My computer won't boot.

[Exor18]

Hello everyone. I have been working on my computer trying to get it boot for 8-10 hours. I have pretty much done things I knew to fix this but none of them work. I googled and can't find answer or they didn't work for me. Also note that all the OS installers are on USB Flash Drives.

I have Kingston SSD and 1TB HDD.

I decided to use Windows 10 on the SSD to play around with it. 1tb had a parition for hackintosh and I regretted because it messed up boot loader so bad. It happened because I removed OSX partition. So I decided to wait till 2 new SSD arrive.

Ever since I have been having trouble to get Windows 8.1 back on the Kingston SSD and even tried on 2 newly SSD that I got yesterday, Samsung 850 Pro 256GB and 128GB. Windows simply refuse to install due to "We couldn't create a new partition." Or a black screen with a blinking underscore.

When it said failed to create a partition, I had to restart and try again. I noticed it did create partitions needed to install Windows. I go ahead and use that then it worked but seems extremely slow. Slower than normal HDD.

Seems like I managed to get Windows 8.1 installed but it just don't feel right. I have to manually boot to Windows 8.1 by using "Windows Boot Manager." I don't even know that I have never seen it before.

Any help and suggestion are appreciated.

I really wanted to give up but I am a stubborn guy and try to fix this as far as my knowledge can take me to.

Thank you in advance.

 

[Exor18]

Notice something?

 

[Tawnos]

Notice something?

http://i.imgur.com/WznFJMf.jpg[IMG][/QUOTE]

A massive picture size?

What's your boot order in bios? Have you tried disabling the other drive and doing a repair install on the SSD?

 

[primetime]

unplug all the drives you dont need at the moment.....set you bios to load off the flash drive then load win onto the ssd you bought....report back if you have an issues...make sure the drive settings in the bios are at least AHCI mode versus ide and that should speed things up as well.....you also might want to try different sata ports on the off chance one of them is faster than the others....win 10 takes about 5 min tops to install and lastly make sure your usbs are set to highest speed as well

regarding your pic....yea its obviously not reporting the correct cpu speedmay be worth clearing the cmos before you try installing again....something is acting weird

 

[Exor18]

A massive picture size?

What's your boot order in bios? Have you tried disabling the other drive and doing a repair install on the SSD?

Sorry about the massive pic size.

The boot order by default is CD/DVD > SSD > USB Floppy > USB CD/DVD > USB Hard Drive > USB KEY > Network > UEFI. I have unplugged all SSD except Samsung 850 Pro 256GB where I want to install Windows 8.1 on. I boot USB by using boot menu (F7) for my mobo.

unplug all the drives you dont need at the moment.....set you bios to load off the flash drive then load win onto the ssd you bought....report back if you have an issues...make sure the drive settings in the bios are at least AHCI mode versus ide and that should speed things up as well.....you also might want to try different sata ports on the off chance one of them is faster than the others....win 10 takes about 5 min tops to install and lastly make sure your usbs are set to highest speed as well

regarding your pic....yea its obviously not reporting the correct cpu speedmay be worth clearing the cmos before you try installing again....something is acting weird

Yes I have unplugged all drives except Samsung 850 Pro 256GB where I want to install Windows 8.1 on.

The problem with USB Flash Drive that I am having is that if it tries to boot USB directly without UEFI it will show blinking underscore and if boot USB with UEFI it will boot normally but at partition it either fail to create partition or fail to format.

The SATA mode is already set to AHCI.

I have cleared CMOS by removing battery and unplug power supply's power cord then leave it for 15 mins then put battery back in and plug in the power cord. Same problem.

 

[primetime]

is it possible you have a bad iso on your flash drive or a weird setting in the bios set wrong....i don't personally have a UEFI bios but i have done customers pc's without any difficulty
i can only think of those 2 possibility aside form a bad ssd drive which i think is extremely remote. based on all the facts so far im thinking your mb may have issues that warrant rma.
Again try different sata ports and see if possibly you get different results....also might try removing everything except one stick of ram, cpu, graphics card, and power supply and go from there. Are you running the latest bios on your motherboard? Also for shits and giggles you might try win 10 tech preview just to rules out a bad iso....not to mention its actually a very nice os anyway

 

[arkamw]

NM - you've seen it.

 

[Tawnos]

Sorry about the massive pic size.

The boot order by default is CD/DVD > SSD > USB Floppy > USB CD/DVD > USB Hard Drive > USB KEY > Network > UEFI. I have unplugged all SSD except Samsung 850 Pro 256GB where I want to install Windows 8.1 on. I boot USB by using boot menu (F7) for my mobo.

Is your BIOS up to date?

