Christmas ruined.

[badpc]

Bought the PC SPECIALIST Vortex ST-S Intel® Core™ i7 RTX 2070 Gaming PC - 2 TB HDD & 256 GB SSD for my son. On opening and installing it this morning, the PC won't boot up. It goes straight to BIOS and then loops over and over to BIOS.
Technical support won't open till 27th december, and I', begining to wonder if I should have gone for a proper brand like HP. :-/

Also, the tech specs of this computer on purchase mentioned Windows 10, but I'm not sure it has Windows 10 installed!

Any advice from anyone?

 

[Stephen M]

when in the BIOS it could be worth checking the boot order and making sure it is trying to boot from the correct drive. Also, sometime leads will become unattached in transit, would be worth looking inside the case to see if anything obvious, PC Specialist allow us to open up and work on PCS and laptops without voiding the warranty so as long as you do not damage anything having a look around is ok.

If you have another computer you could download a Linux Distro (plenty to choose herehttps://distrowatch.com/) and run it live but not installing from a USB, that would be a way of checking everything else on the PC was OK. My personal choice of live distro would be Ubuntu but any from the top of the popular list would do, perhaps Zorin as it is more like a Windows version to look at.

There is also a tool available bia Distrowatch called Gparted, that would show if any of the drives are corrupt.

 

[badpc]

Thank you for the quick reply.

The BIOS seems to be recognising the HDD, so is it safe to assume that all cables are intact? (Not tech savvy, so excuse any incorrect terms)

I've changed boot sequence to read HDD first, yet the PC , on powering on, goes to a blank screen "REBOOT AND SELECT PROPER BOOT DEVICE
OR INSERT BOOT MEDIA IN SELECTED BOOT DEVICE AND PRESS A KEY"

Hard drive seems to be encased under a metal casing within the body of the PC. Are you saying that it would not void my warranty if I unscrewed the casing and checked the cables once more?

Edit: Or is this a simple case of PC without an OS?

 

[ubuysa]

If you paid for a Windows license there will be an install DVD.Boot that and try Startup Repair.

Very rarely stuff comes loose in transit so don't be afraid to open it up and check that everything is secure. HDDs and SATA SSDs do sometimes come loose.

Sent using Tapatalk

 

[ubuysa]

Thank you for the quick reply.

The BIOS seems to be recognising the HDD, so is it safe to assume that all cables are intact? (Not tech savvy, so excuse any incorrect terms)

I've changed boot sequence to read HDD first, yet the PC , on powering on, goes to a blank screen "REBOOT AND SELECT PROPER BOOT DEVICE
OR INSERT BOOT MEDIA IN SELECTED BOOT DEVICE AND PRESS A KEY"

Hard drive seems to be encased under a metal casing within the body of the PC. Are you saying that it would not void my warranty if I unscrewed the casing and checked the cables once more?

Edit: Or is this a simple case of PC without an OS?

Just seen this. That's an HDD with no OS which is unusual. PCS install a testing Windows system even if you don't buy Windows.

You can always install Windows yourself. Let Windows Update install all drivers.

Sent using Tapatalk

 

[ubuysa]

Hard drive seems to be encased under a metal casing within the body of the PC. Are you saying that it would not void my warranty if I unscrewed the casing and checked the cables once more?

It will not void your warranty if you open the case, as long as you do no damage.

Is your build a hard drive only build or do you also have an SSD? If you do have an SSD Windows will be on there. Can you post the full spec? I'm guessing there's an SSD in that build that isn't being recognised for some reason....

 

[badpc]

PC SPECIALIST Vortex ST-S Intel® Core™ i7 RTX 2070 Gaming PC - 2 TB HDD & 256 GB SSD

Thats the PC.

It has SSD, but I can;t seem to prioritise that in the boot sequence

 

[ubuysa]

PC SPECIALIST Vortex ST-S Intel[emoji2400] Core[emoji769] i7 RTX 2070 Gaming PC - 2 TB HDD & 256 GB SSD

Thats the PC.

It has SSD, but I can;t seem to prioritise that in the boot sequence

I assume the SSD is M.2 rather than SATA?
Does the SSD show up as a drive in the BIOS?

If it's an M.2 SSD it will be fitted onto the motherboard somewhere. It possible that it's worked loose somehow, its worth checking that its fully home - it probably has a screw holding it in.

Windows will be installed on that SSD.

Edit: I've just seen that you can see the SSD in the BIOS so boot the Windows install DVD and try startup repair. If that doesn't help reinstall Windows.

Sent using Tapatalk

 

[badpc]

It is a SATA6G_3: ST2000DM008-2FR102

 

[ubuysa]

It is a SATA6G_3: ST2000DM008-2FR102

Check it's not worked loose then. It will have worked during PCS Q&A .

