[fvtalon]

So I have a newish HTPC, I put it together just after christmas and it ran just fine for a while. Just recently now it won't boot. I briefly got it to boot into both openelec and windows but it's not repeatable. Right now if I boot to the USB stick (openelec) I get a DOS looking message:
SYSLINUX 4.06 EDD 2012-10-23 Copyright © 1994-2012 H. Peter Anvin et al with a blinking curser and no other activity.

If I try to boot to Windows 7 I get the Starting Windows screen, there's a pinpoint of light where the logo comes from and it hangs there.

Because it won't boot OpenElec or Windows I think it might be hardware but I don't know where to start. Bios works fine, I've tried one ram stick only in each slot with no change. I've unplugged my IR receiver, external drive, network connection, etc with no change. Mobo? CPU? I'm stumped and frustrated.

Specs are:

A6-5400k AMD APU
MSI FM2-A75MA-E35
Kingston HyperX 1866MHz RAM 2x4GB
Crucial M4 SSD
Seasonic S12II 430W PSU

Thanks in advance for any help.

[RaggSokk3n]

tried a Ubuntu live cd?
if that boots the problem can only be sata controller, USB controller or ssd related if hardware related at all.
Try a different install method if everything works under Ubuntu

[fvtalon]

I was talking to a computer/IT friend last and he asked if I had disconnected all the accessories which I realized I hadn't quite done because I was still using my logitech k400 wireless keyboard. I unplugged the usb dongle and switched to an old ps2 keyboard and it booted right up. It'll boot into OpenElec or windows again. The k400 still works too I had just moved it to a front usb port which are 3.0 to get a little better range out of it and hadn't even considered it a potential problem since the trackpad and keyboard worked just fine in bios. I guess the lesson is not to rule out any peripheral no matter how insignificant as a potential problem.

[RaggSokk3n]

Nice one
Ran in to a motherboard once that turned out to be sensitive to which fan headers where used at the same time, tried everything from changing cpu, gpu, memory and so forth and it just wouldn't boot - needless to say i spent two whole business days on that computer before i figured it out

[Dougie Fresh]

Turn off boot from USB and try again with the USB dongle installed and/or move it to a different USB port. Though, I have the same keyboard and use it for testing builds and I've never had that issue. I've seen it with USB memory sticks installed sometimes. Crazy stuff happens.

[Infinion]

Try to update your syslinux from Openelec, gave me booting issues on an H77 systemboard caused by UEFI.