BOOT Problems on my new build computer! Please HELP!

[mrmotivator]

Hi people...

I completed my fist build a month ago and everything was going well.

Now when i go to start the computer it gets past the motherboard boot screen and goes to a black screen with a flashing cursor at the top left corner. It wont allow you to type or do anything, then only way to get into windows now is to restart and click F12 and select the boot drive and then it loads.

The first thing i thought was i need to change the boot option in the BIOS, which i did and saved settings and restarted. This time it loaded and thought i had solved it, but the next time i started the same problem again the BIOS wont save the boot settings.

I really need some advice???! Thanks in advance

i5-3570k
GIGABYTE GA-Z77X-UD5H-WB
Be Quiet Dark Rock PRO BK016
Corsair Vengeance Low Profile 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz
Force Series 3 120GB SSD, WD 3TB HDD
Fractal Design Define XL USB3.0 Full Tower Case - Black Pearl
Corsair HX750W
Windows 7 64bit
WD 3TB Cavier Green

 

[the54thvoid]

Double check your boot menu.

After a botched vga install one of my SSD's ceased working (I thought). Post screen saw the drives but when it went to UEFI - the boot menu didn't show one of my SSD's. I eventually 'fixed' it with a clean install on a secondary SSD.

However, it happened again and i delved deeper into my boot menu and found another boot menu - NOT the boot device priority. I can't remember what it was but fish around because it was this setting that I had to jiggle with.

I know it's a bit vague but boot priority wasn't my issue - it was a device recognition menu setting....

Again sorry it's vague but i think it's an SSD recognition issue - they sometime throw wobblies.




EDIT: It might have been the SATA Configuration menu. Make sure your devices are recognised there.

 

[Sasqui]

Nice system. The first thing I'd check is the CMOS battery... also if the board has a clear CMOS jumper, make sure that's in the right place. Without looking at the manual, does the board have a button to clear the CMOS?

 

[mrmotivator]

Nice system. The first thing I'd check is the CMOS battery... also if the board has a clear CMOS jumper, make sure that's in the right place. Without looking at the manual, does the board have a button to clear the CMOS?

on second thoughts this all started when i installed my new 3TB drive, i cant think its the CMOS battery as its a new motherboard and whats a CMOS jumper?? sorry excuse my ignorance im not the best with computers?! thanks

 

[Crap Daddy]

Is your SATA mode set to AHCI in BIOS? Do you have an OS instaled on you new 3TB HDD?

 

[Aquinus]

It sounds like you're boot order in the BIOS is set to something weird. I would make your optical drive the first and your hard drive the second. If you can disable everything else, do it, otherwise just put them all under those two. Keep in mind, some BIOS have two boot order lists, one for the devices (cd-rom, hard drive, floppy, usb, etc.) and another for the order of which hard drives to boot off of since the other list only describes HDDs are a single entity. Both of my previous ASUS boards have worked that way, but I'm not sure about Gigabyte.

 

[Sasqui]

on second thoughts this all started when i installed my new 3TB drive, i cant think its the CMOS battery as its a new motherboard and whats a CMOS jumper?? sorry excuse my ignorance im not the best with computers?! thanks

Most motherboard (at least in the past) have a jumper to clear the CMOS which sets the default values back, including things like the boot priority. If there is a jumper and you haven't messed with it, then it's not likely the problem. You may want to consult the MB manual.

If the battery was dislodged (or just faulty), that could be a problem

 

[mrmotivator]

It sounds like you're boot order in the BIOS is set to something weird. I would make your optical drive the first and your hard drive the second. If you can disable everything else, do it, otherwise just put them all under those two. Keep in mind, some BIOS have two boot order lists, one for the devices (cd-rom, hard drive, floppy, usb, etc.) and another for the order of which hard drives to boot off of since the other list only describes HDDs are a single entity. Both of my previous ASUS boards have worked that way, but I'm not sure about Gigabyte.

Is your SATA mode set to AHCI in BIOS? Do you have an OS instaled on you new 3TB HDD?

Haha no that would take forever to load, it's on my SSD! I have done nothing but install a new 2tb drive which works fine.

I have put the boot option 1 to the corsair SSD and disabled boot option two and three an it works when it restarts but then you turn the computer of and start again and your back to square one grr?!

