Advertisement
If you have a new account but are having problems posting or verifying your account, please email us on hello@boards.ie for help. Thanks :)
Hello all! Please ensure that you are posting a new thread or question in the appropriate forum. The Feedback forum is overwhelmed with questions that are having to be moved elsewhere. If you need help to verify your account contact hello@boards.ie
Hi all! We have been experiencing an issue on site where threads have been missing the latest postings. The platform host Vanilla are working on this issue. A workaround that has been used by some is to navigate back from 1 to 10+ pages to re-sync the thread and this will then show the latest posts. Thanks, Mike.
Hi there,
There is an issue with role permissions that is being worked on at the moment.
If you are having trouble with access or permissions on regional forums please post here to get access: https://www.boards.ie/discussion/2058365403/you-do-not-have-permission-for-that#latest

Bios Vs Windows Issue

  • 17-11-2016 2:12pm
    #1
    Berty
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 26,152 ✭✭✭✭


    Folks,

    I've been handed a Laptop by my mother, my deceased fathers(computer engineer - maybe his meddling internally is the issue) laptop to see if I could speed it up. Ah well, close to bricked it now.

    It's a Dell Latitude XT2 running Windows 7 Ultimate. At least it was until I got my hands on it.

    After startup and before it loaded into Windows it would spend 5 mins with a flashing _ before the Windows Loading Screen. This is where I figured I'd speed it up.

    I restored BIOS to Default. In doing so now the system, instead of the _ pre windows screen I was getting it hanging on Intel Storage BIOS ROM ICH8(Storage Matrix Manager) now after trying many options I cannot even get back to there. I've gotten close to loading windows with "Windows didn't start properly" choosing either repair or start normally. Start normally crashes the system with a brief look at a BSOD.

    My boot options in BIOS(one time boot menu and then choosing bios setup)

    Boot Sequence:

    Diskette Drive
    Interal HDD
    USB Storage Device
    CD/DVD/CD-RW Drive
    eSATA HDD
    Onboard NIC

    The system doesn't have an optical drive so I've left that unticked. The NIC is left unticked as I'm sure that's a network driven setting so not necessary.

    The most recent order is Internal HDD, USB, Diskette and eSATA

    Any advice or suggestions? I'm not against completely wiping the system with a fresh install but it seems to have been putting up a fight trying to install a fresh OS by USB


Comments

  • #2
    [Deleted User]
    Posts: 0 ✭ [Deleted User]


    Is the SATA operation mode set to RAID? (sounds like it is). Try AHCI if it's available.


  • #3
    MarkR
    Moderators, Regional Midwest Moderators Posts: 11,144 Mod ✭✭✭✭MarkR


    Can you see is the hard drive detected in the bios? Should list a size in mb if detected correctly.

    You could also try to boot it into an operating system off a pen drive. Search for pen drive linux, trying Linux Mint or Ubuntu. You'll be able to tell if at least the hardware is ok.

    If you have the licence key for the operating (sticker on base maybe) i'd look at wiping it completely.

    Before you do, remove any peripherals, take out the battery, unplug the laptop, and press the power button for ten seconds. Put back in just the power adapter, and turn on the computer. Immediately repeatedly tap F12 to bring you to the boot menu, and see if you can select the hard drive to boot from.

    If that doesn't work, there may be an option to boot from a system partition, to wipe / reinstall. If there is definitely nothing on it that needs to be saved, you could try that.


  • #4
    Berty
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 26,152 ✭✭✭✭Berty


    I've somehow managed to slightly downgrade and force an install of 7 Pro and I found that my Hard Drive was rather bloated. You'd swear he'd never heard of external storage since he used to design them. Anyway, all the bloated files backed up now and I'll brave a few restarts and see if she holds. :O

    I do relatively understand the above queries and comments. I cannot readily view the SATA type but I know it's not RAID. It basically told me I had to choose between AHI(maybe that was it) and ACHI so it was defaulted to ACHI so I left it.


Advertisement