The problem with USB Flash Drive that I am having is that if it tries to boot USB directly without UEFI it will show blinking underscore and if boot USB with UEFI it will boot normally but at partition it either fail to create partition or fail to format.

I have cleared CMOS by removing battery and unplug power supply's power cord then leave it for 15 mins then put battery back in and plug in the power cord. Same problem.

Try clearing using the button rather than just battery removal?

Move the USB Key to first boot device. If that doesn't work, do you have secureboot enabled? You could try disabling it and see if the usb will boot directly.

Finally, should that fail, boot from UEFI mode, and during windows setup, press shift f10 to open a command prompt. Run diskpart, list disk, select disk x (where x is the ssd), clean, convert mbr, exit. Then continue the install (basically, delete all partitions and convert to MBR mode).

 

[Tawnos]

Or vice versa, might need to convert to GPT: http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dn336946.aspx

 

[Exor18]

Hello everyone, I found the problem and it was a bad sata cable. I tried Sata 1 instead of Sata 0 and it worked as it is suppose to. I start to ponder and replace the sata cable on Sata 0 and voila it's working.

I have never thought of sata cable because in 13 years of computer experience, I have never encountered a bad sata cable.

All is well now. I am currently using only 256GB SSD for now. I bought 2 sata cables and realized that they are so LONG. I will exchange them for smaller length and buy one more sata cable to replace the broke one.

Thanks all for your help!

 

[primetime]

you also might want to try different sata ports on the off chance one of them is faster than the others.

well sounds like i was pretty close to the solution...glad you got it figured out

 

[Exor18]

Unfortunately, I ordered 5 sata cable from Newegg and apparently all of them are bad because using them will cause format error with error code: "0x80070057."

All 5 sata cable that I ordered encountered this meanwhile my old sata cable that I got from EVGA's motherboard (EVGA Z97 Stinger Core3D) works perfectly although one sata cable died so I am using only one sata cable with 2 ssd and a HDD non-running because of no sata cable. I am now afraid of buying different kind of sata cables because they might not work too.

The sata cables from EVGA's motherboard marked "HITTO" on the cable. That one worked perfectly.

Any idea?

 

[B00nie]

Unfortunately, I ordered 5 sata cable from Newegg and apparently all of them are bad because using them will cause format error with error code: "0x80070057."

All 5 sata cable that I ordered encountered this meanwhile my old sata cable that I got from EVGA's motherboard (EVGA Z97 Stinger Core3D) works perfectly although one sata cable died so I am using only one sata cable with 2 ssd and a HDD non-running because of no sata cable. I am now afraid of buying different kind of sata cables because they might not work too.

The sata cables from EVGA's motherboard marked "HITTO" on the cable. That one worked perfectly.

Any idea?

Or more likely your motherboard sata controller died and no cable works using the other slots. It's extremely uncommon to have 1 dead sata able let alone 5 brand new ones. Your old cable has a suitable name though. HITTO in finnish means literally DAMN.

 

[*The*Dark*Lord*]

25GHz on that 4790K? I'll give you $500 right now

 

[Exor18]

Or more likely your motherboard sata controller died and no cable works using the other slots. It's extremely uncommon to have 1 dead sata able let alone 5 brand new ones. Your old cable has a suitable name though. HITTO in finnish means literally DAMN.

I have tested all Sata ports and result was same except the old sata cable that works perfectly on all Sata ports. I am planning to test one of my SSD on my mom's computer and see if the new sata cable works well, if it does then it's most likely sata controller is bad on mobo like you said.

I didn't know HITTO means "Damn" in Finnish. =O

25GHz on that 4790K? I'll give you $500 right now

Latest bios 1.0.8 fixed that.



I also would like to add something that I noticed that CTRL+ALT+DEL and Login screen and such will show missing letters like this:

 

[B00nie]

I have tested all Sata ports and result was same except the old sata cable that works perfectly on all Sata ports. I am planning to test one of my SSD on my mom's computer and see if the new sata cable works well, if it does then it's most likely sata controller is bad on mobo like you said.

I didn't know HITTO means "Damn" in Finnish. =O


Latest bios 1.0.8 fixed that.



I also would like to add something that I noticed that CTRL+ALT+DEL and Login screen and such will show missing letters like this:

Testing different ports only means the ports are not broken. Untill you manage to get more than 1 simultaneous sata working you can't rule out a controller problem.

Also missing letters in screens point out to a memory or i/o problem. If you continue using your computer your OS will corrupt beyond repair most likely.

Time to get a new motherboard!

Oh and I noticed you overclock. Before you try _anything_ else. Put your speeds back to stock and your voltages to stock.