Odd boot behaviour

chameleon · 9 Jul 2011 at 22:10

Every now and then, when I boot up my system, it powers up, thinks about it for 10 seconds or so, powers down, then after a pause, powers up again, goes through the bios but when Windows starts to load, it stops part way through and freezes. I usually have to pull the plug on the system as restarting or turning off by the power button dosent seem to clear it.

Majority of times this does not happen and windows loads perfectly normally.

System is a Asus P8P67 pro, I5 2500k, (oc to 4.6 by OCUK) corsair 1600DDR3 memory, corsair 700w power supply and Asus 580 GTX graphics card.

TNGL · 9 Jul 2011 at 22:11

Is it possible that this could be a problem with the HDD? Have you checked the BIOS for anything that looks different?

chameleon · 10 Jul 2011 at 13:40

I'm using a vertex 3 SSD. Only thing I've noticed recently was an overclock failure warning in the bios. Only seen that once tho so I dunno if it's connected.

yashiro · 10 Jul 2011 at 14:51

Try adding a delay of a few seconds to HDD detection in your bios. The issue is not caused by the HD's, usually, but the actual delay may help avoid these false starts.

If not then the overclock settings need looking into.

chameleon · 10 Jul 2011 at 14:55

Hmm, when it restarts, it goes through the bios ok and starts loading the OS, but about halfway through, it sticks with the HDD light on constantly. Would this indicate a HD problem? Also, how do I delay HDD selection?

Surveyor · 10 Jul 2011 at 14:57

Was the HDD connected when you installed Windows on the SSD?

If it was some Windows files will have been installed on the HDD and perhaps this is causing issues when you boot up.

chameleon · 10 Jul 2011 at 16:02

Well, my SSD is the C drive and the large HDD is the J or storage drive. It is one of the green ones which takes a wee while to spin up. What files would be on this instead of the system drive?

Surveyor · 10 Jul 2011 at 16:09

chameleon said:
Well, my SSD is the C drive and the large HDD is the J or storage drive. It is one of the green ones which takes a wee while to spin up. What files would be on this instead of the system drive?

No idea.

I've just seen it stated that this is what happens.

If Windows sees a second drive it will install its small boot partition onto that drive instead of onto the SSD and most people prefer that it be on the SSD itself.

yashiro · 10 Jul 2011 at 18:08

It's usually a very easy bios option to find. Just look in your bios for boot options, Delay HD on boot etc.