Computer crashed -- won't boot now

Mace1370 · January 2016

Hey guys. Earlier today there was a power outage in my building. The power came back on quickly and my computer seemed to boot back up fine. About two hours later I was playing a game and it crashed hard. The screen was flashing different colors the went black. I tried rebooting and it fails each time.

I have a video of me attempting to boot it up:

http://youtu.be/ft8C2zmSs0I

Is my computer completely dead? A couple times I saw the error VIDEO_TDR_FAILURE, but now I don't see that any more and it goes straight to a black screen after the bios post.

DevoutlyApathetic · January 2016

Well it doesn't look like your motherboard is dead. The game now is to unplug all the optional stuff and by optional stuff I mean like everything that isn't your OS drive and RAM and see if it boots. If it does you shut down and add in one more thing until you find the thing that's the issue. If you were getting that error your video card seems a likely culprit.

bowen · January 2016

I'm going to wager it's either RAM or video card at this point.

Mace1370 · January 2016

Ya, I agree that the video card is most likely. I've never had a power surge actually destroy something, lol. I guess it can happen.

Figgy · January 2016

Mace1370 wrote: »

Ya, I agree that the video card is most likely. I've never had a power surge actually destroy something, lol. I guess it can happen.

I'd invest in a good surge protector if I were you. Not a cheap power bar, but a rated surge protector.

chris920216 · January 2016

The situation is very complicated. What I recommend you to do is just unplug all the components that require power and long press the power button for 30 seconds and restart, that will deal with most cases. But, there are always some special situation, you should check some manuals if you know your PSU model.

Mace1370 · January 2016

Problem I'm running into is that I don't have a second video card to swap out to see if mine went bad. I guess I could get a cheep one from amazon. I'll mess around and let you guys know when I've made progress. Thanks for all the help!

Daenris · January 2016

Mace1370 wrote: »

Problem I'm running into is that I don't have a second video card to swap out to see if mine went bad. I guess I could get a cheep one from amazon. I'll mess around and let you guys know when I've made progress. Thanks for all the help!

Doesn't your motherboard have an onboard video connection?

azith28 · January 2016

I assume you have an actual card in your computer for video? Nvidia or amd that is not part of the motherboard? Try just unplugging that card and see if your motherboard has an onboard video that can boot your system.

Figgy · January 2016

Easy way to see if you have onboard video is looking at the back of your PC. Is there a VGA and/or DVI port along with the rest of your Motherboard connectors?

Shadowfire · January 2016

You posted video... Can you just post an image of the back of your computer?

Mace1370 · January 2016

I'm pretty sure my motherboard does not have an onboard video card. I will take a picture of the back in little bit. My mobo is an asus m5a97.

BouwsT · January 2016

I'm not seeing an on-board video port on the IO for the motherboard... That's going to limit your diagnostic ability for the GPU. Any way you can borrow one from family/friends/foes? I personally am leaning towards a dead GPU, but I'd hate for you to invest in a cheap one JUST to tell if you need a new one.

Until then, go down to essentials only (CPU, boot drive, GPU, RAM). Start with one stick of RAM only, and cycle through each stick. If you can't find a dead stick of RAM (still does the problem with every stick), try each stick of RAM in each slot. Could tell you if you have a bad RAM socket.

I still think this is more likely GPU related, but if you can't test anything else, try the RAM first, because your motherboard is POSTing which is a good sign for it.

The Ender · January 2016

Do you live in a town with a local mom & pop computer store?

They will often do a proper diagnosis for you at minimal cost (sometimes no cost) to see what's wrong (and then they'll also probably be able to sell you whatever you need right there).

Mace1370 · January 2016

So I took my computer in to get diagnostics performed at a local shop (my property insurance said they would reimburse me regardless of the outcome of the diagnostic report). This seemed easier than finding a friend with a spare graphics card, since most of my friends are not computer savy. Turns out there was extensive electrical damage, so it was what I feared. Luckily, my insurance is covering the damage so I won't be out too much. Thanks for the help, guys!

Penny Arcade

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