same ports so it could be something as simple as that cable failing.

The drives I have available are:
System SSD - Crucial RealSSD C300 128GB 2.5" SATA 6Gb/s
Storage HDD - 1TB Samsung HD103SJ Spinpoint F3
DVD - Samsung SH-S223C 22x Internal DVD±R/RW SATA

These are from the original build. Then a few weeks ago I added an extra SSD (Crucial BX100 500GB SATA SSD).

Peripheral wise, nothing has been plugged in beyond the mouse and keyboard. When running ED I will use a USB headset, X52 and an EDTracker, but only plug in when actually using them.

OK, first we check your RAM.

Below is a diagram of where it must be installed.



After making sure the RAM is in the correct place, can you remove the one from DDR3 and restart. If the problem persists, turn off and put the one you remove in DDR1 only and restart.

If that doesn't help, can you go into the BIOS and restore it to default?

If that doesn't work, can you download this CD abd burn it to disc?

http://www.hirensbootcd.org/download/

It is a PC tool kit. Be careful, most of the tools are straightforward enough, but some may make changes. You should be able to figure it out.

Hiren's has an onboard OS based upon XP. You can surf the net with it, but if doesn't support Flash.

If you can't get the XP to run the tools are all available from an much simpler interface.

This is a list of the tools with descriptions. The download is free.

http://www.hiren.info/pages/bootcd

Then tell us how you get on.

I suspect the memory modules myself, but I could be wrong.

 

[Surfinjo]

Matt,

How did you get on?

Have you fixed your PC?