Windows 8.1 Startup problems: no signal/freezes

Hello everyone. I'm having problems with my PC. When I try to start the pc, most of the times the monitor shows 'no signal', but the pc is running (all the fans are running and the lights are on), but the lights on my keyboard (Caps Lock) and Mouse (I have a mouse with a light indicating the current 'mouse speed') are off. All I can do then is turning the pc off manually (by holding the power button a couple of seconds). Other times, when this doesn't happen, Windows freezes on startup (black screen, or while showing the windows logo) and sometimes it shows the windows loading screen, and then loses signal afterwards. Sometimes, it restarts automatically while having no signal, but then the same problems occur again. Other times, it loads the startup repair. In startup repair, when I click 'Continue to Windows', the same problems occur. When I eventually get it working (by manually restarting numerous time until it works), a lot of times it also freezes (and sometimes random restarts) while already using Windows (for instance, watching a video file, watching youtube, playing a game or whatever).


A friend of mine built this system for me in April this year. At that time, I installed Windows 8.1 on it, but I got about the same problems then. When I installed Windows 7 instead, it worked without any problems. I bought an SSD last month, and I installed Windows 8.1 on it, but now I get these errors. Because of this, I think it has someting to do with Windows 8.1 (maybe compatibility issues with my hardware?) but I'm not sure. I really like Windows 8.1 and I'd like to (try to) fix this, and have the Windows 7 install as a last resort solution.


Also, sometimes the programs I'm running (when I'm able to start the pc normally and not crashing, which is maybe 5% of the time) are not responding. At those times, I can move the mouse freely, but the programs show 'not responding', and the desktop isn't responsive as well. I would think that a system like mine would be able to run without such flaws.


I also have a watercooler installed (Corsair H80i), but it makes a lot of noise. I've managed to reduce that noise by using the 'Quiet Mode', but when I start the pc, it still makes a tremendous amount of noise, because it is testing the fans (Power On Self Test?). Is there a way to disable this? This question is just a small one and has less priority than the problems of my pc!


I hope someone can help me with my problems, because I really want to use my computer to its fullest without any problems, since I paid a lot of money (>1.000EU, which is a lot for me) for this pc. I've had a lot of problems since I had it, and to be honest, I'm getting pretty worn out.
For anyone responding to this thread, thanks in advance!


Here are my system specifications:
MSI 990FXA-GD65 Motherboard
G.Skill SNIPER Series 8 GB RAM
Seagate Barracuda ST2000DM001 2TB HDD
MSI R9 270X GAMING 4G GPU
AMD Black Edition - AMD FX 6350 CPU
Samsung 840 EVO Basic 250GB SDD


tl;dr
Problems with pc: no signal monitor on startup, freeze on startup, freeze while using, random restart while using. Maybe it is caused by Windows 8.1 compatibility. Help needed.

Hello again. My pc is still showing the same problems. I have searched the internet for possible solutions and tried most of them, but with no success.
What I have done so far:
- Clean install Windows 8.1 and 7 on SSD and HDD
- Updated Audio Drivers of the motherboard
- SSD firmware update
- Reseat and/or remove RAM sticks


Can someone please help me with finding the problem and a solution? Thanks in advance!

Minaan said:

Hello again. My pc is still showing the same problems. I have searched the internet for possible solutions and tried most of them, but with no success.
What I have done so far:
- Clean install Windows 8.1 and 7 on SSD and HDD
- Updated Audio Drivers of the motherboard
- SSD firmware update
- Reseat and/or remove RAM sticks


Can someone please help me with finding the problem and a solution? Thanks in advance!

Click to expand...

Can you restart your computer whilst holding down SHIFT?
This should give you the Option Menu.
Click on Troubleshoot, then Advanced Options, then Command Prompt.
Type in sfc /scannow
This should clear up any problems or at least indicate if there are any.

dencal said:

Can you restart your computer whilst holding down SHIFT?
This should give you the Option Menu.
Click on Troubleshoot, then Advanced Options, then Command Prompt.
Type in sfc /scannow
This should clear up any problems or at least indicate if there are any.

Click to expand...

Thanks for your reply.
I ran sfc /scannow a couple of days ago, but that was in the command prompt in windows itself (and not in the Troubleshoot/Options Menu). It showed no errors. Now when I enter the Options Menu like you said and go to the command prompt, the pc restarts (is it supposed to do this?). And then it opens the command prompt ("Preparing Command Prompt"). But when I type sfc /scannow, it says:
"There is a system repair pending which requires reboot to complete. Restart Windows and run sfc again."
I've tried restarting and retrying it, but it shows this message everytime. Sometimes the screen loses signal or freezes, so I have to start my pc again and enter Options Menu again.

In Admin Command Prompt type dism /online /cleanup-image /restorehealth
You can cut and paste the above.

If you have no signal to your monitor, and your keyboard, mouse, or anything isn't initializing correctly, I'm suspecting a bad motherboard.

How many RAM sticks do you have?

One thing I do first to test for a faulty motherboard, is to remove all ram sticks. When the RAM sticks are out, the Motherboard will beep right when you turn it on.

