how can BIOS boot priority settings change all by itself??

I have been installing a PC for someone, mainboard Asus P5L-VM 1394.
New hard drive
http://www.mycom.nl/opslag/interne-h...p-hdd-500gb-35

I installed Windows XPSP3, all hardware drivers and applications.

Problem is this: I did all settings in the BIOS, SAVED them before exiting
the BIOS and the PC boots fine.
Now the next time I try to boot the system I sometimes get a message on a
black screen: 'wrong drive. reboot from the system drive.' When I now enter
the BIOS settings, I see the WRONG hard disk as booting priority. So I
choose the right drive again, save and exit BIOS. Now I can boot again
succesfully (for the time being).

Why is this setting not retained? I never heard of BIOS settings changing
all by themselves anyhow...
CMOS battery is only 4 months old and date & time and other settings still
OK.



--


|\ /|
| \/ |@rk
\../
\/os

Verify that the SATA cables are of the locking type, and the motherboard
has matching locking sockets. I have had non-locking cables come
partially loose from vibration causing problems like you are having.
Had one customer who usually dropped textbooks on his desk and later the
PC would refuse to reboot due to what I found to be loose cables.
Second time I had replacement cables ready and put locking cables on his
machine.

A loose drive cable on any drive, be it a CD/DVD, SATA or IDE hard drive
can trigger a reconfiguration on many motherboards making what you
describe happen. Same for a boot drive that is just on the edge of
being too "slow" to respond during a power-up reboot sequence.

A weak power supply might not be getting the drive up to speed fast
enough before the motherboard times out. See if it has any method of
waiting for a slow drive.

Some controllers will power on the drives sequentially and force the
motherboard to wait until all drives are up to speed before allowing the
motherboard to proceed with the boot. The option also helps keep the
power-on surge current under control if you have say 4 drives attached
to a board or 3rd party SATA card.

On some motherboards it can make a difference which SATA port you plug
the boot drive into. The manufacturers claim not but stranger bugs have
made it out into the market. So if you have the option, try another
SATA port for the boot drive.

A weak data block on the boot drive that the motherboard is having
problems reading at times may cause this. When you formatted the drive
the first time did you do the longer slow format or just the quick
format. The slower method is usually preferred for an install as it can
look for problem sectors or blocks and try to add them to the bad block
section so they later get skipped for actual data use. If all you have
done is the fast format, I hate to suggest it, but a reformat using the
slow method may be needed and then a reload.

Last resort on my list of things to try would be a reloading of the
motherboard BIOS using what ever "safe" method the manufacturer offers.
Much like an upgrade but with the latest version even if that is what
is already on the motherboard.

On 9/22/2014 10:56 AM, Linea Recta wrote:
I have been installing a PC for someone, mainboard Asus P5L-VM 1394.
New hard drive
http://www.mycom.nl/opslag/interne-h...p-hdd-500gb-35


I installed Windows XPSP3, all hardware drivers and applications.

Problem is this: I did all settings in the BIOS, SAVED them before
exiting the BIOS and the PC boots fine.
Now the next time I try to boot the system I sometimes get a message on
a black screen: 'wrong drive. reboot from the system drive.' When I now
enter the BIOS settings, I see the WRONG hard disk as booting priority.
So I choose the right drive again, save and exit BIOS. Now I can boot
again succesfully (for the time being).

Why is this setting not retained? I never heard of BIOS settings
changing all by themselves anyhow...
CMOS battery is only 4 months old and date & time and other settings
still OK.

"Wolf K" schreef in bericht
...
On 2014-09-22 11:56 AM, Linea Recta wrote:
I have been installing a PC for someone, mainboard Asus P5L-VM 1394.
New hard drive
http://www.mycom.nl/opslag/interne-h...p-hdd-500gb-35


I installed Windows XPSP3, all hardware drivers and applications.

Problem is this: I did all settings in the BIOS, SAVED them before
exiting the BIOS and the PC boots fine.
Now the next time I try to boot the system I sometimes get a message on
a black screen: 'wrong drive. reboot from the system drive.' When I now
enter the BIOS settings, I see the WRONG hard disk as booting priority.
So I choose the right drive again, save and exit BIOS. Now I can boot
again succesfully (for the time being).

