Windows 10 fails to start from the boot drive or USB when the system freezes.
Windows 10 fails to start from the boot drive or USB when the system freezes.
I’m facing an unusual problem with my computer and would love some advice. I’ve got quite detailed specs: MSI MAG B550 TOMAHAWK, AMD Ryzen 7 3700X, GeForce RTX 3060 Ti, 8GB DDR4, NVMe SSD for Windows, another NVMe SSD for games and files, plus a Corsair 2x16GB RAM module. There’s also an 8GB VENTUS 3X OC SSD and a Corsair RM850 850W power supply. I recently replaced my old graphics card with the 3060 Ti about two months ago, and everything else has been fine. No changes have been made to the system since then.
The issue began today while browsing or using the device. I opened the notification center in the bottom-right corner, but it froze and didn’t respond to clicks. Task Manager closed explorer.exe without success. I tried restarting explorer.exe, but it wouldn’t open again. Minimizing or closing Task Manager didn’t help. When I pressed CTRL+ALT+DEL, it stuck at “Logging out” for a while before freezing again. I tried logging out, but the process kept looping.
Eventually, I realized something might be wrong with the hardware. After some attempts, Windows booted into the troubleshooting screen, but USB devices failed to turn on and the system never loaded properly. It stuck in that loading animation for a long time. I tried booting from a USB drive to see if Linux would work, which succeeded. That gave me hope.
However, when I attempted to shut down via the recovery menu, everything froze—like it was locked up mid-transition. The blue Windows logo appeared, and the loading circle continued spinning. Eventually, the screen went dark, but the fans kept running slowly. This was strange and made me worry.
After several tries, Windows loaded normally into the troubleshooting mode, but I still faced issues. I considered reinstalling the BIOS on my motherboard just in case, but it didn’t help. I also tried creating a Windows 10 recovery USB to access possible restore points or recovery tools. The download completed without problems, and I re-installed the latest BIOS on my motherboard.
Despite these steps, the system remained unresponsive. It seems the problem isn’t related to graphics, CPU, memory, or storage—my old graphics card was replaced recently. I’m concerned but also curious about possible motherboard issues. I’ll need more guidance to resolve this. Thanks for your help!
Initially I considered your GPU because of the pink tinted boot on Ubuntu. You mentioned trying it with another card, but the outcome was similar—possibly due to outdated drivers still behaving oddly. For Windows to properly recognize hardware, storage is likely the main issue. Consider installing Windows on a different drive using the stick you created.
The problem is that I am unable to actually boot the windows installer from the USB stick. But I will continue tomorrow and disconnect all current drives and try again. Just in case one of them are stopping the boot process.
Unplug the main storage drive and try booting again from the USB drive, success!
We’ve made real headway now. I took these steps: Disconnected all storage devices, and the system started working properly from the USB stick. I updated the drivers in various settings. After a new day, I stayed at the computer and noticed that whenever a boot fails it ends with a BSOD stating “Stop code: DRIVER_PNP_WATCHDOG.” It was clear the issue only appeared when using the Samsung 970 EVO Plus 2TB. If I swapped in another NVMe SSD to the second slot on the motherboard, the computer still booted without problems. That means the problem wasn’t with the slot but with the actual drive itself. Then I tried inserting the drive into a SABRENT NVME USB-C case and connected it to my laptop. Windows recognized it as a drive and it was online in Disk Management, yet there were no partitions listed. My conclusion is that this Samsung drive simply failed completely—likely losing all data. The best course now is to reach out to the store where I bought it or Samsung directly. It’s only been two months and it hasn’t been used much. Edit: When the drive is placed in the USB-C enclosure, Crystal Disk Info and Samsung Magician don’t recognize it. Probably because it shows up as Sabrent or something similar during USB insertion.
If this were an older storage device, I’d be keen to try baking or freezing. In the past, I successfully tested a couple of GTS 8800 graphics cards. However, because this new drive is quite costly (I opted for the pricier Samsung model due to its reputation for higher quality), I reached out to the reseller and received a return slip along with all the necessary paperwork. I made it simple for myself and shared this thread; they had no further concerns. Regarding data, yes—I maintain a complete archive of every photo I’ve ever taken on the drive, along with my Lightroom catalog. The crucial information, mainly the images, is stored on my home server. The entire disk (except perhaps some virtual machines with minimal data) is protected by Backblaze, and the edited or exported photos are also uploaded to Google Photos. Occasionally, I manually back up certain files to an external hard drive. Some might view this as excessive, but I’ve lost home videos and other important data previously because of inadequate backups. Never again. By the way, I’ve only ever experienced issues with two SSDs. One suffered from corrupted data that couldn’t be recovered, though the drive remained functional after a firmware update and a full wipe (thanks to Reddit). Now this one is different—both drives are Samsung, which is among the top brands. Other SSDs like Kingston, WD, and Crucial have performed reliably. Maybe bad luck?
Precisely what I believed, hardware issues often stem from storage devices, sorry for your missing drive...
I received my new drive via mail yesterday. It seems to function properly. While it didn’t fully resolve the booting issue I was experiencing, they provided another drive. I’ve restored my backup and am confident this one will last over two months. A rather positive outcome.