Can't access bios, MB won't recognize second drive, 2

[jlockley]

ASUS P8H77-M CSM new with 8GB Ram, 2 (in theory) SeaGate 1TB HD's .
Issues:
1) Del does not bring up bios. Setup only accessible if cmos reset, then via F1.
2) Flash screen freezes
3) If only boot drive on board, long flash screen. Boot to W7 takes about 8 or 9 minutes (really long)
4) Will not boot to FAT32 thumb drive with bios update app and new bios.
5) Will not go to bios with second drive only attached, even after clearing cmos. Error: Insert boot drive and press any key (or something of that nature). Wants boot drive.
6) Asus support used to be better.

Couple of notes: Have tried different SATA ports and switched cables around, so that's excluded. Have tried swithching SATA ports for boot and backup drive. No dice. Will NOT boot if back up drive is on board. It did yesterday.


I figure It's just not my week, but if any of you has a brilliant flash, which you often do, I am all ears (or is that eyes?)

Thanks.

 

[BadBigBen]

If it does not startup with the second drive in place, then there is something wrong with that drive...

How does the PC react when you have NO drives attached (including the DVD)?
What type of PSU and wattage are you using?

Ben
"If it works don't fix it! If it doesn't use a sledgehammer..."
How to ask a question, when posting them to a professional forum.
Only ask questions with yes/no answers if you want "yes" or "no"

 

[jlockley]

I think I have one with issues. As for the rest, it won't do anything unless the boot drive is in. It will go to bios if one sim is removed. Both sims (4gb @) show in post. Even with only boot drive attached, it needs up to five minutes to the post message. Going to put in my old board for a week and send it in.

 

[goombawaho]

You have to make sure that the mobo is not looking (thus hanging) for some device. Like on some Dells, they will hang for a while if you have the SATA port enabled but nothing is attached to that port OR even some IDE (just saw one this week) when it was set to AUTO on an empty IDE slave port. Had to turn SLAVE to OFF and then it would boot right away.

 

[BadBigBen]

I've seen things similar to what Goom mentioned, but it was cable related. Where one mainboard would not post when there was a SATA or IDE cable attached with no drive on said cable.

that should not be the case here, as that ASUS board should function with cable or without... so yes, I would agree that the mainboard probably has a whack there...

but before that test it outside of the case, we just had a situation where the casing was causing us trouble, a bend plate was touching the solder lines of the memory slots and shorted two mainboards (damaged) out before we realized where the problem was located...



Ben
"If it works don't fix it! If it doesn't use a sledgehammer..."
How to ask a question, when posting them to a professional forum.
Only ask questions with yes/no answers if you want "yes" or "no"

 

[vacunita]

1) Del does not bring up bios. Setup only accessible if cmos reset, then via F1.

[box]Del[/box] is not the only key that brings up the BIOS. Some PC's use [box]F8[/box], or [box]F10[/box] or even [box]Ctrl[/box]. I had one that used [box]F2[/box] to Enter Bios. try more keys to enter BIOS. Unless of course the initial screen says Press Del to enter BIOS. Then there would be something fishy there.

5) Will not go to bios with second drive only attached, even after clearing cmos. Error: Insert boot drive and press any key (or something of that nature). Wants boot drive.

That means the drive is either fine and detected correctly, or not recognized at all, and so the PC moves on to look for a bootable drive. Since the [box]Del[/box] key doesn't bring up BIOS it proceeds with the bootup process. I Assume the backup drive is not bootable, (has no OS installed on it). So when it hits the drive the PC figures it can't boot from that and asks for something it can boot from. This is normal expected behavior

If only boot drive on board, long flash screen. Boot to W7 takes about 8 or 9 minutes (really long)

This tells me its looking for something before moving on. either the boot drive has issues so it takes a long time to initialize, or there's something the PC is looking for tha it can;t find or takes too long to find. Maybe a Network boot, or a CD Boot first something like that.

Again you need to try other keys to get Into BIOS and see whats what. (Again assuming the start screen does not claim the [box]Del[/box] key is to be used to enter BIOS).

Will not boot to FAT32 thumb drive with bios update app and new bios.

Probably not set to boot from a USB drive. Nothing really strange there.

At then end the behavior described is somewhat consistent to a working motherboard. The only real issue here is the inability to enter BIOS thus far.




----------------------------------
Phil AKA Vacunita
----------------------------------
Ignorance is not necessarily Bliss, case in point:
Unknown has caused an Unknown Error on Unknown and must be shutdown to prevent damage to Unknown.

Web & Tech

 

[goombawaho]

I've never seen a Dell that goes into BIOS by pressing any other key than F2 (not F1 or any other key).

Agree with Vacunita - A BIOS hanging before trying to boot means it's trying to figure out what is attached and there is a bad device attached OR trying to figure out what is attached and NOTHING is attached but port is set as if something is supposed to be there.

 

[BadBigBen]

@Vacunita - that mainboard has issues! I've build nearly 10 PC's with that type mainboard, and ALL use the DELETE key to enter the BIOS...


@Goom and Vacunita - about the hanging part, well that is the reason why I asked about how the PC is reacting when NO drives are attached...

but all is mood anyway, since JLockley is RMA-ing that mainboard...

Ben
"If it works don't fix it! If it doesn't use a sledgehammer..."
How to ask a question, when posting them to a professional forum.
Only ask questions with yes/no answers if you want "yes" or "no"

 

[jlockley]

I believe it has issues, but after two days away from the monster, I a going to follow your suggestions before the return, which takes about a week.,

 

[ANFPS26]

I've had problems in the past with not getting into the bios caused by USB keyboards that had special function keys. Swapping out the keyboard with a standard USB or PS2 keyboard fixed the bios problem.

Jim

 

[vacunita]

@Vacunita - that mainboard has issues! I've build nearly 10 PC's with that type mainboard, and ALL use the DELETE key to enter the BIOS...

If very well may have issues. Still some alternatives never hurt.



----------------------------------
Phil AKA Vacunita
----------------------------------
Ignorance is not necessarily Bliss, case in point:
Unknown has caused an Unknown Error on Unknown and must be shutdown to prevent damage to Unknown.

Web & Tech

 

[jlockley]

The replacement has come and works (the other did not). But it is impossible to get into the bios with any drive attached. Remove drives, and the bios is perfectly accessible. With USB or PS2 KEyboard (I purchased one for the purpose) . Seems to be a bug native to the board. I can live with it, I guess. (Great Cooler Master case with clip off side panels). Thank you all for the input.

 

[goombawaho]

That's a pretty big bug - never seen that before. I would be angry enough to smash the board, personally but living with it is smarter.

 

[BadBigBen]

Very strange indeed, since I did not encounter any issues entering the BIOS with HDD's attached...

perhaps, it is a similar issue with the old X58 mainboards that ASUS had a while ago, those made in Taiwan where fine to OC and those made in Mainland China had a bug that caused instability...

but if you can live with it, then that is fine by me...


Ben
"If it works don't fix it! If it doesn't use a sledgehammer..."
How to ask a question, when posting them to a professional forum.
Only ask questions with yes/no answers if you want "yes" or "no"

 

[jlockley]

it has to be batch related