Why is this setting not retained? I never heard of BIOS settings
changing all by themselves anyhow...
CMOS battery is only 4 months old and date & time and other settings
still OK.


Is the "wrong" HDD drive zero? If so, you could try switching the cables,
so that the right drive is drive zero.




Well I don't remeber that anymore. I did take care to connect the system
drive SATA cable to the SATA1 connector of the MB, which was advised in the
MB manual. Gosh...
Manual page 1-27
http://www.asus.com/Motherboards/P5L...lpDesk_Manual/

Futhermore there is an IDE drive and IDE DVD burner connected to the IDE
connector.


thanks,


--


|\ /|
| \/ |@rk
\../
\/os

Linea Recta wrote:
I have been installing a PC for someone, mainboard Asus P5L-VM 1394.
New hard drive
http://www.mycom.nl/opslag/interne-h...p-hdd-500gb-35


I installed Windows XPSP3, all hardware drivers and applications.

Problem is this: I did all settings in the BIOS, SAVED them before
exiting the BIOS and the PC boots fine.
Now the next time I try to boot the system I sometimes get a message on
a black screen: 'wrong drive. reboot from the system drive.' When I now
enter the BIOS settings, I see the WRONG hard disk as booting priority.
So I choose the right drive again, save and exit BIOS. Now I can boot
again succesfully (for the time being).

Why is this setting not retained? I never heard of BIOS settings
changing all by themselves anyhow...
CMOS battery is only 4 months old and date & time and other settings
still OK.

There is more than one mechanism for the boot order to
change, and I'm not referring to the battery going
flat either.

On Asus, there is an "overclocking recovery" function that
can reset the settings. As well as the settings changing
when you add or remove physical disks between power cycles.
I change disks enough here, I just use the F8 "popup boot menu"
key to select what disk to boot from. The popup boot menu
was added around the time that the BIOS had a USB page
added to it (a separate page with USB settings all
recorded in it). If you have a fourteen year old motherboard,
no, it doesn't have popup boot.

Paul

"Paul" schreef in bericht
...
Linea Recta wrote:
I have been installing a PC for someone, mainboard Asus P5L-VM 1394.
New hard drive
http://www.mycom.nl/opslag/interne-h...p-hdd-500gb-35 I
installed Windows XPSP3, all hardware drivers and applications.

Problem is this: I did all settings in the BIOS, SAVED them before
exiting the BIOS and the PC boots fine.
Now the next time I try to boot the system I sometimes get a message on a
black screen: 'wrong drive. reboot from the system drive.' When I now
enter the BIOS settings, I see the WRONG hard disk as booting priority.
So I choose the right drive again, save and exit BIOS. Now I can boot
again succesfully (for the time being).

Why is this setting not retained? I never heard of BIOS settings changing
all by themselves anyhow...
CMOS battery is only 4 months old and date & time and other settings
still OK.

There is more than one mechanism for the boot order to
change, and I'm not referring to the battery going
flat either.

On Asus, there is an "overclocking recovery" function that
can reset the settings. As well as the settings changing
when you add or remove physical disks between power cycles.
I change disks enough here, I just use the F8 "popup boot menu"


I discovered that recently. Never used it myself, but it solved my problem
of blank screen after booting. I thought I'd done a weeks work in vain.
After using F8 that PC booted again, but I don't like the idea that booting
is unreliable for my customer (with no internet access).


key to select what disk to boot from. The popup boot menu
was added around the time that the BIOS had a USB page
added to it (a separate page with USB settings all
recorded in it). If you have a fourteen year old motherboard,
no, it doesn't have popup boot.



Until today I had the illusion that the BIOS settings were stricktly
personal (optionally protected by passwords) to prevent people from
tampering aroud with them. But what's the use of the whole idea if things
can change spontaneously??



--


|\ /|
| \/ |@rk
\../
\/os

On Mon, 22 Sep 2014 19:55:47 +0200, Linea Recta wrote:

"Paul" schreef in bericht
...
Linea Recta wrote:
I have been installing a PC for someone, mainboard Asus P5L-VM 1394.
New hard drive
http://www.mycom.nl/opslag/interne-h...p-hdd-500gb-35 I
installed Windows XPSP3, all hardware drivers and applications.

