I just bought a lightly used PC from a friend's old gaming cafe, but I'm running into issues trying to boot it up. The hardware specs are as follows: MSI B550A Pro motherboard, Ryzen 7 5800X3D processor, Kingston Beast DDR4 3200 RAM (32GB total), and an Asus RTX 4060ti graphics card. There's no storage included, so I'm shifting to Linux and have a few SSDs on hand. One SSD has Linux Mint on it, which used to work on my old PC, and I also have a thumb drive with Ventoy that contains several Linux distros including Ubuntu and others.
Here's the problem: the PC passes POST and I can access the BIOS, but when I attempt to boot from any storage device, I get no display. I've disabled secure boot so that the Nvidia drivers can load, but I'm still not getting any signal after that. I also tried using the thumb drive with Ventoy, switched USB and SATA ports, but nothing seems to change. I can't even access the BIOS when a storage device is connected. I'm really at a standstill here.
Could anyone suggest what might be going wrong or how to troubleshoot this further?
4 Answers
Sounds like the motherboard might be having issues communicating with the drives. Try clearing the BIOS first and see where that leads you. Also, swap the drive connections if you haven't already. Make sure to try both UEFI and Legacy modes, and turn off secure boot temporarily. Sometimes using different tools like Rufus to format your USB drive can help as well.
You might be dealing with an issue where the MSI motherboard just doesn’t work well with UEFI and Ventoy. It might be worth trying to reinstall Windows 10, update the BIOS, and switch those settings. Or try CachyOS since it comes with built-in Nvidia drivers. That might be your best shot!
The Windows SSD isn't working, and I don't have an installer anymore. I was considering CachyOS because it should be compatible, but I still need a PC to download ISOs and create a bootable USB. I'm in a real bind here!
Are you sure your monitor is connected to the graphics card, not the onboard display? If it's on the onboard, you'll get no display since that CPU doesn't have integrated graphics. Make sure to use the DisplayPort on the GPU and double-check your display settings on the monitor.
I had it in the onboard connection at first, but switched to the GPU early on. It's plugged into the DisplayPort correctly.
It sounds like a frustrating situation. First, check the CMOS battery; sometimes a dead battery can cause boot issues. If the date and time in the BIOS are correct, you might skip this, but resetting the BIOS is worth trying. Just removing the battery and putting it back in after a few minutes can help. If that doesn't work, consider updating the BIOS—though make sure you can access it first!
I checked the date and it's accurate, but I planned to reset the CMOS anyway just to be safe. I know how to update the BIOS, but getting it done would be tricky without another working PC. So I'm trying this method first.
I can't get into the BIOS with the USB drive connected, so I haven't been able to clear it yet. I'm thinking about trying a different USB drive for the Linux Mint installer. It's tricky, but I’m hopeful!