The PC fails to boot due to a problem with the network card.
The PC fails to boot due to a problem with the network card.
Hello, experts! Just a few days ago my computer froze while trying to power on. It wouldn’t restart and after a hard shutdown it wouldn’t even start: no lights, no noise, no fans. I replaced the power supplies with another machine. Those new PSUs initially acted like the old ones before the swap. After a lot of trial and error, simply unplugging the wireless card from its M.2 slot let the PC boot up smoothly. Once off again, reinserted the card – it worked; removed it and it failed. Repeated this five times while reassembling everything and adding another PCI network card. At that stage I couldn’t test the M.2 slot, so I wasn’t sure if the issue was with the card or the motherboard. After hours of being off, the PC wouldn’t start again. This time I unplugged everything except the CPU and power supply – no luck. Then I reinserted the M.2 card and it worked! Since then I’ve collected some stats, but this situation is really confusing to explain. Please check the attached flowchart. Notes: When the PC goes completely dead, I can sometimes send a brief power pulse, though it varies with this PSU. With the other PSU, pressing the power button would trigger one pulse after exactly 10 seconds. The motherboard is an Asus Prime Z490-V. I suspect there’s a short in the M.2 slot controller, and I should try disabling it in BIOS.
Your computer might be attempting to start from the network card. It’s unclear, but that seems like a possibility.
This action will either start the system using BIOS or proceed to the next stage in the boot process.