Windows 11 PC will not start up even form flash drive

theferret · Aug 6, 2025

Come back from holiday to discover my wife's Win11 machine will not start up. Can hear a bit of grinding noise from the HDD . Opening the case the fans start running on power up for a few seconds then stop then try again in continuous loop. Only screen message is "no DP signal" no windows or manufacturer logo.

Things I've tried

Hold power button down for 30 sec. Detatch power cord and hold down for 30 sec
Hold shift on power up to try to get not recovery mode
Created USB flash boot drive using media creation tool. Press F12 while powering on

Has the hard drive failed or anything else I can try?

antspants · Aug 6, 2025

Hi, welcome

theferret said:
Things I've tried

Things you haven’t tried:

Filling out your PC Specs in your profile or listing here:

Is it a Desktop or a laptop.

If it’s a desktop, what’s in the case, do you know what the models of the CPU/Motherboard etc are?
If it’s a laptop, what is the brand and model number under the laptop?

These things help members help you.

antspants · Aug 6, 2025

Ask your neighbours if there was a power surge whilst you were away.

theferret · Aug 6, 2025

Sorry its a desktop but made by a gaming company so not sure of the specs as a few years old . I think its this

1.0000	Diablo Reactor
1	Zalman Z3 Plus Mid Tower Case
1	Intel Core i7 6700K Quad Core Socket 1151
1	ID-Cooling SE-214X CPU Cooler
1.0000	Standard Thermal Paste
1.0000	Wired2Fire Overclocking (non-standard cooler required)
1.0000	Wire d2Fire Tuning (BIOS, Driver and OS Tweaks)
1	nVidia GeForce GTX 960 2GB GDDR5 PCI Express Graphics Card
1	16GB Standard DDR4 2400MHz Dual Channel Memory Kit (2 x 8GB)
1	Asus Z170-P Intel Motherboard
1	Samsung 250GB 850 Evo Series SATA III 6Gb/s Solid-State Drive
1.0000	No RAID
1	DVD-RW 22x
1	Internal 3.5 Card Reader with USB 2.0 (check case)
1	FSP Non-modular 500W Power Supply (Bronze 80 Plus Certified)

manu198075 · Aug 6, 2025

If you are not getting the bios screen itseft, then it means, it could be something to with ram. Just remove the ram sticks and clean it with a dry cotton cloth and put it back one by one (if you have more than one stick) and boot. Means, you have to take all the ram sticks and clean one stick put that one and try switching on the PC. If is pass the bios screen and boot, shutdown after completing the boot. Then fix the next stick after cleaning. Then start. Likewise do the same step for all the sticks (if you have more than 2 stciks in PC)

Hope this works for you.

antspants · Aug 6, 2025

Possibly need to reset your CMOS, it would be the first thing i’d try.

The truth is, it could be the RAM/SSD/Graphics Card… all of the above if there was a surge.

antspants · Aug 6, 2025

After reading your invoice above, I thought that I’d better mention that if you clear the CMOS, all the work the guy did with the Wire d2Fire Overclocking/Tuning (BIOS) will be gone.

theferret · Aug 6, 2025

Hi Munu. cleaning the Ram got the PC started without the horrible grinding noise. However nothing on screen. Main setup has 2 DP connected monitors . I tried connecting to a standalone monitor using all 3 DP ports and the HDMI port on the graphics card. All say no signal. Can I assume from this the graphics card has got fried or any other tricks up your sleeve?

My wife says she definitely turned her PC off before we went on holiday so can a surge affect a machine that is off?

Appreciate your help
Mike

theferret · Aug 6, 2025

antspants said:
After reading your invoice above, I thought that I’d better mention that if you clear the CMOS, all the work the guy did with the Wire d2Fire Overclocking/Tuning (BIOS) will be gone.

Well the machine is getting pretty old and was considering a replacement anyway. How do you clear the CMOS if you can get anything on screen?

RFS · Aug 6, 2025

The Intel 6700K processor has onboard graphics. Is it possible you could remove the Nvidia graphics card and try with the on-board graphics instead?

theferret · Aug 6, 2025

Removed the graphics card and using the onboard HDMI still nothing

theferret · Aug 6, 2025

Is this the CMOS battery that I need to take out to reset the CMOS. Any point given getting no signal form either onboard or graphics card?

manu198075 · Aug 6, 2025

theferret said:
Hi Munu. cleaning the Ram got the PC started without the horrible grinding noise. However nothing on screen. Main setup has 2 DP connected monitors . I tried connecting to a standalone monitor using all 3 DP ports and the HDMI port on the graphics card. All say no signal. Can I assume from this the graphics card has got fried or any other tricks up your sleeve?

My wife says she definitely turned her PC off before we went on holiday so can a surge affect a machine that is off?

Appreciate your help
Mike

Thanks for your reply theferret.

You can remove the graphics card and check whether you are getting the bios screen by connecting any of your monitor to the DP/HDMI/VGA port on the motherboard, as the Processor has in-built graphics.

If your getting the bios screen with the built-in graphics, then its time to clean the graphic card connectors with a dry cotton cloth and fix it back to see whether you are getting the display.

