PC stops and restarts during boot up

Hello! I've had my self built desktop for less than a year now. I got a blue screen the other day but it rebooted fine. Then after running for 10-20 minutes it would freeze and crash. I tried to run scans for malware or check for other problems but it would crash before I could get any work done.

Then I started getting a message saying I was overcloaking and needed to change my BIOS settings. I wasn't overcloaking and never have. All the power settings are on normal.

Now my computer wont start at all. When it boots it revs up for a second and then stops. Then it'll try starting up again and after a second will stop. It repeats like this until I switch the power off.

It sounds like my computer's overheating but the CPU fan is fine and spins when starting up. I've tried looking for loose cables but everything is pluged in fine.

Also when I got my blue screen or anytime the computer crashed, I wasn't doing anything other than running scans or watching netflix or youtube.

Any ideas of what might be going on? You're help is much appreciated.

Hardware that I have:

• Asus P8 Z77-V Pro Motherboard
• Corsair HX 750 Power Supply
• EVGA Geforce GTX660 Graphics Card
• Intel Core i7-2600k CPU
• G.Skill Ripjaws X Series 32GB RAM
• Crosair Force GT 90GB Solid State Drive
• Western Digital 2TB Hard Drive

I'm running Windows 7 for my OS

Not being able to boot makes it very hard to troubleshoot, but my 1st instinct is system temperature from what you have said so far, start the system and enter the bios, on one of the first few "tabs" you should be able to see a system health type affair, it should show what the CPU temperature is, let us know what that is, anything over 60 degrees then I suggest reseating the heatsink ASAP, there are some systems known to run hot, so that temp is not set in stone, but my system is running around 30 degrees and is comparable to what you have as a guide.

I've attached a screenshot showing what my system is running at, and that's with it being in need of a major clean out, if you have used the stock heatsink then it may well be a bit higher, but 40 degrees would be the max I would expect to see in most cases, if you do need to reseat the heatsink you must do it correctly or it won't be long before you need to do it again.

You need to use a proper cleaning solution to remove the old thermal grease, from BOTH the CPU and heatsink, any residue left could work against you, if you need to know more on this just say, the other thing that concerns me is the message you're getting, while you are checking out the CPU temperature in the bios, look for the Default Settings option.

Often it's F5 I think, otherwise on the save and exit menu there should be an option to reset the bios to the defaults, whatever way you go, save and exit to the defaults, this may be the only thing that is causing this, and certainly can't hurt, hope something here helps.

I can't even get into the bios anymore. My computer will not boot up. It'll try to start, the fans spin for a second, then stop, then try again, then stop. Should I just try reseating the heatsink and see if that'll at least get the computer started?

Well given the situation it certainly can't hurt, if it fires up after doing that then it's pretty conclusive that it was the problem, or a large part of it at least, if you haven't done this before, I suggest using ArctiClean™ to remove and clean the heatsink and the CPU from the old grease, adding new grease to old is ill advised, so cleaning the surfaces is important, others will use varied cleaners, such as Isopropyl Alcohol or Acetone.

They reckon it does the job, but if you read down the page I linked, you will see what these people say about that, I've not used other solutions, so can't compare, but I can tell you as I am disabled, and strength is an issue, this stuff is very easy to use, and has great results, it also has a citrus smell, which I find nice considering what some cleaners may smell like.

Also if you haven't got any thermal grease, I would get Arctic Silver® 5, very highly rated by most, again there are many other good products around that many will use and rate, and would also do a good job, but when I started out this was the daddy of them all, and I have stuck with it since, but things may well have changed over the years, but this has stood the test of time and survived well.

They also give a link for instructions on how to do it if you haven't done it before on that page, feel free to holla if you are unsure about anything, but give it a go, make sure you use proper safety precautions, physically unplug the mains lead before starting, and touch the case before touching the components each time, it only takes a couple of steps to create a static charge enough to kill components.

Also take care with leads, often space to work is cramped, and you can easily upset things if you knock cables about, more so as it gets older, they just don't liked being messed around with, just like a person really lol, anyway hope it goes well for you, good luck.