Computer turns off then on again on boot up / and issues with 'sleep'

[ellspeedy]

Hi all,

Having a few strange issues with my computer lately.

Firstly, when turning it on, it lights up as if booting up correctly but then it powers off. This all happens in about 1-2 seconds after pressing the power button. Once it powers itself off, it then powers back on after a 2-3 second delay and boots correctly.

Does anyone have an idea of what may be causing this and how to fix?

Additionally, when putting my PC to sleep, I've noticed it sometimes powers back on (lights on the desktop come on) however the monitors (when turned on) don't show any input. When I press any button on my keyboard, the backlights on the keyboard light up for a split second then go off again. The only way I've found to fix this is to turn the PC off and then back on again (which incidentally also triggers the above issue).

As above, any ideas on what may be causing this?

Haven't a clue if these issues are linked so any advice would be very welcome!

Thank you and Merry Christmas everyone!

 

[ubuysa]

Is this a PCS build? Can you post the full specs please (from the order oage)?

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[ellspeedy]

Hey, sorry yes it's a PCS build, order below.

Only change is I've added a 256gb SSD:

Crucial CT256MX100SSD1 MX100 256 GB SATA 2.5 Inch 7 mm (with 9.5 mm Adapter) Internal Solid State Drive

Thank you!

Case Model:	NZXT Phantom 410 Midi Tower Chassis - Black
Case From:	Amazon
Processor (CPU)	Intel® Core™i5-2500 Quad Core (3.30GHz, 6MB Cache) + HD Graphics Change to: Intel® Core™ i5 Quad Core Processor i5-3550 (3.3GHz) 6MB Cache
Motherboard	ASUS® P8Z77-V LX: USB 3.0, SATA 6GBs, ATI®CrossFireX Change to: ASUS® P8Z77-V - Special Offer!
Memory (RAM)	8GB SAMSUNG DUAL-DDR3 1333MHz (2 X 4GB)
Graphics Card	1.25GB NVIDIA GEFORCE GTX 570 - 2 DVI, HDMI, DP - 3D Vision Ready
2nd Graphics Card	NONE
3rd Graphics Card	NONE
1st Storage Drive	1TB WD CAVIAR BLACK WD1002FAEX, SATA 6 Gb/s, 64MB CACHE (7200rpm)
2nd Storage Drive	NONE
1st M.2 SSD Drive	NONE
RAID	NONE
DVD/BLU-RAY Drive	24x DUAL LAYER DVD WRITER ±R/±RW/RAM
2nd DVD/BLU-RAY Drive	NONE
External Hard Drive	NONE
Memory Card Reader	NONE
Power Supply	CORSAIR 650W ENTHUSIAST SERIES™ TX650 V2-80 PLUS® BRONZE (£69)
Processor Cooling	SUPER QUIET 22dBA TRIPLE COPPER HEATPIPE INTEL CPU COOLER (£19)
Fan Controller	NONE
Sound Card	ONBOARD 6 CHANNEL (5.1) HIGH DEF AUDIO (AS STANDARD)
Wireless Router/HomePlugs	2 x 200Mbps HomePlug AV - Create a Wired Network Using Electric Sockets! (£38)
USB/Thunderbolt Options	6 x USB 2.0 PORTS @ BACK PANEL (MIN 2 FRONT PORTS) AS STANDARD
4G Module	NONE, I WILL BE USING BROADBAND
Floppy Disk Drive	NONE
Firewire	NONE
TV Card	NONE
Operating System	Genuine Windows 7 Home Premium 64 Bit - inc DVD & Licence (£79)
Office Software	NO OFFICE SOFTWARE
Anti-Virus	NORTON ANTI-VIRUS 2012 - 1 Year Licence for 1 PC (£14) Change to: NO ANTI-VIRUS SOFTWARE
Monitor	IIYAMA E2473HDS 24" LED WIDESCREEN, 2 HDMI/DVI-D 1920x1080 (£159)
2nd Monitor	NONE
Monitor Cables	NONE
Eyefinity Adapter	NONE
Keyboard & Mouse	NONE
Mouse	NONE
Headsets	NONE
Speakers	NONE
Webcam	NONE
Surge Protection	6 Socket Compact 2M UFO Surge Protector (£9)
Cable Management	NONE Change to: JML 1.5M Zip Cable Tidy - Professional Cable Management
Printer	NONE
Warranty	3 Year Gold Warranty (2 Year Collect & Return, 2 Year Parts, 3 Year Labour) (£69)
Home Installation	NONE
Data Recovery	NONE
Delivery	STANDARD INSURED DELIVERY TO UK MAINLAND (MON-FRI)
Build Time	Standard Build - Approximately 10 to 12 working days
Charity Calendar	NONE

 

[ubuysa]

How old is it? What sort of temperatures do you see when if does finally boot?

Was it ok when you first installed the SSD?