This is the method we use here in India in areas where at some seasons, the atmospheric moisture goes inside the PC componets and make PCs non-bootable. When we remove RAM and graphic cards, we use to see some sort of minute oxidation deposit on the connectors of ram and graphics cards. We use to clean thouroughly with a cotton cloth and fix it back. Almost 99% of the time, it works.

You can try. Hope this works for you.

Manu

JLArranz · Aug 6, 2025

Does it POST/do the POST? This is a short beep (the entire PC speaker is there to signal this beep, although there have been programs that can use it for music lol). The motherboard can have "beep codes" or leds for indicating failures (only indicative in general).

W/o a rotational disk I only can think about some fan doing that "grinding noise". The only fan that's failed in my computers did not start so no noise lol, no experience there.

Does it look like it's working but w/o video signal? You can notice it for the POST beep and the HD activity led and noise paces (fans, the optical drive,...). Try Ctrl-Shift-Windows B if you think it's in Windows but w/o video.

From my favourites' "no POST no video" folder. Last times here it has been a gfx card, then a badly seated RAM module after a processor replacement, then a motherboard. Imo the PSU is a strong suspect, but I'd do the "protocol" in the links below.

Google Search

How To - "No POST", "system won't boot", and "no video output" troubleshooting checklist

"No POST", "system won't boot", and "no video output" troubleshooting checklist This checklist is a compilation of troubleshooting ideas from many forum members. It's very important to actually perform every step in the checklist if you want to effectively troubleshoot your problem. 1.Did you...

forums.tomshardware.com

"No POST", "system won't boot", and "no video output" troubleshooting checklist

"No POST", "system won't boot", and "no video output" troubleshooting checklist This checklist is a compilation of troubleshooting ideas from many forum members. It's very important to actually perform every step in the checklist if you want to effectively troubleshoot your problem. 1.Did you...

forums.tomshardware.com

What are AMIBIOS Beep Codes and What Do They Mean?

A list of common AMI BIOS beep codes, the causes they represent, and the necessary steps to take to fix the issue that's causing the beeping.

www.lifewire.com

I use cheap surge protectors, never a problem with supply issues breaking things, although supply issues are very infrequent here.

RFS · Aug 6, 2025

theferret said:
Can hear a bit of grinding noise from the HDD .

Your picture of the inside shows an SSD NVME drive. Is this the Windows drive? I assume you have an SATA disk as well and it's this that's perhaps making the noise.

Gas · Aug 6, 2025

theferret said:
Come back from holiday to discover my wife's Win11 machine will not start up. Can hear a bit of grinding noise from the HDD . Opening the case the fans start running on power up for a few seconds then stop then try again in continuous loop. Only screen message is "no DP signal" no windows or manufacturer logo.

Things I've tried

Hold power button down for 30 sec. Detatch power cord and hold down for 30 sec

Hold shift on power up to try to get not recovery mode

Created USB flash boot drive using media creation tool. Press F12 while powering on

Has the hard drive failed or anything else I can try?

"No DP signal" means "No DisplayPort signal, that means that the monitor (you didn't mention the model) is connected to the wrong input, just check that the output of your graphic card the input of your monitor are inserted in the same type of socket with the correct type of cable then find on the monitor settings the input selection and select the correct one. This is your problem, maybe when you connected the monitor to the computer you inserted the cable in the wrong port.

Fabler2 · Aug 6, 2025

Just a thought, maybe the CMOS battery has died and that particular mobo needs a fresh button battery.

bobkn · Aug 6, 2025

Have you downloaded the manual? The CMOS can be reset by shorting together a couple of pins on the motherboard. But removing the CMOS backup battery (2032 button cell) also works.

You may as well replace the cell. I've seen them for sale in many places (like CVS drugstores).

A "grinding noise" could be a fan.

It may be hard to diagnose a system that won't boot at all. The Z170-P seems to lack the diagnostic LEDs that are present on some newer Asus boards.

Winuser · Aug 6, 2025

antspants said:
Possibly need to reset your CMOS, it would be the first thing i’d try.

That's how I fixed an old desktop computer that I thought was junk. @Scannerman suggested that I try resetting the BIOS. To my surprise it worked.

antspants · Aug 6, 2025

theferret said:
How do you clear the CMOS if you can get anything on screen?

Unplug the PC from the mains
Press and hold the power button on the computer case for about 20 to 30 seconds to drain residual power.
Remove the battery from the motherboard for 1 to 5 minutes. Theres a little clip touching the battery, you push the clip a little, away from the battery and pop it out.
Or use the Clear CMOS pins to clear the CMOS/reset BIOS for 30sec)
- To short the pins you could use a small flathead screwdriver. You need the head of the screwdriver to be touching both CMOS pins at the same time for 30 sec, should do it.

Replace the battery if you removed it. (Buying a new battery wouldn't hurt. You can get them from almost anywhere. As bobkn said, it’s a CR2032 battery)
Plug the PC back into the mains power
Start the PC
Take care if putting a screwdriver near the board so as not to short anything but the Clear CMOS pins

Windows 11 PC will not start up even form flash drive

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Clear CMOS by removing the battery:​

Clear CMOS using the Motherboard Pins:​

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Clear CMOS by removing the battery:

Clear CMOS using the Motherboard Pins:

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