I reset the BIOS. I reset the CMOS. I replaced the CMOS. No IDE option in my bios. Thing gets stuck on automatic repair - ill leave it on for hours and nothing.

I removed all additional HDDs and SSDs. I pulled the C drive and backed up the important data. Pulled the GPU and checked it real good. All of the ram as well.

I had gotten a BSOD with the “PNP Driver Watchdog” error. Google is unhelpful as anyone with this BSOD never received nor confirmed a working remedy or solution.

Now, after days of trying I am very rarely able to get to the Windows Install window from my USB. But none of my mice or keyboards work. They’ll work briefly for a few seconds and then stop. Nothing works to get them going again forcing me to shut down yet again.

Only thing I can think of is an unplanned and unannounced power shut off while I was out. Less than a week later my PC is pulling this shit. Refusing to boot.

Im ready to take it to a stupid pc repair shop… which im very hesitant on doing as I built this thing. Not to mention I dont like the thought of transporting this huge and heavy thing.

  • OtherbarryEnglish
    8·
    29 days ago

    Well that’s your answer, you usually won’t get a normal Windows boot up with bad RAM. And if by some miracle Windows manages to make it to the desktop with bad RAM it’s just going to crash out sooner or later.

    You’re not going to be able to do any Windows re-installs with bad RAM either.

    The good news is that’s very unlikely all your RAM is bad. You have 4 sticks - this will take a bit of time but what you can do is take out all RAM sticks. Then install one stick, do a memtest run, if it looks okay take the stick out and repeat with each of the other 3 RAM sticks. That should give you an idea on which RAM stick(s) are bad, the bad ones just keep them aside and don’t re-install them.

    After testing each RAM stick individually you can re-install all the good RAM sticks, do a final memtest run & verify it all works together (it should be fine at this point but sometimes you have to do multiple memtest runs to suss out bad RAM).

    Once you remove all bad RAM your system should be able to boot into a Windows USB install and make it through the entire install normally. Or alternatively you can test if your current Windows 10 can fix itself once the RAM issue is resolved but there’s a good chance it’s pretty broken now.

    • dotCody@lemmy.worldOP
      2·
      27 days ago

      Thank you for the assistance!

      OK, now it looks like 1 out of the 4 ram sticks is no good. But now the thing is still refusing to boot. Doesn’t matter if its 1 stick or 2.

      I honestly think my mobo is fucked. The trouble codes on the mobo are erratic as well. I’ve gotten multiple for bad ram and now a bad GPU driver.

      And it doesn’t matter if Booting off of usb, trying to boot normally off of the c drive or trying to get into windows recovery. Everything is simply hanging on the loading screen!

      I think I might have to bite the bullet and buy a replacement mobo… 🥲 id still like to see if a second opinion from a pc repair shop is worth it to confirm my suspicion before shelling out $400 on a used mobo from China express.

      • OtherbarryEnglish
        2·
        18 days ago

        Curious what you ended up doing - I sort of suspect it might be an issue with your GPU and would attempt replacing that before writing off the entire motherboard. GPU errors keep coming up with your build (the Windows crash earlier seemed to refer to GPU, and now as you say the motherboard trouble code also mentions GPU) so there’s a wild chance you had both bad RAM and a bad GPU. But I can’t think of a good way to rule out GPU without actually plugging in a working one in there, not sure if other people would have better ideas.

        • dotCody@lemmy.worldOP
          1·
          18 days ago

          Hey thanks for checking in!!

          I took the rig to a local pc repair shop. He did a load test on the psu and it failed, twice. So he recommended, especially after I told him about my power shutoff, that I first replace the PSU then the motherboard if its still giving issue.

          So now… I have:

          A RAM stick on its way to Dumpland for RMA A new PSU in transit A used motherboard in transit Instructions from Seasonic to destroy and document evidence of said destruction of the PSU for their RMA

          What a headache. And to think this may have all been caused because some jackass in my household whom didn’t pay the fucking electricity bill. And this jackass let the electricity bill accrue insane interest and fees.

          Guess its a good idea to fresh install windows if i ever get the hardware working again?

          • OtherbarryEnglish
            2·
            18 days ago

            Seems like a good diagnosis, they probably have the setup and equipment to do a better PSU test vs anything you had on hand. Testing for load is a bit tricky, you’d normally see instability during runtime once you’re in Windows or whatever, it’s not that obvious if you can’t even get into Windows.

            The current Windows install is pretty beat up so you should prepare for a re-install - but once the hardware is stable you’ll be able to properly test if Windows is able to fix itself and boot up correctly, could be by some miracle it all comes back up in the end.