SOLVED System hang after POST and before OS boot

[kakgaming]

Okay, sorry for the long wait in reply but I got sick and thing that needed attention seemed to catch up with me. When I installed windows I completely disconnected the original hdd so that it would have the boot record on the ssd. Then I did something stupid with the saved files I was keeping on the hdd which deleted them. But I got them back. Also from your advice recently it seems like you think that the problem started when I installed the new windows and the ssd but I may be wrong it's known to happen quite often and I'm sorry if that is the case.

 

[Johan45]

Welcome back, hope you're feeling better. After rereading your posts you claimed that the problem started before the new Win install on the SSD. That was where we left off. Have you verified your drive placement and settings on the mobo and in the BIOS.

 

[trents]

It sounds like he has one of those SSD's that after use become the cause of windows hangs and often reboots when the problem gets bad enough and are not recognized by the bios well without booting a few times; one after the other. Eventually the SSD fails fully.
RGone...

But it sounds like in post #7 he said it hangs just the same when a conventional HDD is connect instead of the SD.

 

[RGone]

You did not say that to begin with and logically would change the whole troubleshooting procedure for sure since that means generally the problem is not the drives at all.

Yes he finally made it clear the problem came before he put the SSD in and that he had changed ports and sata cables. So I told him back on the other page that it was very unlikely a drive problem at all.
RGone...

 

[Johan45]

So at this point I'd test the ram to see if it's faulting out. Try one stick at a time and in different slots to check the ram and ram slots, could be either. How old is the PSU ?

 

[Enablingwolf]

So at this point I'd test the ram to see if it's faulting out. Try one stick at a time and in different slots to check the ram and ram slots, could be either. How old is the PSU ?

Easy test before that. Is to boot a Linux LiveImage.


Watching the live boot screen shows a lot of information. .. If does not boot. I suspect a faulted controller.

Why I suspect:

The board does and will do a very quick mem check. At least one slot works. So it does load the basic hardware. (We haven't had visible BIOS memory checks in a long time now.) - It attempts to load the controller.

The EPROM firmware of the controller, should be looking for specific sectors on the drives. They are not finding it, and hanging. It should fault and fail, giving a code. Which it is not doing.
At this point, there is no RAM involved. Nothing off the drives are presented to the address space for random access hardware. Soon as the drives are detected. It should start strapping into RAM, off the drives. If it can't load into any RAM. It is not passing the controller part.

I would try a Live CD, better yet, USB loading.

 

[jmdixon85]

Probably totally unrelated but I have a Gigabyte board that does exactly the same thing.

If I remember correctly it only happened when the secondary SATA controller (not the Intel chipset SATA ports) was set to anything but IDE mode, even with no drives attached. I think its a jmicron controller. Not sure.

Probably not the same problem but worth a mention since the symptoms are exactly the same.

 

[RGone]

Well the OP is being as clear as I think he can be in trying to describe the exact spot in the boot process where he sees the long delay.

It appears he is describing the place just before the windows message comes on the screen that says Microsoft Windows and the colored flags come into view. At least that is where I think he is referring to. At that point my board has just flashed a _ cursor at the top left of the monitor and has already found my drives and spelled out the Usb stuff like mouse and keyboard and the Asrock AMI bios has code 99 for completed with bios booting process and has handed off to windows boot.

Linux on external media sounds like a good idea for sure. I am right at the point of shooting the mobo. I think it has become a booting traitor.
RGone...

 

[trents]

Yeah, using one of the self-booting Linux "live" distros is a great idea as it would eliminate the HDD as the cause of the boot problems. And yes, if the SATA mode is was originally IDE or RAID when the drive was installed then setting it to AHCI later will cause boot failure as described.

 

[RGone]

Yeah, using one of the self-booting Linux "live" distros is a great idea as it would eliminate the HDD as the cause of the boot problems. And yes, if the SATA mode is was originally IDE or RAID when the drive was installed then setting it to AHCI later will cause boot failure as described.

Well it depends on "just" where he is seeing the boot failure. I just dealt with an SSD sent to me loaded with Win 7 in IDE mode not AHCI as I expected and it would display the starting windows and the flags and then a quick BSOD and reboot. I swapped to IDE mode and it booted fine. Later changed to AHCI mode after reg hack and all is good. So if it has BSOD it had to get almost into windows and the OP does not sound as if he gets that far.

