Help New PC won't start up.

HorseSea

I purchased PC in this thread:
http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2056925693
I took the lazy way and had them build it and install Windows 7 Ultimate on SSD drive.

When I turn on PC it asks me to select boot drive or install media. In BIOS there is only one boot option to select, it or default, I tried default, but it goes back to original.

I put in Windows disc and looked at drives and it appears SSD is Disc 0 and contents suggest Windows was installed on it. I tried Start-up repair ultility on Windows disc but is said it can not repair, the information it returns includes:
"No OS found on disk"

Even if I wanted to install windows again on the screen to select which disc to install on there is a warning for each saying that windows can not be installed on this disc.

I am not very techy so any step by step answers would be greatly appreciated.

klub44

Try to change (in bios) sata mode: from ide to ahci

BloodBath

They probably have to be formatted. Plug out the sata cable for every hard drive except the ssd and run the windows disc installer again.

Format the drive with the default options. Quick format will do and try install it then.

-edit- It might just be a case of adding the drive to the BIOS. There should be an option to set the number of boot devices. You can add or remove drives to this list and they will only appear in the boot order if they have been added.

spix

What motherboard do you have?

First thing to do is make sure all sata cables are connected properly.

BloodBath

He went for this one I think.

http://www.hardwareversand.de/articledetail.jsp?aid=54842&agid=1905

spix

BloodBath wrote: »

He went for this one I think.

http://www.hardwareversand.de/articledetail.jsp?aid=54842&agid=1905

OP, go to this menu in your bios

http://www.legitreviews.com/images/reviews/1851/asrock-x79-extrelme9-bios-19.jpg

Do all the drives show up there? Put the ssd in the first slot, then the other hdd/dvd drive in the others. If it doesn't say Crucial m4 (or whatever ssd you went for) then the motherboard isn't recognising it which is why windows isn't booting.. maybe something simple like a loose sata cable.

BloodBath

Thank you, that's the menu I was talking about.

belcampprisoner

who ever built it should fix it

change you bios


http://www.wondershare.com/disk-utility/install-windows7-on-ssd.html

HorseSea

BloodBath wrote: »

He went for this one I think.

http://www.hardwareversand.de/articledetail.jsp?aid=54842&agid=1905

Yes I went for that one. I have formatted SSD but Windows would still not install. I removed SSD and tried to install on regular HD but I get the same message, that drive is not bootable.

In bios I only had 1 boot setup option AHCI. Since removing SSD I have two options I gave tried both with luck. I am away from pc now so can't state the options.

I checked all cables on arrival and all seemed fine except the bigger of the two that goes to regular HD, it was loose, I fixed that before ever powering up.

I read the instructions for X79, but it assumes that Windows is already installed.

I am convinced issue is with bios settings and that I am missing something simple, but I have given up for the night, I will try again tomorrow.

On the positive side, I love the case, it's a beast! And it runs almost silent.

Thanks.

spix

HorseSea wrote: »

Yes I went for that one. I have formatted SSD but Windows would still not install. I removed SSD and tried to install on regular HD but I get the same message, that drive is not bootable.

In bios I only had 1 boot setup option AHCI. Since removing SSD I have two options I gave tried both with luck. I am away from pc now so can't state the options.

I checked all cables on arrival and all seemed fine except the bigger of the two that goes to regular HD, it was loose, I fixed that before ever powering up.

I read the instructions for X79, but it assumes that Windows is already installed.

I am convinced issue is with bios settings and that I am missing something simple, but I have given up for the night, I will try again tomorrow.

On the positive side, I love the case, it's a beast! And it runs almost silent.

Thanks.

When installing windows you need to change the first boot device to your dvd drive.

What you should try is unplug all drives except the ssd. Go into the bios page linked above and see if its recognised. If windows has been installed properly on it, it should boot. Make sure its connected to one of the Intel sata 3 ports. Your motherboard has 2 intel and the rest are marvel controller. Check the manual to find the correct one.

Also try loading default settings in bios (or press the reset cmos button at the back of the motherboard where your mouse is connected)

HorseSea

Still no luck, I have been reading lots, particularly http://www.tomshardware.co.uk/forum/303873-30-wont-resume-sleep-booted-raid#4360276
It seems this is a common problem, however I have tried to download the Intel RST drivers suggested however none are suitable according Windows when I search for drivers on usb key. The driver specifically referred to in the link "iaStorA.inf" does not appear to be in any of the Intel RST downloads now. Very similarly named ones are but none are acceptable to Windows.

