I recently moved across the country and when i unpacked my pc… it wont boot windows. it displays artifacts / glitched areas. self repair doesnt work. it wont allow me to factory reset or roll back. I cant get a usb boot from windows to work. I need some divine intervention here any advice?
I reseated ram and gpu (xfx fatboy, amd) I reseated processor, replugged hard drive, checked all the connections on motherboard.
edit: when i moved it was repackaged exactly the way it was when i bought it new. i saved all the styrofoam boxes etc.
How well supported is the GPU? Is the CPU heatsink large and heavy?
It’s hard to diagnose remotely but what may have happened is that at some point (or multiple points, given the distance) during the move, bumps were hit and either the PCI-E slot or CPU socket on the motherboard were overstressed. If that’s the case there isn’t much you can do but get a new motherboard.
Sounds really grim… did you confirm that the monitor wasn’t damaged in transit?
Generally speaking moves are hard on PC equipment due to static electricity and what you are saying sounds like either the memory or the GPU VRAM got nuked.
To rule out memory, pull all the sticks out except for 1 and try and boot; exchanging that stick for another until you go through the set be cautious that you put the RAM in the correct slot (if it’s dual-channel; refer to the motherboard guide for seating guidance).
As for the GPU, if you have an iGPU on the CPU try pulling out your discrete GPU and plugging into the port on the backpanel; if you don’t have an iGPU you’ll need to use an old one or borrow a card from another PC.
Last-ditch, effort; disconnect all SATA cables and USB cables and try to at least POST.
I wish i could include pictures. I am having 0 graphics with the gpu removed. I even went into bios or whatever its called when the MB has a more friendly UI, and set primary graphics to “integrated”. I get a black screen.
edit: When i tried to recover / reroll / reset I was unable to see my windows partition. Its a HHD, and i did remove and replug the cables. As stated I cant even get windows to boot from a USB.
I have done that already as well, forgot to mention that. Had no effect!
Did you attempt to reseat everything
have reseated everything and i just replaced cmos battery. No change in performance
edit:
Ideally if I can figure out which piece of hardware is jacked up, I could replace it. Windows partition isnt showing as an option when entering recovery mode, so that makes me suspect hard drive.
On the other hand, I’ve got artifacts on my screen, making me think GPU. (Monitor is mint, when you power it up and it displays its logo its flawless).
And then a part of me wonders about the motherboard, but i’m not sure. If the GPU got damaged from vibrations theres a good chance it could have damaged the motherboard as well imo?
if you have a blank secondary storage, you could try a fresh install to see what happens on that drive.
will a bad gpu cause artifacts? It can. Will a bad gpu cause partitions to disappear from your HDD? Probably not. A bad gpu isn’t likely to affect drive access.
A bad MB can cause artifacts and affect drive access, so can a bad drive.
You say the option to access the recovery partition doesn’t even exist.
That isn’t a failure to access, its as if the partition itself doesn’t exist.
And it may not. I think your HDD is bad.
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Maybe the computer got shipped right next to a giant subwoofer
It mas as well have. It was in a trailer from Georgia to Alaska. It was packaged in the same packaging it was shipped to me in when I got it; all the styrofoam etc. There was a long portion towards the end of the trip that was absolutely riddled with potholes however, and the vehicle did bottom out several times @ the hitch point.
well keep in mind that while the motherboard and other compenents are fragile, they don’t contain moving parts. HDD’s do. it’s probably more likely the hard drive was damaged compared to the other components.
If you have another drive, i’d rip out the hard drive and try installing windows on that one.