If the motherboard beeps, hold the power button to shut it off, and insert one of your RAM sticks. Try to boot the computer. If it boots normally after a few boots, take the stick out and test the other one, if that one works and has no problems, then its running fine in Single Channel Mode. Then insert both RAM sticks in the machine. Make sure the RAM sticks are in the right slots to enable dual channel mode. If the computer doesn't boot or doesn't post, then there is a possible faulty motherboard, as it won't run both sticks.

Now if it has problems even with one stick of RAM, it could also be bad RAM sticks.

I thinking its either faulty RAM or a bad Motherboard.

Turn power OFF completely when changing any parts like RAM etc. MB receives power even if shut off at the Start button. Failure to do tha may ruin components and/or MB !!!!

dencal said:

In Admin Command Prompt type dism /online /cleanup-image /restorehealth
You can cut and paste the above.

Click to expand...

Result: "The restore operation completed successfully. The component store corruption was repaired. The operation completed successfully.
But after this, the problem was still there. Here is a screenshot:

lmaneke said:

If you have no signal to your monitor, and your keyboard, mouse, or anything isn't initializing correctly, I'm suspecting a bad motherboard.

How many RAM sticks do you have?

One thing I do first to test for a faulty motherboard, is to remove all ram sticks. When the RAM sticks are out, the Motherboard will beep right when you turn it on.

If the motherboard beeps, hold the power button to shut it off, and insert one of your RAM sticks. Try to boot the computer. If it boots normally after a few boots, take the stick out and test the other one, if that one works and has no problems, then its running fine in Single Channel Mode. Then insert both RAM sticks in the machine. Make sure the RAM sticks are in the right slots to enable dual channel mode. If the computer doesn't boot or doesn't post, then there is a possible faulty motherboard, as it won't run both sticks.

Now if it has problems even with one stick of RAM, it could also be bad RAM sticks.

I thinking its either faulty RAM or a bad Motherboard.

Click to expand...

I have 2 RAM sticks. I removed all the RAM sticks and started my pc, but the motherboard didn't beep.
I inserted each RAM stick individually, and both of the times, it worked. But when I insert them both, it works as well. My problem is not that it has no signal all the time, just most of the time. Sometimes it still works and I can still start my pc normally (but then, most of the time, it freezes afterwards).

CountMike said:

Turn power OFF completely when changing any parts like RAM etc. MB receives power even if shut off at the Start button. Failure to do tha may ruin components and/or MB !!!!

Click to expand...

Thanks for the heads up, I turned off the power by switching the power button of my pc (the one on the back, with the 0 and 1) and removed the power cable. After that , I removed the RAM sticks etc.

It could be any number of different hardware problems such as a loose connection etc. though the fact that W7 works perfectly suggest otherwise
As a matter of interest what anti-virus are you using?
The reason I ask is recently I could not open Internet Explorer using either the latest paid for or the free version of AVG.
On uninstalling AVG everything returned to normal.

dencal said:

It could be any number of different hardware problems such as a loose connection etc. though the fact that W7 works perfectly suggest otherwise
As a matter of interest what anti-virus are you using?
The reason I ask is recently I could not open Internet Explorer using either the latest paid for or the free version of AVG.
On uninstalling AVG everything returned to normal.

Click to expand...

When I built the pc (april last year) reinstalling W7 made everything run fine, but now when I install W7 it has the same problems as mentioned.
I recently did a clean install of W8 (couple of days ago), so it doesn't have an antivirus.

Just to confirm some things, did you install both RAM modules into both black or both blue slots, not one in black and other in blue, 1 and 3 or 2 and 4. ?
Did you try resetting BIOS ?

The computer sounds to be very unstable, as it should not be having random freezes, or having no signal. It should boot and run normally, even on a clean install of Windows.

Something on that system is faulty, and if a clean install of 7 or 8 won't run, its a hardware related issue. I'm still going to suspect its the motherboard at this point.

CountMike said:

Just to confirm some things, did you install both RAM modules into both black or both blue slots, not one in black and other in blue, 1 and 3 or 2 and 4. ?
Did you try resetting BIOS ?

Click to expand...

Yes, I installed both RAM sticks in the black slots (slot 1 and 3). After resetting the Bios (using the CL_CMOS button of the motherboard on the back of the pc), the problem is still there.

lmaneke said:

The computer sounds to be very unstable, as it should not be having random freezes, or having no signal. It should boot and run normally, even on a clean install of Windows.

Something on that system is faulty, and if a clean install of 7 or 8 won't run, its a hardware related issue. I'm still going to suspect its the motherboard at this point.

Click to expand...

Is there a way to confirm this? Because I don't want to buy a new motherboard, only to find out that the problem was something else. Of course I don't want to spend more money, since I have already paid a lot for this system, but if there is no other option, I have no choice right?

Could be that PSU is having hiccups ?
There's another way to reset BIOS might be more thorough, there's a connector near the battery too and you can also remove battery for few minutes.

Its harder to determine if you don't have another system there to test all your parts in, "transferring memory, video card, hard drives, power supply, DVD drive, etc."