Problem is this: I did all settings in the BIOS, SAVED them before
exiting the BIOS and the PC boots fine.
Now the next time I try to boot the system I sometimes get a message on a
black screen: 'wrong drive. reboot from the system drive.' When I now
enter the BIOS settings, I see the WRONG hard disk as booting priority.
So I choose the right drive again, save and exit BIOS. Now I can boot
again succesfully (for the time being).

Why is this setting not retained? I never heard of BIOS settings changing
all by themselves anyhow...
CMOS battery is only 4 months old and date & time and other settings
still OK.

There is more than one mechanism for the boot order to
change, and I'm not referring to the battery going
flat either.

On Asus, there is an "overclocking recovery" function that
can reset the settings. As well as the settings changing
when you add or remove physical disks between power cycles.
I change disks enough here, I just use the F8 "popup boot menu"

I discovered that recently. Never used it myself, but it solved my problem
of blank screen after booting. I thought I'd done a weeks work in vain.
After using F8 that PC booted again, but I don't like the idea that booting
is unreliable for my customer (with no internet access).

key to select what disk to boot from. The popup boot menu
was added around the time that the BIOS had a USB page
added to it (a separate page with USB settings all
recorded in it). If you have a fourteen year old motherboard,
no, it doesn't have popup boot.


Until today I had the illusion that the BIOS settings were stricktly
personal (optionally protected by passwords) to prevent people from
tampering aroud with them. But what's the use of the whole idea if things
can change spontaneously??

That, however, seems to me to be so unusual that I wonder if it's really
spontaneous.

Is it possible that your customer is doing something (s)he hasn't
mentioned?

Or that (s)he is afflicted with malware?

--
Gene E. Bloch (Stumbling Bloch)

"GlowingBlueMist" schreef in bericht
...
Verify that the SATA cables are of the locking type, and the motherboard
has matching locking sockets. I have had non-locking cables come
partially loose from vibration causing problems like you are having. Had
one customer who usually dropped textbooks on his desk and later the PC
would refuse to reboot due to what I found to be loose cables. Second time
I had replacement cables ready and put locking cables on his machine.


The cable connects with quite some force (at both ends) so I don't think it
is a loose cable.



A loose drive cable on any drive, be it a CD/DVD, SATA or IDE hard drive
can trigger a reconfiguration on many motherboards making what you
describe happen. Same for a boot drive that is just on the edge of being
too "slow" to respond during a power-up reboot sequence.

A weak power supply might not be getting the drive up to speed fast enough
before the motherboard times out. See if it has any method of waiting for
a slow drive.

Some controllers will power on the drives sequentially and force the
motherboard to wait until all drives are up to speed before allowing the
motherboard to proceed with the boot. The option also helps keep the
power-on surge current under control if you have say 4 drives attached to
a board or 3rd party SATA card.

On some motherboards it can make a difference which SATA port you plug the
boot drive into. The manufacturers claim not but stranger bugs have made
it out into the market. So if you have the option, try another SATA port
for the boot drive.



I did take care to connect the system
drive SATA cable to the SATA1 connector of the MB, which was advised in the
MB manual.
Manual page 1-27
http://www.asus.com/Motherboards/P5L...lpDesk_Manual/

Futhermore there is an IDE drive and IDE DVD burner connected to the IDE
connector.





A weak data block on the boot drive that the motherboard is having
problems reading at times may cause this. When you formatted the drive
the first time did you do the longer slow format or just the quick format.
The slower method is usually preferred for an install as it can look for
problem sectors or blocks and try to add them to the bad block section so
they later get skipped for actual data use. If all you have done is the
fast format, I hate to suggest it, but a reformat using the slow method
may be needed and then a reload.


I always use long time formatting when formatting a new drive for the first
time. And indeed it took a long time...



Last resort on my list of things to try would be a reloading of the
motherboard BIOS using what ever "safe" method the manufacturer offers.
Much like an upgrade but with the latest version even if that is what is
already on the motherboard.