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[ellspeedy]

It's about 7 years old now and here's a screenshot of Core Temp after booting:

I never noticed any issues when I'd installed the SSD, only seems to have problems recently

Is it perhaps something to do with the PSU?

 

[ubuysa]

It's not overheating then, although it would be useful to see the temps when it's under load to be sure, booting is a pretty intense operation.

Before suspecting any hardware you'll need to prove it's not a software issue. The only way to do that is via a fully clean install of Windows (from bootable media, don't use the Windows Reset feature) with a new partition structure and with Windows Update installing all drivers and updates. Don't install anything else but see whether you get these booting and sleeping issues then, if you still get them it's most likely to be a hardware issue. My advice then would be to seek PCS's help.

 

[SpyderTracks]

I've seen this happen on older motherboards.

I would try clearing the CMOS on the board, then resetting the BIOS to optimal defaults and try rebooting.

Are you still on Windows 7?

 

[ellspeedy]

Hey sorry for the very late response but thank you for both getting back to me.

@ubuysa Unfortunately I'm not overly tech savvy on the software/hardware side of PCs so I'm not entirely sure how I'd go about the clean install of Windows from bootable media / partition structure. Do you have a good link for instructions?

@SpyderTracks Again unfortunately I'm not too sure what that means, sorry. How do I go about clearing the CMOS on the board + resetting the BIOS?
And no, I've now upgraded to Windows 10 Home (through the Windows update feature I believe, was a long time ago now)

 

[ellspeedy]

So I tried doing what I think is clearing the CMOS but moving the pin from the first two pins to the second and third, waited 10 seconds, moved back to 1-2 and booted up but had the same issue (boots up, powers off, boots up).
Then I tried removing the CMOS battery, moving the pin to 2-3, waited 10 seconds, back to 1-2, replaced the CMOS battery (with a new one, 3V) and booted up however this time it booted up, powered off, booted up, powered off again, third time booting up it's come on.

Have I followed the correct process re the CMOS here? And this hasn't solved the problem, so is the clean install of windows my last hope?

Edit something I forgot to highlight is I've seen the blue screen of death a few times recently so I'm thinking it may actually be the SSD that's playing up?

 

[ubuysa]

Try booting the Windows installation media (DVD or USB stick) and click on 'Repair my computer'. I'm not going to suggest you run any of the options in there but if you can get into that without it crashing or rebooting then it's likely to be an issue with your Windows system (the installation system is completely separate from you installed Windows system).

If you want a more reliable test then download a Linux distro, write it to a bootable USB stick and boot that. You won't need to install Linux, you can run most distros straight off the USB stick for testing. AGain, if that boot and runs ok then your problem is Windows.

Of course, if either (or both) of the above tests fail (it still crashes and reboots) then it's most likely a hardware problem.

Edit something I forgot to highlight is I've seen the blue screen of death a few times recently so I'm thinking it may actually be the SSD that's playing up?

Do you remember what the error reason was? (it will look something like IRQL_NOT_LESS_OR_EQUAL)

 

[Scott]

The fact you're not getting past the POST screen without an issue suggests a hardware fault straight away to me.

How many SATA cables are connected to the motherboard? The SATA cables are the ones that connect to the HDDs.

I would probably try booting with all of them disconnected to see if it gives the same problem.

 

[ellspeedy]

Thanks for your responses guys.

Ive been playing around with it this morning and at one stage it was just refusing to turn on at all, stuck in an endless booting loop.



It's now operating but it's no longer just doing one re-boot on initial start up, it's doing 2-5 times or it gets stuck in the endless loop and I'm not sure how it gets itself out of it, other than my turning it off, hitting it and walking away (not the best troubleshooting I know!)

Sorry @ubuysa, how exactly do I boot the windows installation media? And no I don't remember the BSOD code but will take a picture next time (Y)

@Scott, what is the POST screen? I believe there are the three Sata cables (I assume 1 SSD, 1 HDD and 1 DVD?) and I've tried disconnecting them all and booting but it said there was no boot option (as the SSD with Windows wasn't connected)?

 

[ubuysa]

You should have a Windows installation disk from PCS if you bought Windows with the PC. Just insert that disk and boot it. You may need to change the boot order in the BIOS setup to ensure the DVD drive is first.

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[Scott]

@Scott, what is the POST screen? I believe there are the three Sata cables (I assume 1 SSD, 1 HDD and 1 DVD?) and I've tried disconnecting them all and booting but it said there was no boot option (as the SSD with Windows wasn't connected)?

The POST screen is the one it's sitting on. If, once everything is disconnected, it gets to the point where it's attempting to boot without any delay that suggests an error with either one of the drives or the connections to the drives.

If the error was anything else, it would most likely still happen. Try disconnecting everything OTHER than your boot drive and see how that works.