His problem of staying at one spot for minutes and then booting finally and no issue seen within windows seldom ever is seen.

I no longer believe there is any problem with the drives. I bet he could test the HDD and the SSD in another computer and if the other computer has drive mode set correctly for the O/S as installed, the drive would boot immediately.

I think the south bridge on the mobo is failing.

However he is not getting back to us much and we are all scratching our heads trying to guess a fix for him and we are not gettting much feedback. Well he had the issue before the SSD we finally found out so take the SSD out of the equation and leave it out. Try Linux live CD/Usb and if the live Linux fails then he needs to RMA the mobo most likely. Without him having other working system to try the dirves in we are running out of testing from a distance.
RGone...

 

[trents]

Guess I should have read the OP description more carefully. Didn't realize it was just a delay in the boot rather than boot failure. Drives are okay, then. Something else is wrong and you may be right about the SB. Never thought of a SB going bad but I guess they do.

 

[theELVISCERATOR]

I got that same delay on my current rig, after putting in this new MEMORY until I got the bios settings sorted...a cursor inbetween bios screens that was hanging...

check your VCIOO voltages bump them a bit, check timings and ram with memtest.

 

[kakgaming]

Johan45: I just checked my SSD and HDD and the ssd is in port 1 and the hdd is in port 5.
RGone: Yes your correct in your idea of where I was trying to explain the hang time.

It appears he is describing the place just before the windows message comes on the screen that says Microsoft Windows and the colored flags come into view. At least that is where I think he is referring to. At that point my board has just flashed a _ cursor at the top left of the monitor and has already found my drives and spelled out the Usb stuff like mouse and keyboard and the Asrock AMI bios has code 99 for completed with bios booting process and has handed off to windows boot.

jmdixon85: If I remember correctly I disabled the jmicron sata controller because it was causing the bios to reload several time and it was related to raid I think which I don't have set up.

I'll try the Live linux boot. After the live linux boot I'll test the memory just in case and I'll relook at the jmicron sata controller in the bios to see if that would cause this problem but last time I looked at it I think it was raid related which I don't have set up. Sorry for the confusion and confusing replies.

 

[RGone]

If you are not using the JMicron controller then disable the thing.
RGone...

 

[kakgaming]

Yep, I have disabled the JMicron thing. Also I just booted from my usb linux and it booted fine other than the hang between post and os boot. Linux seemed to boot fine though I barely know what I'm doing with Linux so I may have missed something. I'll test the ram tomorrow it's a bit late to start that.

 

[RGone]

Case: Raygo R12-40887 R86 Mid Tower ATX Case | Mobo: ASUS M5A99X EVO AMD 990X AM3+ Motherboard | CPU: AMD FD8120FRGUBOX FX-8120 Processor | GPU: EVGA GeForce GTX 480EVGA GeForce GTX 480 | HardD Drive: Seagate 1TB LP Serial ATA HD 5900/32MB/SATA-3G for files and SSD 90G|MUSHKIN MKNSSDCR90GB SATA6G for the OS | Ram: Crucial Ballistix 16gb DDR3-1333 1.5v | OS: Windows 7 Professional

An important unit is the power supply. I don't see it do I?

 

[Johan45]

Sounds like a possible driver conflict. Do you have an add in sound card? When you installed the Vid drivers did you do an express install. Nvidia bundles the 3D and sound drivers. If you use the hdmi cable it will want to run the sound driver. So if you have external speakers I would uninstall the video drivers and sweep the system do a reinstall in custom mode and only install the display driver and physix. Or vice versa with the chipset if you get your sound through the monitor.

 

[kakgaming]

Sorry, the PSU is an Ultra X-4 850 watt ATX power supply.

I do not have another sound card other than the internal one. I did do the express install for the Nvidia drivers. I don't use the hdmi port because my monitor has only dvi and vga ports. If you still think it's the drivers I'll try that.

 

[vanibanez]

Is the RAID option enabled in the BIOS? I know my Gigaybyte board boot time slowed a lot because it would keep looking for a RAID setup that didn't exist. Once I disabled the RAID options in the BIOS everything was fine.

 

[kakgaming]

The Raid option is not enabled. Having spent some time setting up the ssd I made sure that I had no raid options enabled when I don't have a raid setup. Thanks though.