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My computer died.
System specs:
MSI Z97A Gaming 7
Core i7-4790K
Radeon R9 Fury X
16 GB (2 x 8 GB) G.Skill Ares 2400 MHz DDR3
Seasonic Snow Silent 750 W
This computer has never been as stable as I'd like, as it crashes once per month or so. Yesterday, it apparently rebooted, possibly from a crash, while I was taking a nap.
When I went to turn the computer off for the night, after several minutes, I noticed that the case lights were still on. I messed with the mouse and keyboard, and up came the login screen. Thinking I had somehow told it to reboot instead of shutting down, I again tried to shut it down. The monitors turned off, but the case lights stayed on. After several minutes, messing with the keyboard and mouse again got the Windows login screen to come on. There's virtually no chance that I'd accidentally tell it to reboot twice in a row, but I dutifully told it to shut down for a third time, with the same results.
I logged in to see what was going on. Apparently Microsoft Shadow Volume Copy (or something like that) was maxing out one CPU core. I tried to kill the process several times, but it refused to die. Finally, I just turned off the computer by pressing the power button. After that, I turned on the computer once, and tried to shut it down again, with the same results as before: it would go into sleep or hibernate or some such, but not actually shut down. Another press of the power button and it was off.
I'd like to be clear that it was not installing updates. When you shut down Windows while installing updates, it doesn't turn the monitors off immediately. Instead, it brings up a screen that says, installing updates, please don't turn off your computer. That didn't happen. When I told it to shut down, it did turn the monitors off.
After that, I can't get it to boot. Once I got it to turn on just enough to display an error message:
Boot Guard verified DXE that is fail
System will shutdown
Press any key
Internet lore seems to indicate that that's a corrupted BIOS. Fortunately, my motherboard has a dual BIOS, so I tried the other. No such luck, and it would be very strange for both BIOSes to go bad independently at the same time. Thinking that bad memory could be the issue, I tried pulling one of the memory modules. I tried with just one memory module, using either of the two, in each of three slots. That's six combinations right there, and I tried most of them with each BIOS, too. Several times, I got it to turn on just enough to display a white cursor in the top left corner of an otherwise blank screen, but nothing else.
Sometimes when I press power, the case fans and lights turn on for several seconds, then off for a few seconds, then back on and stay on. I've never seen that behavior before. To repeat, I'm not pressing the power button or anything for where it all turns off for a few seconds. It just does it on its own, then comes back on.
My motherboard has a debug LED with codes to say what is going on. It spends most of the time at code 10, which according to the manual, doesn't actually mean anything.
I've set up both my laptop and my desktop, so that I can get back on the Internet. I tried to patch Windows first, but Windows absolutely refuses to get any updates. I've at least patched my anti-virus. I'm temporarily blocking all ads from all sites until I can get Windows patched. My old desktop and laptop both use Windows 7 and were last updated last September and December, respectively. They were unplugged entirely in the meantime, so that wasn't a security risk, but now I'm trying to update them and failing.
On both my desktop and my laptop, there's an svchost.exe process maxing out one CPU core. I'm not sure if that's Windows Update, but whatever it is, it's not touching the network.
As for my new computer, my best guess is that it's a motherboard failure. I haven't tried swapping components between my old and new computers yet. If nothing else, I could move the new power supply and video card to my old computer and have something more functional, as that would allow me to use the newer monitors. My old Core i7-860 is rather dated, but still not terrible.
MSI Z97A Gaming 7
Core i7-4790K
Radeon R9 Fury X
16 GB (2 x 8 GB) G.Skill Ares 2400 MHz DDR3
Seasonic Snow Silent 750 W
This computer has never been as stable as I'd like, as it crashes once per month or so. Yesterday, it apparently rebooted, possibly from a crash, while I was taking a nap.
When I went to turn the computer off for the night, after several minutes, I noticed that the case lights were still on. I messed with the mouse and keyboard, and up came the login screen. Thinking I had somehow told it to reboot instead of shutting down, I again tried to shut it down. The monitors turned off, but the case lights stayed on. After several minutes, messing with the keyboard and mouse again got the Windows login screen to come on. There's virtually no chance that I'd accidentally tell it to reboot twice in a row, but I dutifully told it to shut down for a third time, with the same results.
I logged in to see what was going on. Apparently Microsoft Shadow Volume Copy (or something like that) was maxing out one CPU core. I tried to kill the process several times, but it refused to die. Finally, I just turned off the computer by pressing the power button. After that, I turned on the computer once, and tried to shut it down again, with the same results as before: it would go into sleep or hibernate or some such, but not actually shut down. Another press of the power button and it was off.
I'd like to be clear that it was not installing updates. When you shut down Windows while installing updates, it doesn't turn the monitors off immediately. Instead, it brings up a screen that says, installing updates, please don't turn off your computer. That didn't happen. When I told it to shut down, it did turn the monitors off.