OK, in any case I have the latest BIOS version, exept for the beta version.


thanks,


--


|\ /|
| \/ |@rk
\../
\/os






On 9/22/2014 10:56 AM, Linea Recta wrote:
I have been installing a PC for someone, mainboard Asus P5L-VM 1394.
New hard drive
http://www.mycom.nl/opslag/interne-h...p-hdd-500gb-35


I installed Windows XPSP3, all hardware drivers and applications.

Problem is this: I did all settings in the BIOS, SAVED them before
exiting the BIOS and the PC boots fine.
Now the next time I try to boot the system I sometimes get a message on
a black screen: 'wrong drive. reboot from the system drive.' When I now
enter the BIOS settings, I see the WRONG hard disk as booting priority.
So I choose the right drive again, save and exit BIOS. Now I can boot
again succesfully (for the time being).

Why is this setting not retained? I never heard of BIOS settings
changing all by themselves anyhow...
CMOS battery is only 4 months old and date & time and other settings
still OK.

"Gene E. Bloch" schreef in bericht
...
On Mon, 22 Sep 2014 19:55:47 +0200, Linea Recta wrote:

"Paul" schreef in bericht
...
Linea Recta wrote:
I have been installing a PC for someone, mainboard Asus P5L-VM 1394.
New hard drive
http://www.mycom.nl/opslag/interne-h...p-hdd-500gb-35 I
installed Windows XPSP3, all hardware drivers and applications.

Problem is this: I did all settings in the BIOS, SAVED them before
exiting the BIOS and the PC boots fine.
Now the next time I try to boot the system I sometimes get a message on
a
black screen: 'wrong drive. reboot from the system drive.' When I now
enter the BIOS settings, I see the WRONG hard disk as booting priority.
So I choose the right drive again, save and exit BIOS. Now I can boot
again succesfully (for the time being).

Why is this setting not retained? I never heard of BIOS settings
changing
all by themselves anyhow...
CMOS battery is only 4 months old and date & time and other settings
still OK.

There is more than one mechanism for the boot order to
change, and I'm not referring to the battery going
flat either.

On Asus, there is an "overclocking recovery" function that
can reset the settings. As well as the settings changing
when you add or remove physical disks between power cycles.
I change disks enough here, I just use the F8 "popup boot menu"

I discovered that recently. Never used it myself, but it solved my
problem
of blank screen after booting. I thought I'd done a weeks work in vain.
After using F8 that PC booted again, but I don't like the idea that
booting
is unreliable for my customer (with no internet access).

key to select what disk to boot from. The popup boot menu
was added around the time that the BIOS had a USB page
added to it (a separate page with USB settings all
recorded in it). If you have a fourteen year old motherboard,
no, it doesn't have popup boot.


Until today I had the illusion that the BIOS settings were stricktly
personal (optionally protected by passwords) to prevent people from
tampering aroud with them. But what's the use of the whole idea if things
can change spontaneously??

That, however, seems to me to be so unusual that I wonder if it's really
spontaneous.

Is it possible that your customer is doing something (s)he hasn't
mentioned?



No, this happened when I booted the computer for the first time at my
customers place. Of course leaving a bad impression :-((
Few hours before at my place it had still booted fine.


--


|\ /|
| \/ |@rk
\../
\/os

On Mon, 22 Sep 2014 19:55:47 +0200, "Linea Recta"
wrote:

Until today I had the illusion that the BIOS settings were stricktly
personal (optionally protected by passwords) to prevent people from
tampering aroud with them. But what's the use of the whole idea if things
can change spontaneously??

Malware can change the BIOS. And if a BIOS can be flashed, any
program can mess with it.
Also, the bigger the BIOS, the easier it is to find an
exploit. It's UEFI is all about.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/UEFI#Criticism

So cheer up, you have an old, small, fairly safe BIOS. Most
antivirus can pick up the malware which was made for it a decade ago.

[]'s
--
Don't be evil - Google 2004
We have a new policy - Google 2012

On Mon, 22 Sep 2014 20:41:51 +0200, Linea Recta wrote:

The cable connects with quite some force (at both ends) so I don't think it
is a loose cable.

Check it anyway. I notice that you said elsewhere that the computer
worked at your house, but not after it was transported...

--
Gene E. Bloch (Stumbling Bloch)