Windows 8.1 64-bit Boot Problem

[funnybiscuit]

Hey there, thanks for checking the thread!

I helped out my friend installing a new MB and CPU in his system today. He has very little experience in it and so i decided to do it for him.
I installed a ASUS ROG Maximus VI Hero together with Intel-Core i7-4770K @ 3.5GHz. Everything went smoothly until we had to reinstall the OS. When we were done with installing the main drivers we had to reboot and suddenly it wouldn't boot up. Said that winload.exe was missing or something like that.
For some reason, whenever i disconnected the internet and rebooted it started up perfectly, but when i connected the internet and started it wouldn't boot having the same issue as before. What's even weirder is that i'd plug/unplug while it had the ROG logo on the screen before windows started to load so it could just be coincidence.

Here's the specs:

CPU: Intel Core i7-4770K @ 3.5 GHz
MOTHERBOARD: ASUS ROG Maximus VI Hero
GPU: Gigabyte GTX 660
RAM: A-DATA 16GB @1600MHz
SSD: A-DATA 128 GB
PSU: Cooler Master 500W
CASE: NZXT Phantom 410 (Mid-Tower)
OS: Windows 8.1 (32/64-bit)
and 2 more HDD's which I can't remember atm.

Possible Factors:

1) A-DATA 128 GB - The SATA cable wouldn't plug in properly (no click sound).

2) ASUS ROG Maximux VI Hero - When the issue first started to happen the MB wouldn't detect the SSD. Lastly i tried with the SATA cables that came with the MB an the times that i check (once or twice) it had detected it.

3) Windows 8.1 - It had first been activated on his previous MB but I called in support and they said that they'd help me out if i encountered activation problems so it has not been activated just yet, but could be possible that it's because of that.

I have tried finding a thread with the similar problem but had no luck. I hope someone here will help me out.

Thank you!

[Praz]

Hello

What is the model number of the A-DATA drive?

[funnybiscuit]

Praz wrote:
Hello

What is the model number of the A-DATA drive?

Hey! thanks for replying.
It's an S500 series model S599
hope it helps!

[Praz]

Hello

The S599 series drives used the SandForce 1200 controller. This controller is not compatible with the Haswell platform. You will need to use a different drive. Another option that may work is connecting the drive to one of the ASMedia SATA ports instead of the Intel SATA ports. This is not always a successful solution though.

[Tokens210]

Praz seems to know about that model HDD and after a quick google search i found a few results on windows forms stating that the Boot manager files are located within winload.exe so if thats the main boot drive that sounds like the issue there, so if switching it from intel to asmedia vise versa dont work, if you got another drive laying around give it a whirl, or better yet u said he has 2 additional HDD which ill assume are mechanical since u didnt say 3 ssd's so you may need to just use one of them as a boot and one as storage till he gets another SSD

also tho depending on what he wants to add that PSU may need and upgrade, 500w is enough to run the system fine, and most PSU's can actually do a little more then they state and it should be fine since gigabyte only suggests at least a 450w, but if that card can actually draw 400 which it probly wont ever, but if it did he'd be stressing it being as it would only have 50w to power the CPU, Ram, SSD, 2 mechanical HDD and the optical drive if ones attached plus anything he adds down the road, this doesnt have anything to do with the issue at hand, just a little tid bit of info as most ppl like to give themselves a little power head room for possible future upgrades

[funnybiscuit]

Praz wrote:
Hello

The S599 series drives used the SandForce 1200 controller. This controller is not compatible with the Haswell platform. You will need to use a different drive. Another option that may work is connecting the drive to one of the ASMedia SATA ports instead of the Intel SATA ports. This is not always a successful solution though.