If you put all of these in another system, and there was no problems, then that would point to a faulty motherboard. But if you don't have another system, then its much more difficult.

Hopefully the PSU isn't hiccuping because that could ruin the motherboard, and other components. I had a computer that had a failing power supply, didn't know it was failing, until it caught on fire. It fried my motherboard, but all other components were lucky and didn't get damaged.

The 990 FX boards are indeed not cheap.

I've also built many systems, and I've had some with faulty motherboards. Its really noticeable, when I have bought 3 of the same motherboard, and 1 of those systems was not behaving like the other 2. That system would blue screen every 15 minutes.

I've also bought motherboards where they had memory addressing problems, in fact, one of those boards was also a MSI. And one was an ABIT motherboard.

I've also had motherboards where I've had to manually change memory frequencies, timings, and also down clocked the processor, to get them to run stable. I've had to RMA boards like that if they won't run at stock frequencies.

I always look at the CPU support list on the manufacturers website, and the quality venders list for memory. And check to see if the motherboard has the latest bios installed.

When you buy hardware, its a "hit and miss" thing. Sometimes you buy hardware and it works great and last a long time. Others may start out good and lasts a few hours, days, weeks, and some may not work at all.

Keep troubleshooting. Hopefully all of us here can help find you a solution.

CountMike said:

Could be that PSU is having hiccups ?
There's another way to reset BIOS might be more thorough, there's a connector near the battery too and you can also remove battery for few minutes.

Click to expand...

Is there a way to check if the problem is the PSU?
I'm not sure how to reset the BIOS the way you said, connector/battery? Here is a picture of my PSU in my system, maybe you can point to things in the picture so I know what to do? My PSU is 600W.

lmaneke said:

Its harder to determine if you don't have another system there to test all your parts in, "transferring memory, video card, hard drives, power supply, DVD drive, etc."

If you put all of these in another system, and there was no problems, then that would point to a faulty motherboard. But if you don't have another system, then its much more difficult.

Hopefully the PSU isn't hiccuping because that could ruin the motherboard, and other components. I had a computer that had a failing power supply, didn't know it was failing, until it caught on fire. It fried my motherboard, but all other components were lucky and didn't get damaged.

The 990 FX boards are indeed not cheap.

Click to expand...

Even if I had another system, the motherboard of that system had to be compatible with my parts, right? Because you can't attach any CPU to any motherboard, at least that's what people told me.
I have borrowed an old pc (with missing harddrive and cd player) of a friend who didn't use it anymore, so I could troubleshoot. But I think all the parts are not compatible with my system or something, because none of it really seemed to work. It has a graphic card, but without places to put in the cables of the PSU, and when I put it in my system, my screen didn't show anything. The RAM sticks look very different so I didn't want to put them in my system, because I was afraid I would break something. I also have no idea what the specific names are of all the parts of the system. Here are pictures of that computer and the parts (in order: inside case, PSU, Graphic Card, RAM stick):

Under the big black boxy thing lies the CPU, and this pc has 4 RAM sticks, all 1 GB I suppose (one I took out was 1GB). This PSU has 365W max (if I read the sticker correctly). I don't think this pc is of any use for troubleshooting?

Correct. You can't put parts like CPU, memory, etc, if the system is a different type. That system is a system that uses DDR2 memory as opposed to your new system that is DDR3. You would have to have another AM3+ system to test all of your components on. Sorry I didn't mention that earlier. I also meant if you had another system that is a DDR3 capable motherboard to test it on.

Since that is only a DDR2 machine, and has a 365 w power supply, you wouldn't be able to test all your components.

You can use that video card only, if it does not have power connectors, it means they are not needed, PCI express can supply up to 75W. The rest is not compatible.
I have a similar Sharkoon psu only 660W, good PSU but yours may be faulty in some way, I don't know for sure, only way to check is to try another known good PSU of similar power.
The other BIOS reset I was talking about is close to battery, it's marked "JBAT1" you are supposed to take the jumper off and plug it on middle and left pin for 15 seconds and than return it in previous place. All of that with main power disconnected of course. Just one more tip for when you work on inside of computer, after you disconnect main power, press start button for a second or two, that discharges capacitors in PSU and MB and gets rid of any latent voltage left in them. If there's short time after you disconnected mains you may see fans turn on for a second, that's leftover electricity in capacitors, some of them in PSU are quite large.

lmaneke said:

Correct. You can't put parts like CPU, memory, etc, if the system is a different type. That system is a system that uses DDR2 memory as opposed to your new system that is DDR3. You would have to have another AM3+ system to test all of your components on. Sorry I didn't mention that earlier. I also meant if you had another system that is a DDR3 capable motherboard to test it on.

Since that is only a DDR2 machine, and has a 365 w power supply, you wouldn't be able to test all your components.

Click to expand...

Maybe I can put my ssd (with w8 on it) in that old pc, and see if it works? Then I know that it's not the ssd? Or is that not possible with this pc?
Any other things I can do to troubleshoot/find the cause of the problem?

Possible but no guarantee it would boot up windows on that computer, being so different and all.