Question: So, my PC is in an odd state right now. I’ll try to outline the order of events that led me here:
- I updated Windows 10 x64 to the Creators Update. This occurred without problems.
- The next day (I’m not sure if it was the very next boot after installing updates — I used Creators update the night before for hours though), the first boot screen says “New CPU Detected!” and prompted me to go into BIOS or to accept default BIOS settings.
- I don’t know if the Creators Update is responsible for this, or if it was just coincidental timing.
- To be clear, I have not changed any hardware
- I accept default settings and things boot normal. I do notice on subsequent boots that indeed default BIOS settings apply (e.g. the splash screen is enabled; something I had turned off).
- Subsequent boots go okay for a while. I decide to go into BIOS and tweak things (turn off splash screen mainly)
- However, I do see a brief message of No hard disk detected! before boot proceeds normally.
- I also decide to change the boot order, as it had my CD-ROM drive as the first in the list, when my SSD should be top of the list (where Win10 installed).
- Oops! Problems now. Sometimes it gets to the Windows splash screen and freezes (where I do a hard restart). Others, it gives me the message Reboot and Select proper Boot device or Insert Boot Media in selected Boot device and press a key
- The “freezing splash screen” doesn’t seem to happen anymore. Only the message now
Now it seems that the only way I can boot my PC is if, on startup, I hit F8 to open the “select boot device” menu, and select the SSD that contains Windows on it. Beyond that, the PC is working just fine. From what I can tell, the SSD, while old, functions normally, and the CMOS battery appears to be working (it never lost the system time, for instance), but I’m not sure:
- What made the PC think a new CPU was installed
- Why can’t it boot straight into Windows without manual intervention
- If the recent update to Win10 Creative (x64 Pro) matters at all, or if it was just a coincidence.
EDIT: As an update, this morning my PC wouldn’t boot at all.
- I opened it up, discovered a forgotten third hard drive and removed it (the original one that came with the PC. No wonder BIOS showed 3. I guess I never mapped it…), and tried only leaving the SSD plugged in (I double-checked the SATA/power were flush… it’s just kind of sitting in a 3.5″ bay because this tower doesn’t have SSD slots. I have it taped down though with electical tape.)
- When I boot with just the SSD, it works fine and I don’t have to do anything special (open boot menu etc) to get the PC to boot. It even shows up in BIOS now!
- When I hook the data drive back up, though, I can only boot by mashing the “open boot menu” key at the start, and selecting the SSD. And even then it only works about half the time (i.e. my original problem).
- So I dunno exactly what’s wrong. I thought the SSD was toast but that isn’t the case, unless this is a symptom of it going bad? I’m a total hardware newbie but it almost feels like the two hard drives together draw too much power, but that makes no sense (Got a beefy PSU in here, over 1k watts… an HDD shouldn’t be stressing it).
EDIT 2: Here are my hardware specs:
- Case: COOLER MASTER RC-690-KKN1-GP Black SECC/ ABS ATX Mid Tower Computer Case
- CPU: AMD Phenom II X4 945 Deneb Quad-Core 3.0 GHz Socket AM3 95W HDX945WFGIBOX Processor
- Motherboard: ASUS M4A79XTD EVO AM3 AMD 790X ATX AMD Motherboard
- RAM: G.SKILL Ripjaws X Series 16GB (2 x 8GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) Desktop Memory Model F3-1600C9D-16GXM
- GPU: PowerColor PCS+ Radeon R9 390 DirectX 12 AXR9 390 8GBD5-PPDHE 8GB 512-Bit GDDR5 PCI Express 3.0 CrossFireX Support ATX Video Card
- PSU: CORSAIR HX Series HX1050 1050W ATX12V / EPS12V SLI Ready CrossFire Ready 80 PLUS GOLD Certified Modular Active PFC Power Supply New 4th Gen CPU Certified Haswell Ready
- SSD (OS drive bought March 2012): OCZ Agility 3 2.5″ 240GB SATA III MLC Internal Solid State Drive (SSD) AGT3-25SAT3-240G
EDIT 3: PARTIAL FIX: Windows re-enabled “Fast Startup” when I upgraded, which I’m pretty sure is why I initially got “Windows starts to boot, then freezes”. I had this issue before and disabling Fast Startup fixed it for me. So I turned that off. In the occasions where my PC does manage to get to the Windows splash screen, I believe this fixes it.
Also, my BIOS version is 0501 (H:02 B:07), dated 07/17/2009. So I will try to upgrade it as per the comment.
EDIT 4: I updated BIOS to the latest available version. Initial boot post-install was the same problem. But after initial configuration (in which the SSD still didn’t appear in the boot menu, but under HDD configuration it did, in which I moved it to the top) it seems to be booting normally. Two full shut downs + boots and it went straight into Windows.
EDIT 5: On a hunch, I checked the Boot Priority in BIOS after I changed the HDD order. And ‘lo and behold the SSD appears there now. I set it to first priority, and no change (i.e. still booting fine). About the only hiccup I have now is that on boot the screen prints:
Marvell 88SE61xx Adapter – BIOS Version 1.1.0.L72Initializing.
Followed by
Marvell 88SE61xx Adapter – BIOS Version 1.1.0.L72Adapter 1Disk Information: ?No hard disk is detected!
Been seeing that throughout this whole process. I think I’ve read in the past that this is innocuous (and it doesn’t seem to affect anything now), but it is something that didn’t used to happen before all this started.
EDIT 6: Some Googling reveals that that’s referring to the ESATA boot attempt. It correctly notes that there’s no hard drive plugged in. Initially I was looking in BIOS for a Marvell IDE boot, and was skipping the ESATA one. I’ll probably turn it off, which took care of the message.
Answer: It seems like your BIOS got damaged somehow, perhaps from a power surge,and the problem seems to express itself in the BIOS only.
The best way to “fix” the BIOS is by installing the latest version.For the ASUS M4A79XTD EVO motherboard,the latest BIOS is Version 2102from 2010/07/30.Try to install it, even if it’s already the installed version.