Tokens210 wrote:
Praz seems to know about that model HDD and after a quick google search i found a few results on windows forms stating that the Boot manager files are located within winload.exe so if thats the main boot drive that sounds like the issue there, so if switching it from intel to asmedia vise versa dont work, if you got another drive laying around give it a whirl, or better yet u said he has 2 additional HDD which ill assume are mechanical since u didnt say 3 ssd's so you may need to just use one of them as a boot and one as storage till he gets another SSD

also tho depending on what he wants to add that PSU may need and upgrade, 500w is enough to run the system fine, and most PSU's can actually do a little more then they state and it should be fine since gigabyte only suggests at least a 450w, but if that card can actually draw 400 which it probly wont ever, but if it did he'd be stressing it being as it would only have 50w to power the CPU, Ram, SSD, 2 mechanical HDD and the optical drive if ones attached plus anything he adds down the road, this doesnt have anything to do with the issue at hand, just a little tid bit of info as most ppl like to give themselves a little power head room for possible future upgrades

Thanks for the information guys!
I did what you said, Tokens210, and installed on one of the HDD's he had that he wasn't actually utilizing and everything worked fine. We've got it all up and running. Installed the drivers, the programs etc. It's all good! 🙂

However, I am wondering if it's still possible to use the SSD as storage. It's still connected and since i could create a partition for it i'm guessing it's still usable?

[Tokens210]

technically yes but stability would be a possible problem, as praz said the drive isnt compatible and not being able to access it during boot was already a bad sign, if hes able to id say return it for a different one

if he cant return it and hes stuck with it and the PC is now seeing it while your in windows you could set it up but be sure he knows it could fail at literally any second like it was failing during boot


in reality tho the SSD being the faster youd want that for the boot/OS drive so trying to first return it for a model that would work with the board would be where i personally would start, be a pain since then ud need to re setup windows and all but tht would be the best way for him to have what he wants or atleast wanted with the least possible problems

PS. Good to hear you got it going and everythings good so far, tell your friend to enjoy his new lil beast, but also if he has upgrades planned to re-look at his PSU to ensure he doesnt at somepoint run into an issue due to lack of power (and when i say lil beast i mean lil beast lol especially for his first pc build, im assuming hes into games and his system meets the Recommended requirements for the Thief remake which is wild cause i dont think i seen a game before it with such specific recommended parts lol)

[funnybiscuit]

Tokens210 wrote:
technically yes but stability would be a possible problem, as praz said the drive isnt compatible and not being able to access it during boot was already a bad sign, if hes able to id say return it for a different one

if he cant return it and hes stuck with it and the PC is now seeing it while your in windows you could set it up but be sure he knows it could fail at literally any second like it was failing during boot


in reality tho the SSD being the faster youd want that for the boot/OS drive so trying to first return it for a model that would work with the board would be where i personally would start, be a pain since then ud need to re setup windows and all but tht would be the best way for him to have what he wants or atleast wanted with the least possible problems

PS. Good to hear you got it going and everythings good so far, tell your friend to enjoy his new lil beast, but also if he has upgrades planned to re-look at his PSU to ensure he doesnt at somepoint run into an issue due to lack of power (and when i say lil beast i mean lil beast lol especially for his first pc build, im assuming hes into games and his system meets the Recommended requirements for the Thief remake which is wild cause i dont think i seen a game before it with such specific recommended parts lol)

What SSD would you suggest then? Is the Samsung 840 the new model that's compatible with Haswell?

Indeed it was a lil beast, still is a little bit but he's gonna be getting GTX 780 soon 😉 won't be lil anymore haha.
Do you think he'll need to upgrade his PSU then?

[Tokens210]

I've seen many ppl using and recommending the evo so I'd say that should be fine but u can always Google the motherboard + the ssd and see what others with the same setup say

As for the PSU, like I was saying currently should he fine but if he does wanna upgrade the card I'd look at it, hell have to have any other upgrade available in his mind, cause you gotta keep in mind the PSU powers everything, its one of our main major PC parts, you know powers CPU, GPU, ram, ssd, HDD, optical drives, any additionalcards like sound cards or TV tuner cards, he he ever planned on sli I'd say deff. Power upgrade, either way I'd probly say it if he got the 780, the PSU underpowering things can actually damage them overtime so being as a card like the 780 probly around $400-500 and you can get a decent quality even 1000w (which he shouldn't really need with his current setup but even this ones are only high $100- low $200s

So I'd say it be something he'd want, especially also if he has over clock plans with the CPU, GPU and ram

And as most do he can got about 100-200watts above what he believes he'd need and that way technically he shouldn't need to worry on upgrades, of course that depends mostly on upgrades and their requirements but you get what I'm saying I hope lol

Better to go a Lil higher now then to run into uh oh something don't work anymore and tracing it back to the psu, then he'd need a new PSU and whatever broke