Some drives are only held in place by the cover so pop it out and make sure it's properly plugged in.

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[Oussebon]

I', begining to wonder if I should have gone for a proper brand like HP. :-/

Unfortunately a global brand can have just the same problems as a UK brand like PCS Since PCs are all all pretty similar and bits can come lose or just spontaneously die (an Adata / Samsung / etc SSD is an Adata / Samsung / etc SSD whether it's in a PCS machine or a Dell).

If you can't get the SSD to work as per @ubuysa's advice above, or any further suggestions (e.g. trying it in a different M.2 slot if there is one) you can still install Windows on the HDD to tide you over for a few days.

Most games won't see much/any performance difference from running on an HDD versus an SSD. Only a longer load time, but once you're in the game, you're fine.

If you don't have a Windows DVD or do but don't have a DVD drive, download Windows 10 from here:

Download Windows 10

Even on my slow broadband it only takes a couple of hours - much less if you have fibre.

Install Windows on the HDD, install the game(s), and your son should be okay to use the machine for now.

NB: A new Windows install can have its quirks that have a bigger impact on an HDD than an SSD e.g. heavy disk usage while it does some updates or indexes things. But hopefully not too many updates if you're using the downloaded installation media, and you can always switch off indexing.

If you already have the games downloaded on another PC (e.g. an older one this is replacing), you can copy the files over to the new system to save redownloading.

 

[Stephen M]

Agree with the above. My experience after seeing several PC Specialist machines, for me or family, friends etc is that they are probably better than High Street stuff. Unfortunately yours came at a time when there is no support for a few days.

I advise trying Gparted: https://gparted.sourceforge.io/livecd.php as it is the quick way to se if a working m2 is installed

Run this from a USB stick and you will be able to see what drives, SATA or m2, are connected and if a drive is corrupt that should also show.

Gparted is a live distro so will not install or effect anything else on the machine.

 

[Starkys]

Bought the PC SPECIALIST Vortex ST-S Intel® Core™ i7 RTX 2070 Gaming PC - 2 TB HDD & 256 GB SSD for my son. On opening and installing it this morning, the PC won't boot up. It goes straight to BIOS and then loops over and over to BIOS.
Technical support won't open till 27th december, and I', begining to wonder if I should have gone for a proper brand like HP. :-/

Also, the tech specs of this computer on purchase mentioned Windows 10, but I'm not sure it has Windows 10 installed!

Any advice from anyone?

Thing is even the overall Alienware reviews have way worse ratio than PCS reviews , exactly why i placed an order with PCS ......
and seeing their bad reviews are few and far between its most likely your problem will be solved once the holidays are over and the guys get back to work . I do understand your flustration , i ordered my desktop on the 3rd of december and at this point dont expect it to arrive this year . This is probably do to their reputation and consequential flood of orders thay got and have trouble coping with and not that thay are a bad company . Bottom line is : its a bad time to order custom PCs in a busy period like this and if you do expect hickups

 

[Oussebon]

Thing is even the overall Alienware reviews have way worse ratio than PCS reviews , exactly why i placed an order with PCS ......
and seeing their bad reviews are few and far between its most likely your problem will be solved once the holidays are over and the guys get back to work . I do understand your flustration , i ordered my desktop on the 3rd of december and at this point dont expect it to arrive this year . This is probably do to their reputation and consequential flood of orders thay got and have trouble coping with and not that thay are a bad company . Bottom line is : its a bad time to order custom PCs in a busy period like this and if you do expect hickups

Ordered 3rd Dec and still no ETA? One of the parts out of stock perhaps? One of the Ryzen R9s?

 

[Starkys]

Ordered 3rd Dec and still no ETA? One of the parts out of stock perhaps? One of the Ryzen R9s?

No its an intel Intel® Core™ i9 10 Core Processor i9-10900X (3.7GHz) 19.25MB Cache , the last info i had is that it supposed to have arrived on the 23rd after intel missed a shipment the previous week , but my order page still says thay still waiting for the CPU . Im also not sure if thay are building PCs during the holidays or the production is on hold . So it might be that thay got it but no ones actualy their becouse of christmas .
So becouse of this im pretti sure it will be 2020..... i dont mind waiting a bit more as long as its not weeks , my main concern is when it arrives it works perfectly

 

[Oussebon]

Ah, well, while not Ryzen, it's a new part so that figures I admit it didn't cross my mind anyone would be ordering one of those...

 

[badpc]

Thank you all for your replies. It has been sorted now!

 

[Oussebon]

Great to hear! What was the issue btw? In case it helps someone else

 

[Starkys]

Ah, well, while not Ryzen, it's a new part so that figures I admit it didn't cross my mind anyone would be ordering one of those...

well if someone did , he or she might be waiting as well probably and it seems this issue is solved as well so all good here
mary xmass guys ! l8r