System starts up yet fails to load, display remains inactive
System starts up yet fails to load, display remains inactive
This occurred during a severe storm with intense rain and strong winds. My building often experiences brief power interruptions during such weather. I turned on my PC when it was already running, but it displayed a blank blue screen instead of the usual error message. I forced it off using the power button. After a few cycles, it would briefly turn on but not show anything. It then showed past BIOS info and reported that the Windows boot device was corrupt. I accessed BIOS, selected my USB drive, and performed a Windows installation again twice. The first attempt froze when choosing the boot drive; the second time I got into the installer but still saw a blue screen error. Eventually, the PC stopped sending signals to the monitor, and I couldn't force it back on. Symptoms included a 7-year-old system (excluding GPU, CPU, and half the RAM) that wouldn’t start or display properly, though fans and peripherals powered up. The power button would turn on, but holding it or shorting the pins for five seconds prevented shutdown, causing the case button to blink until released. After removing all drives, I managed to restart normally by holding the power button. I tried several fixes—re-seating components, resetting BIOS with CMOS pins, using a different SSD—but none resolved the issue.
You're experiencing issues where the system doesn't recognize the installation media, even though you're using just a USB drive with a Windows installer. This could indicate a problem with the boot process or driver configuration. It's worth considering whether this supports your hypothesis about the setup method.