 

[ubuysa]

POST is the Power On Self Test that happens whilst you're looking at the initial BIOS splash screen. That's what Scott means by the POST screen.

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[ellspeedy]

So here's what I've tried today:

Unplugging the HDD and DVD, leaving just the SSD plugged in and powering on. It went through the boot loop around 15 times before I gave up with it and powered it off fully.

Unplugging all 3 and powering on, again it went through the boot loop continuously.

Moving the SATA cables around the different ports (no idea if this would do anything bought thought it worth a try). Whether it's a coincident or not, after this step it powered on (after several boot loop cycles) but then hung on the Window logo and wouldn't respond to anything. So I restarted and hammered Del to enter BIOS and found the SSD wasn't showing in the boot options. However when exiting BIOS it allowed my to log in and I could see the SSD in the This PC section, so I'm not sure what happened there?

Following that I turned it off and when powering on again it just got stuck in the loop again.

One thing to note, the when it's boot loop cycling, I don't get anything on screen. It doesn't give me anything at all, it just fires up, fans start, then a second or two later it powers off, then re-fires up a few seconds later, and powers off again.
Also I've noticed that on the random times it does power on, the previous boot attempts stay powered on for longer. Ie when it's not working, it powers on for 1 second, then off. When it does work and powers on, the few attempts before hand stay powered on for 2-3 seconds or so. Almost like the system gets a little further each time?

Unfortunately I don't have the original Windows CD and I've since upgraded from Windows 7 to Windows 10 (via the auto update feature I believe).

Sorry for such a long post, I just wanted to let you know everything I've tried. I'm losing my patience with this contraption so am going to leave it in peace for a bit and see if there are any other suggestions from the experts!

 

[ubuysa]

Do you ever get to see the BIOS splash screen or does it turn off before that?

If you do see the BIOS splash screen, do you see the circling dots as Windows starts?


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[ellspeedy]

Thanks for the quick response and your patience with me Ubuysa

When it's bootloop cycling it never reaches the BIOS splash screen, it turns off before that.

When it eventually does boot up properly (which appears now to be randomly, not just after 1 failed boot cycle like at the start of my post) it boots correct, I see the BIOS Splash screen (assuming this is the one that says 'Press Del to enter BIOS'), then the windows logo then login screen.

 

[ubuysa]

Thanks for the quick response and your patience with me Ubuysa

When it's bootloop cycling it never reaches the BIOS splash screen, it turns off before that.

When it eventually does boot up properly (which appears now to be randomly, not just after 1 failed boot cycle like at the start of my post) it boots correct, I see the BIOS Splash screen (assuming this is the one that says 'Press Del to enter BIOS'), then the windows logo then login screen.

In that case your problems are definitely hardware related. Quite what is the problem!

Try removing all but on RAM stick and try again, if it still fails swap the one RAM stick.

If you have an IGPU on the CPU and a graphics card then remove the graphics card and plug the monitor into the mobo.

If you have an SSD and an HDD remove one and try booting. Then put that back and try the other.

Basically you want to remove as many components as you can whilst still keeping it bootable to see whether one or other is at fault.

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[ellspeedy]

Great thank you for that Ubuysa.

Okay so here's what I've tried this time, using 5 attempted boot ups as my limit before trying the next combination:

- Removed HDD. Attempted to boot 3 times, fired up fully on the 4th. Shut down through PC, plugged back in.
- Removed SSD. Attempted to boot 5 times, manually turned if off, plugged back in.
- Removed DVD. Attempted to boot 5 times, manually turned if off, plugged back in

- Removed SSD and HDD. Attempted to boot 5 times, manually turned off, plugged both back in.

- Removed SSD and DVD. Attempted to boot 5 times, manually turned off, plugged both back in.

- Removed HDD and DVD. Attempted to boot 5 times, manually turned off, plugged both back in.

- Removed stick A of RAM 4gb. Attempted to boot once, fired up fully on the 2nd, plugged back in.
- Removed stick B of RAM 4gb. Attempted to boot once, fired up fully on the 2nd, plugged back in.

- Removed the GPU and used the integrated IGPU to connect DVI to monitor. Attempted to boot once, fired up fully on the 2nd, plugged back in.

- With everything plugged back in, attempted to boot once, fired up fully on the 2nd.

- Shut it down and turned back on, to re-test again as the last 4 adjustments above all resulted in one failed attempt, then firing up correctly (which was the case initially before I started tinkering) however this time it attempted 5 times failing each time so I turned it off.

- Removed stick A of RAM, GPU, HDD and DVD. Attempted to boot once, fired up fully on the 2nd.
- As well as the above, also removed the SSD. Attempted to boot 5 times, manually turned off.
- Swapped the RAM over, leaving everything else unplugged still. Attempted to boot once, fired up fully on the 2nd. (albeit going straight to BIOS as no bootable drive)

I feel like I've tried every combination possible here but still to no avail?