GA-880GM-UD2H Rev v 1.4 Will not boot from SATA DVD-RAM drive.

[mcfeeeb]

I picked this board because of the reviews. I am regretting that. I have solved an issue with not having onboard video, but now I have an issue with it not wanting to boot from CD/DVD drive. the system is as follows:

Motherboard:
GA-880GM-UD2H Rev v 1.4 Bios Ver. F8
10-11-201- RS880-SB710-7A66BGOHC-00

RAM:
Crucial BL25664BA1339 Ballistix Sport Desktop Memory Module - 2GB, PC3-10600, DDR3-1333MHz, CL9, Non-ECC, Unbuffered
7863232K OK+512K shared

Processor:
AMD Phenom II X4 805
CPUID: 00100F42 PATCH ID: 00C6>

DVDRAM DRIVE: HL-DT-ST DVDRAM CH41N MN01

HARD DRIVE: WDC-WD10EADS-22M2BO 01-00A01

PREVIOUS FIX FOR NO VIDEO WAS TO ENTER BIOS AND RESET TO FACTORY SETTINGS AND ADJUST RAM VOLTAGE TO 1.5V.

I have searched the forums and tried many solutions including setting the SATA2 to IDE.

HDD is on SATA2_0
DVD is on SATA2_4

Bios reports the following:

IDE Channel 0 Mas- None
                       0 Sla- None
                       1 Mas- HL-DT-ST DVDRAM CH41
                       1 Sla - None
                       2 Mas - WDC-WD10EADS-22M
                       2 Sla - None
                       3 Mas - None
                       3 Sla - None

Again, Hard drive and dvd ram are new and tested. MOBO is new and tested. RAM are new and tested with the most current Ver. of MEMTEST 4.0. Media is good and will load on other systems.

The issue is that the system will not boot from the DVD drive. whether I set it boot to DVD first or let it try and boot on its own I get the same error: Loading Operating System... Boot from CD/DVD: and nothing works after that.

Thank you in Advance,

Ed

[absic]

Hi there,

as a process of elimination have you tried to boot from the DVD without the hard drive attached to the system? If you try this it will show if the problem is with the DVD or the hard drive. Your choice of a "green" drive could be the issue and there have been a lot of people trying to install the OS onto these makes of hard drives and having problems.

I have also had this happen to me on an odd occasion or two when not using a "green" HDD and the way I got around it was to shutdown with the Windows Installation disk in the drive to restart the PC and press F12 to go to the BOOT Menu and then select the DVD/CD drive there.

[mcfeeeb]

absic,
Thank you for the quick response. I have tried to boot without the HDD. I have also tried pulling the DVDRAM drive and putting it in another machine. It works fine. I have used this type HDD drive in other computers with no trouble. I have formatted this perticular drive in another system and booted from it, reformatted  and tried it again in this system.
This has been very frustrating.

PS all my media boots in other systems. (Windows as well as Linux)

Ed

[absic]

I'm at a loss to explain why you are having problems booting from the DVD drive although, once again, I have faced this problem myself and found I had to use a different DVD Drive to install from, don't ask me why because I really don't know.

After that, I stopped using the DVD for installing any OS and switched to installing from a USB Pendrive. Have you tried this? if you're not sure about this method there is a walk-through available here: http://www.maximumpc.com/article/howtos/how_install_windows_7_usb_key it might be worthwhile giving it a go and seeing if that helps get you over this hurdle.

[mcfeeeb]

Absic,
I have been able to start the install process. However I am asked for SATA drivers. I have gone to Gigabyte for the most
up to date drivers and extracted them onto a jump drive. Install is telling me that none of the drivers apply to my hardware.
I have tried browsing to the drivers on the jump drive and to each driver in the list. Still no joy.
Any ideas?

Thanks in Advance,

Ed

[Dark Mantis]

Hi

I am with absic on this one and suspect that a different optical drive would work where this one doesn't. Again I don't know why this happens but I have had similar experiences on the odd occasion.

I would suspect that the drivers that you downloaded are the wrong ones. Maybe for a different revision of your motherboard or even a different board altogether.

[mcfeeeb]

DM,
I have verified the Ver. # on both the board and the Bios. The optical drive is now working with help from Gigabyte Customer support.
(settings not right in BIOS). As far as I can tell the SATA drivers are the same for all versions of this board on Gigabyte's website. Took a shot in the dark and went to AMD's website for their SATA drivers but they are .exe and can not be seen by windows during preinstall.

This is the error I'm getting:

"To continue installation, use the load driver option to install 32-bit and signed 64 bit drivers. Installing an unsigned 64-bit device driver is not supported and might result in an unstable windows installation."

Thanks In Advance,

Ed

[absic]

Hi Ed,

I know this may be hard to get your head around but when I have encountered this problem the only way I got Windows to install was to use a different DVD Drive or via a USB Install. In fact, if I remember correctly I had to install the OS off of an old IDE DVD Drive that I had knocking around, the first time I faced it.

For a USB install you need a 4GB USB Pendrive and I have found this method to be quicker and much more reliable than trying to install from the Windows Disk and is the only method I use nowadays. IF you don't want to do this then try and get hold of a different DVD Drive (maybe one from a different PC that you have) just to see if that helps.

Another thing is, did you download the Windows image and burn it yourself or is it an actual Microsoft Disk? If you have downloaded the image and burnt it yourself, try re-burning the image at the slowest speed possible. I have had issues with burning disks on one machine and then trying to run them on a different one and quite often the problem comes down to this.

[Dark Mantis]

Yes, very good points that absic makes there and ones most of us have come across before. It is certainly easier to use a USB pendrive for installation.
+1

[mcfeeeb]

Absic, DM,
Thank you both for your time and answers. I have tried using a different CD/DVD drive I've even tried to use a IDE drive both hard and rom. The Media I have is a combo disk OEM install of both 32 and 64 bit of all Vista Versions. I've tried to load it slipstream before on a thumb drive with little success. I have an install thumb drive for Linux that works flawlessly but that does little good here.
I have been working with Gigabyte support on this issue as well. I am currently reformatting a smaller SATA drive from another vendor to  see if it will load that way, then ghost it to the Green Drive. I'm starting to think that may be the crux of the issue. Only time will tell.

Thanks,

Ed

[mcfeeeb]

Here the final solution,
I got the OS to load onto the 250 GB and running stable. Tried to do a Ghost backup and reload with no joy still could not see the 1TB. Gigabyte reported that they have not had any trouble with WD Green drivers when asked.
Got out the old DBAN disk and reformatted the drive for the 5th time and the OS saw the drive.
Retried the the ghost image and was able to load it and stabilize it. Still not sure why it took 5 formats to clear the drive but Hey it works now.
Please mark this thread as closed and thank you both.

Ed

[absic]

Hi Ed,

pleased you managed to get it sorted out even if it did take FIVE formats! 

Although Gigabyte are correct and there shouldn't really be a problem installing the OS onto a "green" HDD I have learnt the hard way not to go down this path but I am sure there will be plenty of others that do decide to do this and your experience could well help others faced with a similar issue.