Did Windows 8 Brick my Laptop?

[Jdpurvis]

So I created a whole disk backup. I ran the system check and uninstalled a couple of minor incompatible programs. I disabled my antivirus and ran setup from my desktop. It seemed to complete - multiple reboots, including "preparing" etc. I even saw Win 8 colors a couple of times. Then, it appeared to be doing last reboot. It shut down and then hung at the end of POST, at "press F2 for setup". Only setup won't run. I tried multiple times. I removed bios battery - no joy. I tried going back to one 8 gb stick of ram and also tried two 2 gb sticks. It shows alien face and "Press F2 for setup" and "Press F12 for Boot Menu". I get one beep after pressing setup, but no setup. F12 does nothing.

I have never seen anything like this. I cannot get to bios or boot menu, so I cannot restore. It seems incredible that an OS install could do this.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.laptop has been very fast and reliable, but is well out of warranty. I have posted on Alienware forum as well.

Joe

 

[SIW2]

I cannot get to bios or boot menu

Is there any kind of option to rollback setup appearing as a boot menu entry?

I assume not. Suggest you try a couple more times to see if you can past post.

 

[sandman]

I would try unplugging AC cord remove battery, then hold in the start button for 60 seconds, then install the batter, then the AC cord and then push start button and she if she boots up if you haven't tried this process as a fix for the problem.

 

[jbl123]

I also had troubles getting to BIOS after installing Windows 8 Pro 32bit on my Acer 1692 WLMi laptop. The POST screen just didn't respond to my pressing F2. I HAD changed boot priority in order to install Win8 from DVD, so I basically just wanted to change it back.
So, I tried BOOTING WITH THE ORIGINAL SYSTEM RESTORE DVD from Acer. With the disc in the tray I finally could enter the BIOS and change what I wanted. What's strange, that this still works, although my computer now boots primarily from HDD.

I guess that the laptop-specific BIOS and the recovery boot partition don't play that well with Windows 8 installed on the main "boot-partition". Hopefully you find a solution!

 

[Jdpurvis]

Well, I left it without power overnight, and removed the coin cell for 30 minutes. Then put it back in and tried again still cannot get to either boot menu or bios setup. Unfortunately, I hadn't shifted boot priority to DVD, so I can't boot from DVD.

Will keep trying and looking for solutions.

Thanks for your suggestions.

Joe

 

[jbl123]

I still suggest that you try inserting some DVD (preferably bootable?), because it seems to cause some sort of "wait" in my system so I can enter BIOS, even if HDD is now my first boot drive.

 

[Jdpurvis]

I'll try that. Someone on the other board suggested replacing the CMOS battery. Though I suspect that is not the problem, it should be easy to try.

Joe

 

[alphanumeric]

I have seen instances where a completely dead or shorted CMOS battery prevented a PC from booting up. As a test you can just remove it, and see it you can now boot up all the way. A PC can run without a CMOS Battery. All that happens is the date and time and some settings are lost when you power down or reboot.

EDIT: If you think its the Windows 8 boot loader that's causing the freeze you could also try removing your hard drive and see what happens.

 

[Jdpurvis]

CMOS battery has normal voltage. Trying to boot without CMOS battery produces the. Same results. If I pull the hard disk (expensive SSD!), I can get into bios. Changing from AHCI to ATA mode doesn't help. I can (and did change the boot order, but I don't have a WIN 8 bootable disk or USB. I will put the disk on another machine. If it can be read, I can pull the Win 8 files from the disk. Does anyone know how to make a boot disk from these files? If I could boot from an external WIN 8 disk, is there a repair function like in Win 7 (and Xperia, and....).

It appears that Win 8 has done something evil to my SSD. Does anyone have any suggestions?

Joe

 

[Jdpurvis]

More follow up. When I connected the drive to another computer via USB - not recognized. When I connected it via esata, it blocked the other machine from booting. I can't even clear the drive and go back to WIN 7. Looks like Win8 bricked the drive. Thanks, Microsoft!

Will let you know if I think of anything else.

Joe

 

[powerfulbaktery]

something same happened for me too...the screen goes off and It did'nt came back yet..i can not see anything

 

[alphanumeric]

More follow up. When I connected the drive to another computer via USB - not recognized. When I connected it via esata, it blocked the other machine from booting. I can't even clear the drive and go back to WIN 7. Looks like Win8 bricked the drive. Thanks, Microsoft!

Will let you know if I think of anything else.

Joe

It sounds like the drive failed hardware wise. Usually even if a drive has no OS or a corrupted OS it will still show up in the BIOS and the PC will POST. You'll get a No Operating System Found prompt. Your PC(s) won't even post with that drive connected so that makes me think the electronics have failed. The PC is likely stopping at the point where it tries to ID and initialize the drive. I'd be surprised if the Windows 8 install did it, but stranger things have happened.

 

[Jdpurvis]

I would be very surprised if the win 8 didn't do it. The SSD was functioning perfectly before, and through all the multiple reboots of the Win install until the last one. I saw all the messages about preparing files, all the way through "setting up your software.

Joe

 

[alphanumeric]

It would be the first instance of that happening that I've heard of. I'm not saying it didn't happen, but I think its highly unlikely. I think its more of a coincidence. I've had problems installing another OS after installing Windows 7 or 8, but wiping the drive and deleting all the partitions fixed it. Mind you, this has been with IDE drives not SSD drives.
If you connect it though USB in an enclose what does Disk Management show? If it doesn't have a drive letter it will not show up on the Computer screen. If you can actually see it listed in Disk Management you may be able to repartition it and cover it.

 

[Jdpurvis]

The original disk in the machine had a second, small recovery partition in addition to the Win7 boot partition. I retained that when I moved to the SSD. When I backed it up, I did a whole disk backup, rather than only the Win partition. I am at work now, away from the drive. When I connected it via USB it did not show at all in Disk management.

I put the drive back in the laptop this AM, and was able to (after a long wait) get into the bios setup. No matter how I change the settings, it does not see the drive.

I am convinced the problem came from Win8. I think it originates from the changed way it deals with the bios-
Particularly with UEFI. I think this MBR behaves differently - it was striking that when I connected it to an eSATA port on my desktop machine, it not only prevented the machine from
Booting, but it locked access to the bios setup program.

I have seen a lot of dead and dying hard disks in my day, but never one that prevented access to Bios setup.

Joe

 

[alphanumeric]

Either way you look at it, from the sounds of it, that drive is toast. If its still under warranty I would Return it as defective. If it was just the BIOS messed up on your PC I would not expect the drive to lock up the other PC. The long delay is the BIOS trying to ID and initialize the drive. You could have a look on the hard drive manufacturers web site for some diagnostics utilities, although if the BIOS can't detect the drive they will not work. There may also be a utility to return the drive to factory state, or wipe the drive (write all zero's to it). It can't hurt to try.

 

[Jdpurvis]

I have left a message on the Crucial forum. Will post again when I hear from them.

Joe

 

[Jdpurvis]

Culprit could have been recent firmware update for the drive. Apparently some drives have "disappeared". They suggested some ways to try to get it back - I tried, and drive did come back. Win 8 installation finished. It hung on the next reboot. After multiple tries, and a "failed"'repair mode, I managed to get into safe mode. I had disabled my antivirus (not uninstalled it). I uninstalled it, and Win 8 booted. For the time being, it seems stable.

While I am suspicious about the crash during installation, it does seem that the drive may have been the cause.

Thanks to all for your suggestions.

Jo

 

[alphanumeric]

Hopefully it stays stable for you. Good detective work on your part to.