A major incident occurred and the computer is no longer starting.
A major incident occurred and the computer is no longer starting.
Hey everyone! I was browsing YouTube on my PC when my cat accidentally stepped on the surge protector, causing a brief shutdown. When I tried to restart it, I encountered an endless loading screen. After getting back into BIOS, here’s what I’ve already done: 1) Created a recovery USB drive that also handled infinite loading; tested on another machine and it worked. 2) Ran MemTest and got no errors after three passes. 3) Power cycled the PC. 4) Attempted auto-repair during boot, but it stuck at 100% and never finished. For your convenience, here are my PC details: CPU – I5-13600k, GPU – EVGA Rtx 3070 Ti, RAM – 32 GB DDR4 Tforce at 3200 MHz, PSU – EVGA Supernova P5 750W, Motherboard – Asus ROG Strix DDR4. OS – Windows 11. My previous motherboard failed about a year ago, so I upgraded to this new one in the hope it would last longer. Any tips would be super helpful!
If an NVME device is present, consider reinstalling it. If you have the physical disk, try connecting it to another internal desktop or using a USB adapter. Once connected, perform diagnostics. You can download Crystal Disk Info or DiskGenius (see my signature) to check the disk's SMART status. If the score is below Good, replacement is necessary.
You might attempt a boot from a live CD using recovery software and examine the drive’s SMART status. This page outlines several recovery options, including some Windows-based Pe-ready tools you can find online. I had to switch my APC battery backup to its side to prevent the PC from shutting down after I accidentally turned off the power switch. It would be wise to move it to a more protected area or activate the surge protector in that position going forward. First, try reseating the NVMe drive—though I don’t recognize its make or model, the maker might offer diagnostic utilities. It’s reassuring that this little ginger guy is adorable, especially since he got frustrated when I stepped on the power button for the second time. If I could stop him from tampering with the cables near my desk, it would be perfect. Currently, the side view shows the issue clearly, and my cable management needs improvement.
It's also important to note that a self-tester was included in the bios, and my NVMe passed. I'm not sure what specific tests it was checking.
Great news! I’m heading to college tomorrow, which means the cat won’t be a problem much longer. So far, none of the recovery methods I’ve used have worked, and my other computers can’t handle the m.2 setup for testing. I’m pretty confident the issue isn’t with the drive itself. Thanks for the tips and the cat video!
I'm happy you liked the video of Harvey; he's a nice little cat, though sometimes he can be quite mischievous. Good luck with your college transition! If you haven't tried it yet, consider checking the CMOS battery—maybe it helps. Alternatively, it could just be bad luck and the power outage damaged the system. Don't get too upset at the cat; he was just doing his thing.