Any ideas?

HorseSea

Just another thought, would upgrading to Windows 8 solve this driver issue, at this stage I would take the plunge into Windows 8 if I thought it would work.

spix

This isn't a driver issue, its related to your hard drives or bios settings.

First you need to test that the drives are all recognised. If hwvs installed windows for you then it should have booted straight away.

Plug them all back in then go to bios -> advanced -> storage configuration and list all the drives it shows up

Then go to the boot menu in bios and list all the options when you click on one of them.

Does the error mention GPT ?

HorseSea

I tried that Spix, but windows installation said for every drive that it could not be installed on that drive as it was not bootable, I tried with and without ssd connected, with and without regular HD's connected and I tired SATA, IDE, RAID all the various settings. I have given up and handed the PC over to a professional to resolve the issue for me.

spix

HorseSea wrote: »

I tried that Spix, but windows installation said for every drive that it could not be installed on that drive as it was not bootable, I tried with and without ssd connected, with and without regular HD's connected and I tired SATA, IDE, RAID all the various settings. I have given up and handed the PC over to a professional to resolve the issue for me.

I was asking for that info to try troubleshoot it for you not to fix it. If the drive doesn't show up in bios then it would point towards it being faulty. It it shows up and windows still gives the error when installing it's probably something simple like changing boot order or disabling EFI boot. Installing Windows is meant to be easy, you shouldn't have to change many settings in the bios. Hopefully you get it sorted soon.

HorseSea

spix wrote: »

This isn't a driver issue, its related to your hard drives or bios settings.

First you need to test that the drives are all recognised. If hwvs installed windows for you then it should have booted straight away.

Plug them all back in then go to bios -> advanced -> storage configuration and list all the drives it shows up

Then go to the boot menu in bios and list all the options when you click on one of them.

Does the error mention GPT ?

Yes all the drives were recognised. They did install Windows, but it did not boot up.

bios -> advanced -> storage configuration showed the SSD and the 2 HDs

The Options were from memory SATA IDE RAID and something else, tried them all.

I agree that it seems to be a bios issue, something simple, but I couldn't find it. Although now I am wondering that if it was installed and working in HWVS what's happened since, I did check all connections etc and everything was fine.

I guess I will find out in the next day or two.

Thanks for the assistance anyway.

spix

HorseSea wrote: »

Yes all the drives were recognised. They did install Windows, but it did not boot up.

bios -> advanced -> storage configuration showed the SSD and the 2 HDs

The Options were from memory SATA IDE RAID and something else, tried them all.

I agree that it seems to be a bios issue, something simple, but I couldn't find it. Although now I am wondering that if it was installed and working in HWVS what's happened since, I did check all connections etc and everything was fine.

I guess I will find out in the next day or two.

Thanks for the assistance anyway.

Do you recall which sata ports were being used?



The ones in the blue circle are marvel controller which shouldn't be used on a boot device.

The 2 grey red ones are intel sata 3 which is what the ssd should be on, 4 darker ones are intel sata 2 which should be used for the other hard drives and dvd drive.

Btw did you bring it to a pc repair shop or a friend? If its a shop hopefully they don't rip you off, which is what they normally do!

HorseSea

The SSD drive was in (from memory) SATA3_M0, which I think was the one under 6x on the left of the blue, not sure now. The other 2 drives were in red area, I think.

I asked in two local repair shops and they were not interested, just said send it back, so swallowed hard and gave it to PC World. €65 if the fix it or refund if they don't. Fingers crossed I will get a call tomorrow, they seemed very keen to get it open!

BloodBath

I'm really going to advise people not to order form Hardwareversand if they are getting it pre built from now on.

It's really not worth the risk and there always seems to be problems.

How was the build quality? Some pics would be nice to see what they actually did.

tuxy

I saw a build they did for a friend probably about 2 years ago. It was decent not the neatest work but no bad. Maybe it has gone downhill and they are rushing them now

HorseSea if you live near any of the lads on this forum they might be happy to call over and have a look at it for you.

HorseSea

I had considered building, watched a few videos in the original build thread, but I bottled it when I was ordering and went for build, install Windows etc, with the naive idea of just plugging and playing.

The build looked fine, although the wiring looked very messy behind the panel, not in the main area, however I could not really see anyway of doing it better, so maybe that is normal, I have never been involved with building PC's, all previous PC were Dell except the last one was Ankernmann and that was perfect.

