Question about the "ex_" error during startup?
Question about the "ex_" error during startup?
Hello, when powering on the PC, I encounter an error during boot that displays "ex_" followed by a blinking underscore. The connected devices are just a keyboard and mouse, one stick of RAM, and an SSD running Windows 10. There are no additional peripherals or PCIe cards such as a GPU or network components. I can still access BIOS at startup, the SSD and RAM stick are detected, and I can read from or write to the SSD externally via USB to SATA. No issues appear with the SSD hardware or system files on it. I wasn't able to enter Windows 10 auto repair at boot.
mb: gigabyte z97mx-gaming 5
cpu: intel pentium processor g3258 with its stock cooler
ram: kingston hyperx ram fury ddr3 8gb - 1 stick
psu: generic - still functions and boots into bios normally
ssd: samsung 850 evo 500gb
os: win 10 h2
boot issue: cannot enter safe mode, only access bios or select the ssd as boot drive. tried various sata cables but none worked.
question: if system files are corrupted, can it be fixed externally via another pc?
If there's nothing of importance on that SSD, you could install it in a similar PC (remove all other drives) and see if you can boot up from it, or get through the system repair process. This is not the "correct" way to fix OS errors, but if you can get the drive to boot on another system, at least you know the SSD is OK.
I recently fitted an SSD from an AMD 760K system into an Intel i5-3570K system and the drive booted into the Window 10 desktop. I had intended to wipe the SSD in the Intel PC and perform a fresh install of Windows 10, but the drive survived the transfer and this computer is only used for testing components.
Of course, there is no guarantee you'll be able to get the SSD to boot in another computer, but you might get lucky.
If there are any files on the SSD you'd like to keep, it would be better to fit a brand ne w 120GB SATA SSD in its place and see if you can perform a fresh install of Windows from USB. Any spare drive will do, you could even use a hard disk if you have one.
I've not seen that "ex_" error before and you need to find out if it's a motherboard error.
You could try testing the RAM by creating a bootable USB stick with MemTest86+. If you can boot up the PC and run MEmTest86+, it will give you confidence that the mobo, CPU and RAM are OK, which would then point to the SSD as being the problem.
https://memtest.org/
thanks you
Misgar
, i have windows 10 installed on another ssd it boots normally without changes on the pc or sata cable or port or the ram, the hardware seems all fine, i believe the matter is the hidden drive that is created when installing windows could be got corrupted when i connected it externally via usb to another pc .. i moved the files our of it .. i've searched a lot about the error message but couldn't find any resource about it
the system files should be all ok but it's about the partition that's been automatically created by the windows installer, i don't know if it's repairable or the only solution is to format and make a new installation
I followed the steps shown in the video, it functioned properly. The OS normally booted, but the boot partition was corrupted after connecting an external SSD via SATA to USB. Even though two CMD commands failed, I continued and the issue was resolved. After some changes, the problem disappeared.