I'm glad you have it running again, albeit with some replacement hardware.  

Lasted a day and a bit ...I got a shit-load of backup config done....added the new HD while I was at it...then it looks like a WEI re-run snuffed the GTX980 ....screen is 'there' but full of streaks....so here I am posting on it...looking at a whole lot of lines.....

Good we could post anything and you would not know. Be careful of the doors you open!  

It ain't fun when you are stuck in vga resolution. ...you see about 1/16th of the screen.

GTX980 is older than dirt... time to upgrade to something from this century.  

starkers

reply 25

GTX980 is older than dirt... time to upgrade to something from this century.  

 

In 2014 it was cutting edge...

Yeah, a lot of tech is cutting edge when released, but that doesn't last long, what with newer models hitting the shelves within months and upping the ante.  In some instances you can't even give that [once was] cutting edge tech away.

What really annoys me is that neither JB Hifi or Officeworks sell recordable  bluray discs anymore, yet they still sell the Bluray recorders/burners.  I recently looked all over Launceston for recordable Bluray discs and found none.  I eventually looked online and found that only a few tech dealers actually stock them.  Thing is, Bluray tech is not that old, yet the recordable discs are so hard to find.  It's as if the dealers/suppliers think they've come off the Ark and nobody wants them anymore.

Anyway, I ordered a 25 disc spindle from Techbuy and thankfully they arrived yesterday [24 Dec] in time for Xmas.

I'm getting closer....just swapped out the 980 for a tiny GT710 and proved without a doubt the 980 was fragged.

Only entertaining thing now...I'm on a backup/image drive OK... but not yet the M.2.

Both are identical...even down to failed 'safe mode'....and that's probably been like that for years.....

....but I have a cunning plan....

That's more like it....back into the M.2 drive....first job is to download 193 emails.....

Touching wood....it's all up and running again....new CPU...new [old] speaker system...new [not needed] MoBo...and lastly today...new ASUS RTX3070 Dual card.

Best part of it is the MoBo code is sitting on 'AA' ....exactly where it should be...

Now to find out why Safe Mode has never worked in ages.....

Most annoying part of all this was...you google how to fix 'safe mode' and the hits are all..."first, log into safe mode...."

No, Safe Mode cannot fix Safe Mode....just the same way as grabbing your feet by your hands cannot lift you off the ground....

Have you tried going to Settings > Update and Security > Recovery.  Then under advanced Startup select Restart Now.  When your rig restarts you will see a menu with several options > select Safe Mode and your machine will reboot with that selection.  From there you will hopefully resolve your issue.

Hope this helps.

No...that's the point...Safe Mode doesn't run....it tries....but fails.

So when you have a driver issue that you need to 'kill'....and the normal boot is a black screen....and Safe Mode doesn't work so you can remove the driver....you find yourself up shit creek without a paddle...

Okay, I now get it.  Another possible solution could be booting from the Win 10 installation disc and selecting the repair option.  From there you will find several options to hopefully resolve the issue.

Alternatively, how about doing a System Restore to a time before the offending driver was installed?  I had to do that when a network driver gummed things up and Safe Mode wouldn't run.  Funnily enough, Safe Mode also ran normally once the driver was gone, so yeah, give that a go.

2 issues....

It's not Win 10 ...it's 7.

And....

7 doesn't recognise a M.2 drive as a Win install.

When I set this computer up 6 years ago I had to trick everything to even work by installing 7 on a 'normal' SSD....imaging it...and transfering the image to the M.2.  Only then could I boot into the M.2 ....but the installer still has no idea it's there....

You can still do a system repair from the installation disc in Win 7, it's just a slightly different process...  it begins in Control Panel rather than going to Settings as per Win 10.  Also, have you tried scc /scannow to detect and repair corrupt or missing system files?

I've not been able to test this because I no longer have a copy of Win 7, but it might be worth giving it a try.  I recall reading  somewhere that Win 7 recognises M.2 drives if they're mounted on a PCIE expansion card because the hardware signature is different to the on-board mobo M.2 slots.  If it works then you should be able to remount it in anon-board slot.

Nothing's ever that easy....when you cannot see the booted system due to GPU failure and bad driver you can't do sfc to fix safe mode...and you can't get to safe mode.

7 doesn't recognise a M.2 card direct to MoBo as in a X99 so the install disc doesn't work either.

What  I did...but haven't checked yet...was to boot into the original SSD OS [7] and access a second [imaged drive] of the M.2 ...also on a SSD and copy/pasted the driver files as an experiment to see if I could 'externally' correct safe mode on the image.  If that works I can repeat it on the main OS M.2.

However....$1111 AUD later and I replaced the GPU and after the usually hissy-fits have convinced the M.2 OS to behave....and run.  It still has a dud safe-mode...but I may yet solve it.

The next step AFTER I win against MS is to use the image OS drive to upgrade to 10 ....and see how much of the system is FUBARed by that.

If I survive I'll repeat it on the M.2 .... and needless to say, 10 won't have an issue with where the M.2 is plugged in....as the OS is newer than the drive format.

It's good that this is a 'hobby'....

Latest entertaining bit....the RTX3070 is not an issue with length....not an issue with height...but the 2 8pin plugs are an issue with width....on the Level 10 case.... so I have some case modding to do....not drastic...but reversible...

Like you, I'm having issues, but with an older AMD build that sometimes will boot and other times not.  According to the BIOS message when it doesn't boot, the Boot Manager is corrupt and system cannot start.  Thing is, it does not happen all the time.  There's times when the system boots first time without issue, then there's times when the OS attempts to load but doesn't first time, meaning I have to do a hard reset, after which the OS loads without issue.

What I don't get is how the Boot Manager can be corrupt when OS loads perfectly a lot of the time.  Now I have run sfc /scannow a few times without success.  It states that there were corrupt files and they have been repaired, but upon reboot I can see that the non-booting issue remains.  I also tried doing a repair install by booting from the installation disc, but that doesn't help, either.  The machine still loads [or tries to load] the OS.  When I look at the boot priorities afterward, it still says boot from disc, and the disc is bootable, but still the machine boots into the OS, or at least tries to.

I'm at a bit of a loss as to what to do, how to resolve the issue when nothing thus far has worked.  Even updating the BIOS fails to resolve it so I can boot from disc.  It is an older machine [about 10 - 11 years old], and obviously it's not my primary machine, but I still like to connect to the TV to play various games.  I can still do that but it can take a while to boot up.  Anyhow, it's not crucial and I may yet find a fix.

Sounds like the odd bad sector on the HD...

Jafo

reply 39

Sounds like the odd bad sector on the HD...

Thing is, I've tested the SSD for bad sectors/faults and it comes back clear.  I'm thinking that I may have to do a clean OS install and start from scratch to remedy the issue.  The one problem with that is getting the ROM drive to be the first boot device.  I'm thinking that if I disconnect the 4 SSDs/1 HDD, then perhaps the system will boot from the ROM drive, that once it has [if it does] I can reconnect the preferred drive to install Windows.

It's not a job I wanted to do [being I have a number of priorities on my to-do list] but if necessary then I shall find time for it.