Delaying at "Loading Operating System..." (P67A-UD3 with Windows 7 64bit)

[Slider]

I thought I would mention that you can switch back and forth between IDE, ACHI, and RAID modes by first making a small registry change to allow Windows 7 to load the appropriate driver during the next boot.  You need to make the registry change before making the BIOS change.

The easiest way to do this is to use Microsoft's "Fix it" utility that can be downloaded and/or installed from Microsoft's knowledge base article KB922976 here: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/922976

Once you run Microsoft's IDE/ACHI/RAID fix it utility, the operating system will be configured to allow ALL three of these drivers to load.  From now on you can just use the BIOS to switch between IDE, ACHI and RAID modes and when you boot the system it will automatically install the correct driver.

Once you have the system up and running in either ACHI or RAID mode you should then re-install the Intel "inf" update and if using RAID mode also install the Intel SATA Raid driver.  These can be found either on your Gigabyte installation CD or for newer versions from the Gigabyte web site (or for the very latest versions from the Intel download pages, although the Intel ones won't likely have been specifically tested with your particular motherboard).  Note you only need to install the drivers once.  As long as you don't uninstall them you can just change the BIOS setting and the correct installed driver will load when the system is booted.  If you do not install the appropriate Intel ACHI or RAID driver, Windows 7 will use a generic Microsoft ACHI (or IDE) driver that should work fine, but won't necessarily take advantage of all of the optimized hardware features.

One final note:  The Intel inf update by default will only make available to the operating system the Intel chipset drivers.  It does not actually tell the operating system to install them and Windows will only install the Intel drivers if it thinks the current driver is not ideal (often it updates the driver during the next boot, but just as often the generic Microsoft driver remains in use indefinitely).  To tell the operating system to do an overall evaluation of all of the Intel chipset drivers and install the best one you need to run the Intel inf executable with the "-overall" command flag.

To do this you need to:

• Open an command prompt as Administrator (by pressing "Ctrl-Esc", typing "cmd" and then pressing Ctrl-Shift-Enter)
• Change directory to where the Intel inf file(s) are located (by typing "cd \<path where the inf file(s) are>"
• Run the inf updater with the "-overall" switch (by typing "setup -overall" or "infinst_autol -overall"

[Bradleyo]

I installed windows 7 64 bit onto the hd and it seems to work fine, the only problem is that when i turn on or restart my computer, it hangs at the "Loading operating system..." screen for about 20-30 seconds.

It sounds like the system is searching all your drives for your OS... I had it do the same thing when I first built the system... but it was because it wasn't finding the drive.  Apparently my 1st SATA3 port is not working- so once I put it on the second SATA3 port it worked fine.  You may want to make sure all your drives are being recognized at the ACHI bios load sequence where it briefly shows the attached drives, if some are not recognized, that could be your problem; the system may sense that something is plugged in, but not able to read from it.  Just an idea.

[Dark Mantis]

Have you actually disabled your floppy drive in the BIOS?

[helloworld]

Well my computer is prebuilt, it has 1 year warranty, so i havn't even opened the case yet. The company that i bought from test the computers for 24 hours before sending them out.. yeah right.. -.-

Its working perfectly with IDE, and i read that theres no performance differences between ide and ahci.

But i suppose next time i need a fresh install (i often do), i'll try switching the sata port and try AHCI mode again. thanks for your help.

and ya floppy disc is disabled

[Dark Mantis]

You don't have to wait to change from IDE to AHCI mode, just edit the registry first.

1.Exit all Windows-based programs.

2.Click Start, type regedit in the Start Search box, and then press ENTER.

3.If you receive the User Account Control dialog box, click Continue.

4.Locate and then click the following registry subkey:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESystemCurrentControlSetServicesMsahci

5.In the right pane, right-click Start in the Name column, and then click Modify.

6.In the Value data box, type 0, and then click OK.

7.On the File menu, click Exit to close Registry Editor.

After this you’ll have to restart your computer, go to BIOS and enable AHCI. When you log in to Windows again, you’ll notice the installation of drivers for AHCI. Another restart will be required to finish the driver installation.

[helloworld]

Update: Woke up today and turned on the computer.. it comes on for around 5 seconds then turns itself off, turns itself back on.. wow this computer loves loops. Anyway i took it back to get repaired -.-

[Dark Mantis]

Sounds to me like a CPU overheat safety shutdown.

[helloworld]

So the CPU is overheating? ASWELL as it won't boot properly with AHCI, am I that unlucky? you sure these problems aint caused by the same things?

[Dark Mantis]

Well at the moment it is pure conjecture as you don't have the system to be able to check anything. Hopefully when you get it back it will be working alright but if not it is one thing to check. Often it is caused by the heatsink coming loose on one of the legs, and can be sorted out in a couple of minutes.

[Dalamar]

I kinda doubt it's cpu overheating (at stock speeds even, despite that I get reasonable temps at ~4ghz) as I had that reboot loop as well... ironically enough it happened around the time when I tried switching between IDE/AHCI.

When AHCI is on, it does take a lot longer to boot.

[Dark Mantis]

Yes AHCI is not the best solution for everyone. It may be slightly faster than IDE but it always seems less stable in some systems.

[helloworld]

When i phoned today they told me they still can't figure out whats wrong with it..

I'm sure the cpu is fine because the night before it stopped turning on all together, I was playing GTA IV on full graphics, while recording with fraps at around 720p, i played for atleast 2 hours.. with absolutely no problems, around 60FPS, and around 30-40 while recording.

Found the link to the computer i bought http://www.aria.co.uk/Systems/Gaming+Range/Titan/Anarchy+GTX+P67+Gaming+PC+?productId=43228
Actually got for 649, its gone up :O

[Dark Mantis]

I kinda doubt it's cpu overheating (at stock speeds even, despite that I get reasonable temps at ~4ghz) as I had that reboot loop as well... ironically enough it happened around the time when I tried switching between IDE/AHCI.

When AHCI is on, it does take a lot longer to boot.

Maybe it sounds obvious but are you aware that you can't just switch  from IDE to AHCI without first making some changes in the registry ?

[Dalamar]

I kinda doubt it's cpu overheating (at stock speeds even, despite that I get reasonable temps at ~4ghz) as I had that reboot loop as well... ironically enough it happened around the time when I tried switching between IDE/AHCI.

When AHCI is on, it does take a lot longer to boot.

Maybe it sounds obvious but are you aware that you can't just switch  from IDE to AHCI without first making some changes in the registry ?

I enabled AHCI in the registry before doing it, didn't realize boards still defaulted to IDE when I installed Windows =/
But yeah, I have to wait 10 seconds longer to boot with AHCI on. Is it because of my SATA3 drive (1002FAEX), the bios, what? It certainly seems like one of the drives powers on later than the other with AHCI enabled.

[Dark Mantis]

The only answer that springs to mind is that the BIOS has to load the AHCI drivers as well.