After that, I can't get it to boot. Once I got it to turn on just enough to display an error message:
Boot Guard verified DXE that is fail
System will shutdown
Press any key
Internet lore seems to indicate that that's a corrupted BIOS. Fortunately, my motherboard has a dual BIOS, so I tried the other. No such luck, and it would be very strange for both BIOSes to go bad independently at the same time. Thinking that bad memory could be the issue, I tried pulling one of the memory modules. I tried with just one memory module, using either of the two, in each of three slots. That's six combinations right there, and I tried most of them with each BIOS, too. Several times, I got it to turn on just enough to display a white cursor in the top left corner of an otherwise blank screen, but nothing else.
Sometimes when I press power, the case fans and lights turn on for several seconds, then off for a few seconds, then back on and stay on. I've never seen that behavior before. To repeat, I'm not pressing the power button or anything for where it all turns off for a few seconds. It just does it on its own, then comes back on.
My motherboard has a debug LED with codes to say what is going on. It spends most of the time at code 10, which according to the manual, doesn't actually mean anything.
I've set up both my laptop and my desktop, so that I can get back on the Internet. I tried to patch Windows first, but Windows absolutely refuses to get any updates. I've at least patched my anti-virus. I'm temporarily blocking all ads from all sites until I can get Windows patched. My old desktop and laptop both use Windows 7 and were last updated last September and December, respectively. They were unplugged entirely in the meantime, so that wasn't a security risk, but now I'm trying to update them and failing.
On both my desktop and my laptop, there's an svchost.exe process maxing out one CPU core. I'm not sure if that's Windows Update, but whatever it is, it's not touching the network.
As for my new computer, my best guess is that it's a motherboard failure. I haven't tried swapping components between my old and new computers yet. If nothing else, I could move the new power supply and video card to my old computer and have something more functional, as that would allow me to use the newer monitors. My old Core i7-860 is rather dated, but still not terrible.
Comments
I can't remember what, and during which parts of updates, but it's used.
No wonder few people read instructions.
If you cant get that far I would check your motherboard battery or maybe resetting the CMOS. If your memory is dual channel you will need both sticks to function. So popping one in and out probably would not tell you anything. There are DVD bootable memory checkers you can run though to see. If memory is not the issue I would lean more towards hard drive failure
It's not even getting to the point where it checks to see if there is a hard drive before it fails. The computer doesn't POST.
I probably should try pulling the CMOS battery, but haven't yet. I wanted to at least have something that works in the meantime rather than fighting with a dead computer all day.
Just a shot.
The world is going to the dogs, which is just how I planned it!
Try installing this update manually: https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/kb/3102810
If the computer is searching for updates, you first need to restart it for that update's installation to work.
Edit: I was mistaken. It was a different attempted fix for Windows Update not working that I downloaded.
Hope it isn't a bios rootkit. Looking at the motherboard is a great likely suspect.
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https://archive.org/details/softwarelibrary_msdos?&sort=-downloads&page=1
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You can try to disable it or set vss to manual start in the services list. I set mine to manual. I don't use restore points though and I believe they are dependent on VSC.
You can also try to go to disk clean up, select clean up system files, more options tab, then select to clean up all restore points and shadow copies except the newest one.
Good luck
1. Use brand name components (you are given a choice between brand name components and generic)
2. Pay the extra $19 or so for professional wiring
3. Pay the extra $30 or so for the foam padding that goes inside the case during shipment
I bought 2 computers from them, and they all run stable.
NFW will I EVER recommend that company to anyone.
The world is going to the dogs, which is just how I planned it!
I've seen some really weird behavior from bad power supplies.
Doesn't sound like a catastrophic failure. I'd start with a corrupted hard drive or bad power supply as the culprits.
"Be water my friend" - Bruce Lee
And I'm not trying to advertise for them or anything, but they have never crashed once.
I live in West Los Angeles (about 1 hour drive from their HQ). So what I do is, when I order I pick all the brand-name parts (like EVGA, Corsair, ETC).
Even though I personally go to pick it up, I still pay $30 for the foam padding that goes inside the case, so the parts don't become lose while they are in my car.
* Remove the CMOS battery
* Press and hold the power button on your computer for about 10 seconds (when the power is still turned off)
* Wait for 10-15 minutes
* Reinsert the CMOS battery
* Turn the power supply back on
* Load the BIOS default settings
Try that maybe
By the way, the buyer would also need to have some knowledge of which components go well with each other.
For example, even though their ordering system lets me pick the 240mm liquid cooling for my case, I do my own research online to see if that case fits the 240mm liquid cooling well.
If it doesn't, I don't want the installer to force it in.
net stop wuauserv
then
net start wuauserv
Good luck.
Roses are red
Violets are blue
The reviewer has a mishapen head
Which means his opinion is skewed
...Aldous.MF'n.Huxley