I woke up to find my PC turned off, assuming it had just gone to sleep. When I turned it on later, I was faced with a black screen and it wouldn't even reach the BIOS. I tried a bunch of troubleshooting steps: resetting the CMOS, checking and swapping out the RAM, reseating the GPU, unplugging all USB devices except for the keyboard and mouse, and disconnecting all other storage drives except the SSD with Windows on it. Despite all that, I couldn't get past the black screen. Interestingly, when I booted without the Windows SSD, it went straight to BIOS. However, when I plugged the SSD back in, the black screen returned. I even tested the same SATA cable with another HDD and it worked perfectly. So now I'm wondering if my SSD is dead or if there's something else I should be looking into before considering a replacement.
2 Answers
From what you’ve described, it seems like the SSD has failed to the point where it prevents your PC from posting. That’s usually a clear sign something is seriously wrong. I’d recommend replacing it unless you want to do more testing, but honestly, that might just lead to more frustration.
It sounds like your SSD might be toast, especially since you've done thorough troubleshooting. Have you tried swapping out the SATA power cable? If the same cable works with another drive but not your SSD, that's a strong sign it’s likely dead. If you have critical files, consider using an external enclosure to check if it’s recognized there, but don’t get your hopes too high. If it was just a boot drive with no important data, replacing it might be your best bet.
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