Crash into restart on bootup (Win 7)

Sorry if I missed a thread that solved this problem, but I couldn't find any threads that depicted the exact same problem I had.

So, yesterday I used my computer and everything was fine, no problem whatsoever. I turned it off and tried booting it up today, I got to the screen where the computer tells you how to enter BIOS etc and it just hanged there for ten minutes, so I figured, why not reboot the computer.

Oh boy.

Now the computer gets to that screen, maybe a little bit into the actual bootup (telling computer specs etc.), then crashes, waits a few moments, then starts booting up again and repeating the entire process. Now, my case has two lights, one that indicates it's on and one that indicates there's access to the HDD (at least that's what I believe it's for) and this light only turns on briefly now where as before it would turn on frequently. Thinking perhaps the connection was loose, I took a peek inside and noticed that 2/3 of my fans didn't appear to be connected but all the connections to the HDDs were secured.

I'm not really a computer genius so I didn't do anything beyond this and would appreciate it if any of you had any idea on how to solve this.

 

I can't remember what service pack, if it was a Windows Update I was probably dumb enough to install it without questioning it. I cannot boot into Safe Mode, it just hangs when I try. No hardware, software or updates that I'm aware of (I'm unsure whether or not something updated in the background).

 

Okay, it fixed itself and I have no idea how.

 

I did as you said and it worked fine, till I started booting it up today. I even did some cleaning in an effort to lighten the machine and did some "true" uninstalls of the programs I installed recently.

Anyway, problem's back. I tried disconnecting my RAM, each by themselves, to see if it was bad RAM, but that did nothing. I tried disconnecting both my HDD but that gave the same result. Got to the boot-up screen a few times and all I got out of it was a permanent hang again.

I also managed to get this problem right after my local IT-support firm shut down for the weekend.

Thanks for the help so far, hope you or someone else can help me now again.

 

Greetings, Krigsmaskine...

So, let's start from scratch...

Can you access BIOS?

 

Nope. The computer either hangs or crashes when I attempt to.

 

1. Try disconnecting any peripherals, especially USB.

2. Is the CPU heatsink fan coming on?

And, what type of computer is this? If OEM, please give the model number, Service Tag number, etc. If homemade, any specs you can think of...

 

It started up again after a long resting period after my initial attempts at starting it. I did in fact disconnect any peripherals both times I made it work, but then I reconnected them and it booted up fine, so unsure if there's anything there.

The CPU heatsink fan is coming on.

It's technically homemade as I ordered what parts to put in, but the company put it together for me for some warranty for most of the parts. These are my specs:

OS: Win 7 Home Premium 64-bit
MOBO: Gigabyte Technology, P67A-UD3-B3
BIOS: Award Modular BIOS
CPU: Intel Core i7-2600K, oc'd to around 3.7GHZ
8 GB ram
GFX: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 560 Ti ("Phantom" Gainward ed.)
Service Pack 1

If there's anything else, just let me know. Now that it's functional (for a day, most likely), I'll try to get any info out of it.

 

Yikes - gotta hate these intermittent crashes...

When you get a chance, please download and run Speccy, a free system information tool.

When the scan completes click 'File', 'Save as Text file', name the report, and save to an easily found location such as your Desktop.

Be advised: the report will display your IP Address and Windows Product Key. You may delete this information if you so wish.

Then attach that file to your next post per these instructions: HOW TO: Attach Items To Your Post.

Also, make sure the machine is set to record minidumps - quick tutorial here. If and when the machine crashes again, when you can get it started navigate to the C: > Windows > Minidumps folder, copy those files to the Desktop, zip and upload them as an attachment - we'll try to see if we can spot anything...

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Couple of quick observations: the "long resting period" usually indicates an overheat, especially in light of your "2/3 of my fans didn't appear to be connected" comment...

And, for troubleshooting purposes, you might consider throttling down any overclocking that's going on, both with the CPU and the GPU...

 

I would normally agree on the overheating thing, but it doesn't feel warm and do note that this resting period is after I try to turn on my computer after an initial 10 hour (holiday sleeping!) resting period.

I enabled the minidumps which unfortunately weren't enabled prior.

I attached the Speccy file as requested, omitted the information for safety but I probably left a lot of other key stuff in there so it doesn't matter. Most of it is in English and nothing important shouldn't be, but if there's something you want translated, parse it and I'll give it a go.

 

I only have one thought on your problem. It seems you are not completing POST when you have the problem if I am reading things correctly. I realize you tried POSTing with both HD disconnected but next time it happens try disconnecting any CDROMs and USB devices too and see if it completes POST. POST being loading BIOS.

Just for clarity when it hangs what do you see on screen? Is it still POST/BIOS information or is it Windows logo information?

You might run a chkdsk on the HD if it is Windows that is hanging. Right-click C: drive in Computer and select Properties>Tools tab>Error checking and tick both boxes and hit the Check Now button. It will schedule for next reboot. Next time you reboot it should run the scan and fix any errors in the files system.

 

It varies, honestly. It feels like the computer is in a race against time. Most times I will get to the start where you select whether to do anything out of the ordinary (with TAB, DEL, END, etc. options), sometimes it actually starts loading and then crashes.

I scheduled a chkdsk and I'll try to get that going soon-ish.

 

Thanks for the report - the only thing that immediately stands out is the following: Fan Speed 20 RPM listed in the CPU section. I'm assuming this is a false reading, but you might try to verify that.

@sach2 - thanks for jumping in!

 

My fans are just powered up (not put into the correct sys_fan sockets) in my motherboard and they're just running at what appears to be full. Temps look fine too, so probably just a false reading.

 

I don't want to confuse things but just wanted to clarify that if it locks up during POST then that is usually a hardware problem. Normal POST is identifying all the hardware attached to the computer and then passing that information to the OS so that the OS can start and load appropriate drivers for the hardware. If the computer hangs on the POST/BIOS screen that generally means it is having trouble identifying a piece of hardware signalling a problem with that piece of hardware. The most common pieces of hardware that fail are HD, optical drives and USB devices.

If you disconnect those three types of devices and it still hangs or won't let you enter BIOS then you have a more serious problem. If it just gives a message like "Insert System Disk" or "No HD found" then it would point to one of those types of devices causing the problem.