If PC World sort it and that's the end of my problems I still think it will have been easier than building it myself. I will take a few photos when I get it back.

spix

HorseSea wrote: »

The SSD drive was in (from memory) SATA3_M0, which I think was the one under 6x on the left of the blue, not sure now. The other 2 drives were in red area, I think.

I asked in two local repair shops and they were not interested, just said send it back, so swallowed hard and gave it to PC World. €65 if the fix it or refund if they don't. Fingers crossed I will get a call tomorrow, they seemed very keen to get it open!

That could be the problem then.. m0 is one of the marvel. Of course it might be something else, can't be certain. It should have been in sata3_0 or sata3_1 though with sata mode set to AHCI.



Update us when you get it back

HorseSea

spix wrote: »

...

Update us when you get it back

I will.

HorseSea

Update, PC World phoned to say they could get no further than I could and suspect a MOBO issue, al Dr Debug is showing A6, something to do with disc controller? They tried a brand new 3tb drive in it and installed windows on it but Windows only sees it as 2TB drive and won't recognose my 2 3TB HDDs or SSD drive. Going out to collect now.

If it is the MOBO do I remove that to post back to HWVS or do they want the whole thing back?

spix

They tried a brand new 3tb drive in it and installed windows on it but Windows only sees it as 2TB drive

That's normal and shows they don't know what they're doing. To recognise a 3tb drive it needs to be installed under EFI bios as a GPT partition. The normal MBR installation only supports a maximum of 2TB.

I thought you said your drives were showing up in bios? I wouldn't be so hasty to assume its a motherboard fault, it might still be an easy fix.

The reason they weren't showing up in Windows might because they weren't initialized. http://www.overclock.net/t/1227647/how-to-initialize-and-format-a-new-disk-for-use-in-windows

If they managed to install windows then you should be able to do it with the ssd at least. It's highly unlikely all of the hard drives got damaged especially the ssd.

HorseSea

I am inclined to agree with you, I asked them that, is it possible 3 drives were dodgey? He thought it "was possible".

No that they have Windows on a drive anyway, is there any diagnostics I could run on the mother board?

spix

HorseSea wrote: »

I am inclined to agree with you, I asked them that, is it possible 3 drives were dodgey? He thought it "was possible".

No that they have Windows on a drive anyway, is there any diagnostics I could run on the mother board?

Did they install windows onto the hdd via your motherboard or was it installed from another pc?

Tbh I'm still not 100 percent sure about the exact issue you're having. Have you been able to fully complete a windows installation? Then when it restarts it says the drive is not bootable?

HorseSea

I am just booting up now, they installed Windows on to a brand new 3tb drive, they could not get to install on any of the existing drives 2 x 3tb HD and 1 x 500gb SSD. They had the same problem as me, bios sees all the drives but windows installation gave the same message on each drive when selected for to have OS installed "Windows can not be installed on this drive as it is not bootable" or words to that effect.

They were surprised that they could install to the new drive they added.

spix

HorseSea wrote: »

I am just booting up now, they installed Windows on to a brand new 3tb drive, they could not get to install on any of the existing drives 2 x 3tb HD and 1 x 500gb SSD. They had the same problem as me, bios sees all the drives but windows installation gave the same message on each drive when selected for to have OS installed "Windows can not be installed on this drive as it is not bootable" or words to that effect.

They were surprised that they could install to the new drive they added.

Could you write down the full error message it says, there's normally a bit more to it.

Also make sure its in one of the intel sata ports beforehand and reset all the bios settings by pressing this button on the back of the motherboard.



If they managed to install windows with your motherboard I'm pretty certain this can be sorted without needing to have anything sent back to hwvs.

HorseSea

OK, in the meantime here is a photo of the inside.

screen capture
I noticed that the tiny fan with X-fan on the MOBO is not spinning, though I am sure it was at some stage when I looked, would that mean anything.

What order should I do things. The current position is that all the original drives are dissconnected including the SSD. Windows is installed and running on new PC World drive. MOBO drivers and utilities are installed too. Graphics card drivers aren't.

Do I start from scratch and reconnect other drives or work of the new one for the moment?
Do I follow those instructions to change to 3Tb now or later?
The current SATA connections, based on your photo, are:

Old 3 TB drive - connected both end & not recognised in windows - 2nd across top row of blue block
Working new drive - 2nd across bottom of blue block
SSD drive (though disconnected at the drive end) is on third across top of blue block.
DVD writer second across top row red block
hotswap second across bottom row red block.

