Sure, I understand. The PC is experiencing significant issues with starting up.
Sure, I understand. The PC is experiencing significant issues with starting up.
Initial update in five years, right?
I own a custom-built PC that I've used for some time. For about a month it would freeze after the post screen, locking up for roughly five minutes before it finally started again—seems like it was resolved by simply restarting the machine. However, things took a turn for the worse. Recently, while playing CS2, my game would crash repeatedly over the past month. I initially assumed it might be the game itself, but it wasn’t worth worrying about. I opened Task Manager, which also froze, and two of my three screens became unresponsive. Feeling stuck, I decided to restart the PC, but it was a complete loss.
After turning it on, the system would enter A0 (post-boot) and remain there, with no progress. It sometimes attempted an automatic repair, but it kept failing. I suspected a Windows problem, so I tried installing Windows via a USB drive, but even then it wouldn’t boot properly—regardless of selection. Eventually, I removed the existing M.2 drive (a 1TB WD model) and swapped it out for a new Samsung M.2 NVMe drive. Now I have one brand-new NVMe M.2 and two older SATA SSDs still connected.
Occasionally, the PC boots into Windows installer and allows me to install Windows on the new NVMe drive, which works fine and lets me use the machine normally. However, when I try to restart, it appears it has no idea what to boot from. The BIOS doesn’t display the other NVMe M.2s or SATA SSDs, though they appear in other BIOS settings—only visible in advanced options. A recurring error message pops up: "GPT HEADER CORRUPTION DETECTED."
I’ve checked nearly every BIOS and boot configuration I can think of, but the issue persists.
I’m planning to acquire a USB-to-NVMe M.2 adapter so I can completely erase the drives and perform a full reset.
What I’ve replaced:
- CMOS Battery
- Cleared CMOS
- Old WD (with Windows) replaced with new Samsung M.2
- Reseated RAM
- Reinstalled Windows
- Replaced GPU
System specifications:
i7-11700k OC
Asus ROG Strix 3080Ti
3 NVMe M.2 drives (2 Samsung, 1 WD)
2 SATA SSDs (Samsung and Adata)
32GB GDDR5 Trident RAM
Asus ROG Maximus XIII Mobo
1000W Seasonic PSU
EKWB water cooling for CPU and GPU
The GPT Header error you're encountering relates to a misconfigured SATA setting in the BIOS or a failing drive. I recommend using a hard drive diagnostic tool to test your drives and assess the situation. This issue, combined with your description, suggests one of these components may be malfunctioning. Boot problems could also arise if the system doesn't recognize the correct boot location.
When I performed a benchmark, the other WD Drive consistently underperformed, suggesting this might be the case.