How to Boot from USB Flask Disk / Drive on an (old) BIOSTAR A880GU3 Mobo ?

sk89

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Hi all, I am newbie here..

I picked up an old (2010-2011) mobo (a Biostar A880GU3) for cheap from closed-down netcafe a year ago in 2019.
I didn't got the time to tinker with it until very recently.

So I managed to set everything up with an unused ATX case, plugged everything in, managed to get it boot into BIOS etc.
But I was unable get it to boot from a USB Flask Disk --which I have bootable Live Linux image there.

I have searched : "how to boot BIOSTAR A880gu3 from usb"
Got this: https://www.biostar.com.tw/app/en/support/faq_content.php?S_ID=709

The BIOS menus are similar, but a bit different from my mobo's.
This is what my mobo's boot and BIOS looks:
IMG_20200715_220835a.jpgIMG_20200715_220917a.jpgIMG_20200715_220950a.jpg
This is how the BIOS looks:
IMG_20200715_163915a.jpgIMG_20200715_163934a.jpgIMG_20200715_164025a.jpg

As you could see, there seems to be no option for booting from USB drives.. eventhough a bootable USB is plugged, it still won't boot (just goes to pic 2 and 3 there), pressing F9 during POST also does nothing (also goes to pic 2 and 3).

Can anybody tell me, how to boot from USB flash drives using this mobo ?
Thxx
 
press f12 see if it gives you a boot menu.
try another usb drive.
make sure bios is up to date. http://biostar-usa.com/app/en-us/mb/introduction.php?S_ID=516#download
F12 iirc is to flash the BIOS.
The USB works fine on both of my laptops. I had YUMI installed with Windows installer and a few Linuxes there.. I gotta find another free USB to flash then. We'll see..
I will try the BIOS update route when I got a free unused USB on my hand. Probably ltr in the day...
 
F12 iirc is to flash the BIOS.
The USB works fine on both of my laptops. I had YUMI installed with Windows installer and a few Linuxes there.. I gotta find another free USB to flash then. We'll see..
I will try the BIOS update route when I got a free unused USB on my hand. Probably ltr in the day...
press it, find out.
yeah, ive had old systems be picky with usb drives that work fine in everything else. try another.
 
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Is there a "hard disk boot order" somewhere in the BIOS setup?

I've had endless trouble with motherboards that treat USB flash drives like hard disks. They won't boot to them because there's a sub menu where you have to move the flash drive to the top of the disk order to take priority over normal hard drives/SSDs.
 
AMIBIOS from 2009 should support USB boot. If you can't see it, try unlock hidden options with Shift+F1 / Alt+F1 / Ctrl+F1 while in the BIOS menu.

Suppose to be in Advanced > USB Configuration.

USB devices should appear in Boot > Removeable Drives.
 
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press it, find out.
yeah, ive had old systems be picky with usb drives that work fine in everything else. try another.
You're right.. I tried an old Lexar 4GB pen drive that has only DBAN in it. It boots..
I then flashed it (the Lexar 4gb) again with Ubuntu with YUMI, tried it. 1st time works, 2nd time failed again (like 3rd pic), 3rd time success again.

I still don't kno why precisely.. it could be either the problem with the pen-drive, the board, or just the USB connection.. The pen-drive that always fails was a few months old 16GB Toshiba (prolly fake one too i am not sure...)

Anyway to select USB boot, I have to press F9 during POST. If the mobo can read the USB fine, it will display the boot drive selection (I didn't snap it, but i think you'all got the point)

The problem is partially solved for now. I hope the board does not give me any other problems..
Thx for all who chimed in and especially pendragon1.
 
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I created the flash disks using YUMI (google it). The drives are still formatted using MBR partitioning.
 
Yeah, I know, already used it b4.
But it only supports a single bootable Live CD on a pendrive. I would hv to keep multiple, if I wanted to play with multiple OSes.

I already found the problem. It's not YUMI. It's either the flash-disk, or the board, or just the USB connections. Read my prev-posts.
 
You're right.. I tried an old Lexar 4GB pen drive that has only DBAN in it. It boots..
I then flashed it (the Lexar 4gb) again with Ubuntu with YUMI, tried it. 1st time works, 2nd time failed again (like 3rd pic), 3rd time success again.

Older systems get pretty picky when disks are slower to respond during init. Sometimes doing something dumb to make startup slower helps -- like setting it to probe for more hard drives or run the memory check more, etc.
 
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Older systems get pretty picky when disks are slower to respond during init. Sometimes doing something dumb to make startup slower helps -- like setting it to probe for more hard drives or run the memory check more, etc.
Yeah, I'm guessing it takes too long to initialize USB & the drive sometimes. Might get it to boot more reliably if you connect the drive directly to the onboard usb (rather than a hub), and/or disconnect other usb devices, or try other ports.
 
Older systems get pretty picky when disks are slower to respond during init. Sometimes doing something dumb to make startup slower helps -- like setting it to probe for more hard drives or run the memory check more, etc.
Ok. I'll take that in mind.. I already used the onboard USB on the back actually.. I'll see if I can slow down the BIOS startup maybe...
 
Ok. I'll take that in mind.. I already used the onboard USB on the back actually.. I'll see if I can slow down the BIOS startup maybe...
look for a boot or hdd delay, set it to 5 seconds.
 
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