I just had a Windows 10 update that required a restart, but now my PC won't boot at all. After the update, my monitors went to sleep and never turned back on. I've tried resetting the system, swapping monitors between the GPU ports and the motherboard, but no luck—the GPU lights up and the fans are running, but I can't get any display signal.
I'm wondering if the update messed up my Windows installation. Shouldn't I at least be able to boot to the BIOS? Is it possible that my motherboard is fine, but the CPU might have overheated during the update? Occasionally, the hard drive clicks, but other than that, nothing seems to work.
For hardware, I have:
- ASUS TUF GAMING X570-PLUS AM4 ATX
- AMD Ryzen 7 3700X
- SAPPHIRE NITRO+ Radeon RX 5700XT
After some troubleshooting, I noticed a QLED diagnostic system on the motherboard. When I connected the monitors directly to the motherboard without the GPU, it stayed lit white, indicating an issue. I also reset the CMOS but still got stuck at the white VGA light, with the system cycling through yellow for RAM and red for CPU. After some attempts, I actually managed to boot to BIOS once but got stuck again and am not sure what to do next. Should I check something in the BIOS, buy new display cables, or both? Any advice would be appreciated!
1 Answer
It looks like the issue isn’t with Windows since you're not seeing any video output or even getting to the BIOS. This points to a potential hardware failure instead. Start by resetting the CMOS correctly—remove the battery or use the jumper method.
Next, try booting without the GPU and see if the integrated graphics on your CPU work (if your CPU has iGPU support). If that doesn't work, strip it down to just one stick of RAM and swap them out to see if that helps.
Lastly, if you’ve got an extra PSU lying around, you can test it; sometimes power supplies fail without warning. If you're still stuck after all that, you might be dealing with a dead motherboard, bad RAM, or a defective CPU. Give those steps a shot, and don’t blame the Windows update for this—it’s likely just bad timing!
Yeah, it’s definitely odd timing! But hardware issues can crop up unexpectedly. I'd reset the CMOS first and then see how it goes without the GPU. Letting the system breathe and simplifying the setup can sometimes fix the problem.
Got it, but isn’t it strange that it happened right after an update? I figured it was a coincidence but it’s hard not to wonder. Also, should I try putting the GPU back in before resetting the CMOS?