Many thanks for your time.

spix

First power down the pc. Leave the pc world hdd there for now and connect one of the drives you got from hardwareversand. Make sure there's both a sata and power cable connected to it. Put it in one of the top 4 black sata ports.

Start it back up and click the windows start button. Type diskpart in search. Type list disk then enter and tell me if the drive is showing up there.

The xfan is probably after turning off since you installed the motherboard utilities. It should spin up at a certain temperature. Open Asrock Extreme Tuning Utility, there might be an option to check it under fan control.

Did you buy the hdd from pcworld or did they forget to take it back?

HorseSea

OK, will do that now.

I bought the disk, when they phoned I asked them could they try another, they couldn't unless I wanted to buy one, I told them I would if they had a 3tb drive, I was planning on getting another 2 anyway. Snag is the only 3tb drive they had was 5700rpm version @€;150!

HorseSea

Sugar, will take a while it's installing 85 Windows updates!

HorseSea

Ok, I moved original 3tb to last black sata slot on top row in red circle and moved ssd to top grey slot in red circle and the return looks positive:

Disk / Status / Size / Free
Disk0 Online 476GB 0B
Disk1 Online 2794GB 2047GB
Disk2 Online 2794GB 0B

What should I do next?

spix

HorseSea wrote: »

Ok, I moved original 3tb to last black sata slot on top row in red circle and moved ssd to top grey slot in red circle and the return looks positive:

Disk / Status / Size / Free
Disk0 Online 476GB 0B
Disk1 Online 2794GB 2047GB
Disk2 Online 2794GB 0B

What should I do next?

Yep thats good. Means the drives are all recognised just not initialized. You don't need to do this yet.

What I'd recommend next is shutdown and remove all drives except the ssd and dvd drive. Press the reset cmos button in the picture posted earlier. When the pc starts press delete to enter bios.

Go to advanced -> storage configuration and make sure SATA mode is set to AHCI. In the boot menu set boot option #1 to the DVD drive and make sure the SSD is selected in one of options below. Make sure to save the changes before exiting. Try install windows, if it gives the same error again write it down as it'll help diagnose the problem.

HorseSea

Great, will try that now.

HorseSea

It seems to be working, for the first time ever, got passed that message that you can't install on that drive....

HorseSea

Windows installed successfully on SSD, why? Is it down to SSD being connected to the incorrect SATA connection on Motherboard? Or is there a problem with some connections, do you think.

Delighted to get this far anyway. What's next?

spix

HorseSea wrote: »

Windows installed successfully on SSD, why? Is it down to SSD being connected to the incorrect SATA connection on Motherboard? Or is there a problem with some connections, do you think.

Delighted to get this far anyway. What's next?

Good news If I had to guess I'd say hardwareversand never installed windows to begin with and the drives you got were having some compatibility problem with the marvel sata ports preventing windows from being installed. The reason they connected the ssd to that one was probably because of the 6x sticker on it so they assumed it was the regular intel one.

Are you in windows now with the ssd?

HorseSea

I am :-)

Should I reconnect the other drives and while I am at it add back in the one they took out?

spix

HorseSea wrote: »

I am :-)

Should I reconnect the other drives and while I am at it add back in the one they took out?

Yea connect them all back now (to the black ports)

You will need to format the pcworld one before you'll be able to convert it to GPT. This needs to be done to use the full 3gb. Probably best to leave it aside for now and get the other ones up and running.

Here's how to initialize them

2.5TB drives and larger:
Open the Start Menu, type diskpart, press Enter
Type list disk, press Enter
Type select disk X (where X is the number your drive shows up as), press Enter
Type clean, press Enter
Type convert gpt, press Enter
Type create partition primary, press Enter
Type format quick fs=ntfs, press Enter
Type assign, press Enter
Type exit, press Enter

After this go they should show up now in 'my computer' as 3gb drives.

BloodBath

Thanks spix. I thought it might be that alright.

The fan on the southbridge only spins up past 50-60c I think.

I can't believe the guy in pc world though it was possible that all 3 drives might be faulty.

HorseSea

Doing that now spix.

Thanks for that fan info Bloodbath.

Thanks a million to both of you, Bloodbath the spec of the PC was yours and spix, you got it running.

