Hello There! I’m having a really weird startup issue with my Windows 11 desktop and I’m trying to figure out what’s actually causing it.
The problem doesn’t happen every time, which makes it harder to diagnose. When it does happen, I press the power button and the fans and lights turn on for a second, then the system shuts off. Sometimes it’ll keep doing this in a loop (turn on → off → on → off), and other times it just turns on briefly and stays off.
Here’s the strange part: The only reliable way I’ve found to get it to boot is by removing one RAM stick. It doesn’t matter which stick or which slot—just having one stick removed lets the PC stay on and actually boot to the logo. Once the logo appears, I don’t shut it down—I put the RAM stick back in while it’s on, and then it continues booting and works normally.
Sometimes it’ll continue to work fine on the next boot, but other times I have to repeat this whole process again.
Things I’ve already tried:
Replaced the power supply (same issue still happens)
Swapped in a different GPU → no change
Replaced the CMOS battery (thought it might be losing BIOS settings)
Ran a RAM stress test → both sticks passed with no errors
Swapped the RAM sticks between different slots → same issue
System info (roughly on hand atm):
Windows 11 desktop
Decent CPU/GPU (not sure exact models off the top of my head)
2 RAM sticks (both seem to work fine individually)
Storage I Did Test Passed,
At this point I’m starting to think it could be a motherboard issue, but I still don’t understand why removing a RAM stick temporarily “fixes” the boot problem—even after trying different sticks in different slots.
Has anyone seen something like this before? Could it still be RAM-related (like slots or memory controller), or is this more likely the motherboard?
Any ideas or things I should test next would be appreciated.