Sudden boot error

[Drazzi]

I am absolutely a layman with this, and in a huge autism tizzy, so please excuse me if I don't come across well.

Laptop has had a niggle or two in its time, but the last big issue was around October when it did two sudden crashes where out of nowhere I had the screen go almost black, with bright red/green/yellow points as if it had burnt out, and a buzzing noise coming from the laptop. It froze like this for around 5 seconds, and then restarted itself. I worked with support to try and find an issue, but after these two times it didn't happen again and we decided to leave well enough alone.

Today the laptop was working fine, I left it on standby for a hour or two. Came back to see it displaying a boot error failure. Efi pxe 0 for ipv4

After okaying this message twice it takes me to a screen to choose keyboard and a few other options like restore past version - none of these seem to work.

If I get into bios I'm at a loss of what to do. As said, layman here, and I don't really want to fiddle around. I've tried some suggestions from Google but nothing seems to be working.


Will I have to suck it up and do a USB system restore? Will that remove any files on my 2nd hd? Should I wait for support in case there's a chance they can help?

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[ubuysa]

That indicates that the boot drive was not found and the BIOS is attempting to do a network boot. The problem is the M.2 boot drive, which I assume is the NVMe drive (and if not then why not?). It may be that the drive needs reseating, sometimes M.2 drives do work a bit loose. If you feel confident then open the laptop up, remove the boot drive and reseat it. If that doesn't help then it's likely the drive has failed and you'll need to talk to PCS.

 

[Drazzi]

Thank you for the help!

I had a techie friend look at it with your advice.
He says he has high hopes that both drives are okay because they're seated fine. Seems to be motherboard that might need to be sent for replacement though, fun times

 

[SpyderTracks]

Thank you for the help!

I had a techie friend look at it with your advice.
He says he has high hopes that both drives are okay because they're seated fine. Seems to be motherboard that might need to be sent for replacement though, fun times

Being seated ok doesn't mean the drive won't have failed, it's common with the model you have. Just needs a replacement boot drive.

I'd recommend a Samsung 980pro, the budget drives are more prone to failure.

 

[ubuysa]

Occam's Razor. It'll be the M.2 drive rather than the motherboard.

 

[Drazzi]

Being seated ok doesn't mean the drive won't have failed, it's common with the model you have. Just needs a replacement boot drive.

I'll keep that in mind! My friend seemed to think it'd be very strange for both drives to fail at once - but whichever the issue turns out to be, I hope pcspecialist can sort me out since I'm under warranty

 

[SpyderTracks]

I'll keep that in mind! My friend seemed to think it'd be very strange for both drives to fail at once - but whichever the issue turns out to be, I hope pcspecialist can sort me out since I'm under warranty

What makes you think both drives have failed though?

 

[Drazzi]

What makes you think both drives have failed though?

I'm just going off my friend's knowledge and what he told me:

"We've extracted the M.2 drives and they're both readable on another machine, with no drive errors, however not being picked up at all in the BIOS on the laptop. It looks like the drives themselves are both fine, but not reading in any of the three M2 ports.
The only boot devices it's recognising is network boot."

 

[ubuysa]

Can you boot a USB drive? Make a Windows bootable installation drive using the media creation tool, or alternatively boot a Linux distro on a USB stick. If that won't boot then it's a bigger issue than the drive.

I just re-read your first post and missed this bit the first time...

the last big issue was around October when it did two sudden crashes where out of nowhere I had the screen go almost black, with bright red/green/yellow points as if it had burnt out, and a buzzing noise coming from the laptop

That certainly doesn't sound good. If you do RMA it be sure to refer PCS back to this issue.

BTW. Don't mention your techie friend to PCS, having a third party do any work on the laptop will void your warranty.

 

[Drazzi]

Oh really? I thought looking through the warranty that it wouldn't void it? It only says "if the actions of the person installing your components cause damage to your computer it will void warrenry" as far as I see? :x since nothings been installed hopefully it'll be ok

Also not more than an hour after posting, going through all the checks my friend determined you were all correct, he was thinking too outside the box and it seems to be an issue with the windows drive!

 

[ubuysa]

Oh really? I thought looking through the warranty that it wouldn't void it? It only says "if the actions of the person installing your components cause damage to your computer it will void warrenry" as far as I see? :x since nothings been installed hopefully it'll be ok

Also not more than an hour after posting, going through all the checks my friend determined you were all correct, he was thinking too outside the box and it seems to be an issue with the windows drive!

See clause 7.9...

Any tampering, repair or modification by unauthorised personnel voids the warranty.

Authorisation in this case means by PCS.

 

[Drazzi]

Ah, I see.

I think I should be good, since they emailed me asking if I was able to open it up before that happened. So I would think that's authorised.

 

[ubuysa]

Ah, I see.

I think I should be good, since they emailed me asking if I was able to open it up before that happened. So I would think that's authorised.

Oh yes. Just be sure they know you did the work under your friend's guidance.