I am sure I will have more questions in the future, but hopefully not for a while, that will be a good sign.

Cheers.

spix

No problem. Just one more thing you should do.

It looks like your cpu cooler is connected to the cpu1 fan header so when you have the Asrock extreme tuning utility installed again you need to open it and set 'cpu fan 1' to the highest level and 'auto apply when program starts'

To control the pump and fan speed use the thermaltake software here http://www.thermaltake.com/db/support/software/CLW0217_1385b0db3f62459a98be54c078fac12b.rar

You could also move the sound card down 1 slot to give the graphics card fan more breathing room. It will work in any of them. Not necessary though as the asus 660 is very cool running (I had one !)

HorseSea

Will do. The boot speed is amazing with the SSD, I assume I should install all programs on SDD and data elsewhere, is that correct?

Skill Magill

HorseSea wrote: »

Will do. The boot speed is amazing with the SSD, I assume I should install all programs on SDD and data elsewhere, is that correct?

I know your probably loath to reinstal now that its working, but I followed this youtube vid to save on ssd real estate

It worked for me, still have loads of space on my ssd and everything gets saved to my other drives.

spix

HorseSea wrote: »

Will do. The boot speed is amazing with the SSD, I assume I should install all programs on SDD and data elsewhere, is that correct?

Yeah, keep the ssd for important programs that you use often and put downloads and other data on the hard drives. You could also install some smaller programs on the hdd's as well. You have plenty of space to work with that's for sure!

HorseSea

Thanks Skill Magill, but it's been too painful getting this far, I will leave that for the moment. :-)

HorseSea

Today's update. Never thought I would be using duck tape in a new PC! Could not get sound working, it prompted to connect power cable to sound card which I checked was in place however it was very loose so I messed around with cables and tightened them up duck taped the little black plug back on a used a shim of cardboard to make sure the pins remain in contact.

That was easy enough to solve but I am getting a message about a disk controller error! See photos. I don't have anything in the 6 SATA on the left, they are the Marvell ones aren't they?

Also it seems to me that the printed manual SATA addresses for the 6 MArvell scokets on the left do not match the picture shown in the Bios setup on screen, SATA3_M1 top left is SATA3_M0 in the printed manual!

There is a photo of the current SATA connections and the boot setup screen too.

Current SATA connections are:
SSD SATA3_0
OpticalDrive SATA2_0
HDD 1 SATA2_2
HDD 2 SATA3_1
Shows as blank, but I think it is hotswap connection
HDD 3 SATA2_3

I moved the sound card down one slot as suggested and installed fan software. Now if I could solve or discard the controller error I could start moving data etc.

Thanks.

spix

HorseSea wrote: »

Today's update. Never thought I would be using duck tape in a new PC! Could not get sound working, it prompted to connect power cable to sound card which I checked was in place however it was very loose so I messed around with cables and tightened them up duck taped the little black plug back on a used a shim of cardboard to make sure the pins remain in contact.

That was easy enough to solve but I am getting a message about a disk controller error! See photos. I don't have anything in the 6 SATA on the left, they are the Marvell ones aren't they?

Also it seems to me that the printed manual SATA addresses for the 6 MArvell scokets on the left do not match the picture shown in the Bios setup on screen, SATA3_M1 top left is SATA3_M0 in the printed manual!

There is a photo of the current SATA connections and the boot setup screen too.

Current SATA connections are:
SSD SATA3_0
OpticalDrive SATA2_0
HDD 1 SATA2_2
HDD 2 SATA3_1
Shows as blank, but I think it is hotswap connection
HDD 3 SATA2_3

I moved the sound card down one slot as suggested and installed fan software. Now if I could solve or discard the controller error I could start moving data etc.

Thanks.

Try install the latest marvel drivers from the asrock website

http://www.asrock.com/mb/overview.asp?cat=Download&os=Win764&Model=X79%20Extreme9

I wouldn't worry too much about the manual not matching the picture in bios.

What soundcard is it ? You shouldn't have to use tape to get the power working.

HorseSea

Sound card is http://www.hardwareversand.de/7.1/29784/ASUS+Xonar+D2+PM%2C+PCI+%2890-YAA021-1UAN00%29.article
Nothing wrong with the cards, just those little power cables, the wires are just loose in the plastic sockets. Would not make a connection.

Thanks for link, I went to Marvel site, but there were just numbers, nothing I could equate too, that link is perfect, downloaded will restart now.

Thanks,