Odd startup behaviour

valdai

valdai

valdai

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29 Dec 2008
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265
So having put my new build together (in sig), I found some rather odd issues with turning my pc on. It still works but it's kind of annoying.

If I am turning the tower on for the first time since switching it on at the wall, it will briefly start with lights and fans going for about a second, then power down again for about 3 seconds before starting up as normal.
Is this a problem? What might be causing it?

Also, kind of similar when it is turning on, the mobo screen will come up, then a black screen with white writing where it will tell me, no hard disk found! then go back to mobo screen and boot up normally from there. Is it a problem? And even if it isn't, what could I do to solve it? It's pretty annoying.

Just in case this is relevant I think I remember plugging the HDD into the SATA3 slot, and optical drive into SATA1, and thought this might be causing the second issue, but was afraid of switching them around in case it stopped detecting the two pieces of hardware correctly.

Thanks. If you need any more details of specifics just ask, I could take photos of all the things I've tried to describe if it's necessary.
 
My old PC has something similar...

Powers up, but cant boot up into windows, endlessly restarts. If i briefly power it down and power it up after 2-3 seconds it boots up normally.

Any ideas?
 
I have a Asus P5K-E wifi and every time I turn it on it boots as you described yours with powering on for a second with the fans spinning, then stopping and a few seconds later it boots normally.

I dont find this an issue as I dont often turn off my PC, but I think it was a known issue with my motherboard. Not sure why you get the "no hard disk found", have you checked your boot order in the bios?
 
Oh good idea on boot order, I think by default it has floppy drive as first boot device (obviously don't have one) lol. I'll see if that sorts that one out.

Worrying to hear that this seems to be a common problem, I hope it might just be a driver update or something in that case..

EDIT: No luck on boot order front :(
 
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I dont know if it will resolve the issue, but try plugging the HDD in to SATA slot 1 instead of the DVDRW? I am pretty sure in my mobo manual it mentions using the SATA slot 1 for the "primary" hard drive when using a non raid setup.
 
OK so switching the SATA cables round so HDD is now in SATA1 seems to have stopped the mobo screen coming up twice, though it still briefly comes up with "No hard disk detected!" before booting normally :S

Thanks for the quick replies and help so far.
 
The "semi-boot" that several of you are reporting is a self-test feature common on many enthusiast motherboards. It boots up for a couple of seconds to check things, and then if everything's OK, it begins the boot proper.
 
My current board does this only when overclocked.My previous board (Asus Commando) also did this also only when overclocked.

I think it must be doing what reflux has said.

Nothing to worry about as my old Asus Commando did it for over 2 years and still runs perfect.
 
my maximus does it aswell. says no HDD found. i think its something to do with the marvell controller or something, but nothing to worry about.

also, when turning on from the plug that behaviour is normal aswell.
 
If you put the Marvell Controller to disabled in the BIOS, it'll stop the "no hard disk screen". It did the same when I installed my P5Q-E and made me wonder what it was going on about when it carried on booting.
 
I've got an ASUS P5Q SE board and my PC does the short boot thing also but only when the power strip that it is plugged into has been switched off. If the PC is connected to power after it's shut down it will power up normally. After I updated the BIOS I got that "no hard disk detected" also whether the PC does the short boot first or not. What is the Marvell controller, what does it control? I don't remember seeing it listed in my BIOS so I don't think I can disable it. Is it safe to disable it?
 
Its under Advanced>Onboard Devices Configuration>Marvell IDE. This is under the 1406 BIOS, not sure if its the same on other releases. I've had no problems with disabling it but both my dvd drive and hard drive are SATA, not sure what would happen if your using IDE drives.
 
Thanks Jon, all my drives are SATA but are IDE in bios. I'll try to disable the controller and see what happens, ATM its not detecting anything anyway.
 
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Having the p5k, and the same 'problem' when powering on after it has been unplugged. I think I read somewhere it was a safety feature?

maybe somebody else can confirm or not though :confused:

Edit: Second read shows somebody else already mentioned this!
 
Jon20 said:
If you put the Marvell Controller to disabled in the BIOS, it'll stop the "no hard disk screen". It did the same when I installed my P5Q-E and made me wonder what it was going on about when it carried on booting.
Click to expand...

Good advice I had the same problem and turning the marvell controller off worked. (P5Q pro)
 
It's the PATA controller I think. I just remembered I disabled it on my P5Q-EM, it was the first thing I disabled as I knew I wouldn't be using it (which is why I wouldn't have got the "no hard disk found" error).
 
Wow thank you for all the replies everyone. I have disabled the Marvell IDE feature in BIOS and now boot up is perfect, and much faster; not sure whether that's a coincidence or not.
 
OK, I disabled the Marvell controller, rebooted, the Marvell controller doesn't show in post, everything seems fine. Thanks for the info guys.
 
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