I'm trying to revive an old desktop, but I'm hitting a wall getting it to boot. I can access the BIOS without any issue, but as soon as I try to load any bootloader, the system just restarts immediately. Below is my troubleshooting checklist with what I have tried so far:
- CMOS battery reset - did this but ended with auto repair needed.
- Entering BIOS - no problem here.
- Attempting to boot Windows from external - it gets stuck on a long load then restarts.
- Trying Linux via USB leads to the same result, just restarts.
I'm worried my old motherboard might be on the fritz. I've got the GA-Z68XP-UD3 motherboard with an Intel i5 2310 CPU, 4 sticks of RAM, and a functioning SSD. Everything is plugged in correctly, and I don't see any physical damage. If anyone has any advice or thoughts on what could be going wrong, that would be super helpful!
2 Answers
You might want to try using just one stick of RAM. Having four can put extra strain on the memory controller, especially if the hardware is aging.
Double-check if there's a BIOS update available for your motherboard; sometimes these can fix weird issues like boot loops.
I checked, but there aren't any new updates.