 

[Aquinus]

Haha no that would take forever to load, it's on my SSD! I have done nothing but install a new 2tb drive which works fine.

I have put the boot option 1 to the corsair SSD and disabled boot option two and three an it works when it restarts but then you turn the computer of and start again and your back to square one grr?!

You're windows bootloader might be on a different disk. When you install Windows and your SSD wasn't the first disk in the BIOS, Windows will install the boot loader to what ever drive has priority. If you set it to your SSD, run the Windows install disk and do a repair, the installer should re-install the boot loader to the SSD.

 

[mrmotivator]

ok so it look like i fixed the problem, i had the the new wd 3tb drive plugged in on what lokks like the (G Sata) port and that seems to give it priority over the other ports because the second i unplugged it booted perfectly now i plugged the SSD which is my windows boot drive in the G Sata port and the new wd 3tb drive in the normal sata port next to it. Make sense lol??! Whats the difference between G Sata and normal, i just wanted in 6gbpsecond sata port since i only have a few the rest or slower 3gbpsecond ones.

 

[Sasqui]

ok so it look like i fixed the problem, i had the the new wd 3tb drive plugged in on what lokks like the (G Sata) port and that seems to give it priority over the other ports because the second i unplugged it booted perfectly now i plugged the SSD which is my windows boot drive in the G Sata port and the new wd 3tb drive in the normal sata port next to it. Make sense lol??! Whats the difference between G Sata and normal, i just wanted in 6gbpsecond sata port since i only have a few the rest or slower 3gbpsecond ones.

Wow, that's one to look (out) for on newer Gigabyte boards:

http://forum.cakewalk.com/tm.aspx?m=2457559&mpage=1&print=true

I actually found a Gigabyte forum after I posted this and no one on there really knew either apart from saying they should be the last choice of controller for HDDs.

 

[Crap Daddy]

This is what you have on your board:

Chipset:
1 x mSATA connector
* The SATA2 5 connector will become unavailable when the mSATA connector is installed with a solid state drive.
2 x SATA 6Gb/s connectors (SATA3 0/1) supporting up to 2 SATA 6Gb/s devices
Support for RAID 0, RAID 1, RAID 5, and RAID 10
* When a RAID set is built across the SATA 6Gb/s and SATA 3Gb/s channels, the system performance of the RAID set may vary depending on the devices being connected.
4 x SATA 3Gb/s connectors (SATA2_2~SATA2_5) supporting up to 4 SATA 3Gb/s devices

2 x Marvell 88SE9172 chips:
1 x eSATA 6Gb/s connector on the back panel supporting up to 1 SATA 6Gb/s device
3 x SATA 6Gb/s connectors (GSATA3 6/7/8) supporting up to 3 SATA 6Gb/s devices
Support for RAID 0 and RAID 1

Usually connect first the chipset SATAs (SATA 0 and 1) and then those controlled by Marvell. I have no idea why those have priority regardless of what you set in BIOS. Maybe there are clues in the mobos manual?

 

[mrmotivator]

This is what you have on your board:

Chipset:
1 x mSATA connector
* The SATA2 5 connector will become unavailable when the mSATA connector is installed with a solid state drive.
2 x SATA 6Gb/s connectors (SATA3 0/1) supporting up to 2 SATA 6Gb/s devices
Support for RAID 0, RAID 1, RAID 5, and RAID 10
* When a RAID set is built across the SATA 6Gb/s and SATA 3Gb/s channels, the system performance of the RAID set may vary depending on the devices being connected.
4 x SATA 3Gb/s connectors (SATA2_2~SATA2_5) supporting up to 4 SATA 3Gb/s devices

2 x Marvell 88SE9172 chips:
1 x eSATA 6Gb/s connector on the back panel supporting up to 1 SATA 6Gb/s device
3 x SATA 6Gb/s connectors (GSATA3 6/7/8) supporting up to 3 SATA 6Gb/s devices
Support for RAID 0 and RAID 1

Usually connect first the chipset SATAs (SATA 0 and 1) and then those controlled by Marvell. I have no idea why those have priority regardless of what you set in BIOS. Maybe there are clues in the mobos manual?

No says nothing in the manual, but as said before it was overriding my saved bios settings it was really odd :/ thanks for the research.