My PC suddenly won't boot properly. Please help!

[JohnJSal]

So everything was fine yesterday, and I put it to sleep. I woke it up just now and Windows seems to have been frozen, so I pushed the reset button on the PC.

But rather than simply restart like it normally would, the PC actually turned off and then turned back on, as if I had hit the power button.

And then it stayed on the BIOS boot screen MUCH longer than it normally does, then the screen just went black. Not off, but black. The monitor is still on, and the PC is running, but nothing is happening. Trying to access the boot menu during this screen also doesn't work.

I've tried the reset button again, as well as the power button, but it keeps doing the same thing and won't boot into Windows.

Please help!

 

[johnb35]

So if this is the pc that is in your signature then its about 13-14 years old now, It's basically passed its lifespan. Most likely the issue is with the hard drive/ssd. If you disconnect it, the pc should boot properly. If not, you will have to try only 1 stick of ram and then the other stick. This is definitely a sign of hardware failure though. Not sure if resetting cmos would help but you can try.

 

[JohnJSal]

So if this is the pc that is in your signature then its about 13-14 years old now, It's basically passed its lifespan. Most likely the issue is with the hard drive/ssd. If you disconnect it, the pc should boot properly. If not, you will have to try only 1 stick of ram and then the other stick. This is definitely a sign of hardware failure though. Not sure if resetting cmos would help but you can try.

The PC overall is fairly old, but the hard drive is the newest part. Pretty sure it's not 10 years old, but I could be wrong.

But how would it boot if the SSD is disconnected? That's where Windows is.

 

[johnb35]

Because it would boot to the bios and you would be able to change settings and stuff. You would not see a black screen at all providing the hard drive is the device that has failed or is failing. It might be trial and error to find the failing piece of hardware.