Laptop Starts.....Kinda?

S

Smolenski7

Member
I posted a thread the other day about the HD on my Asus u50a laptop failing suddenly. Well, I replaced the HD and things have improved, but I'm still having a similar problem. Here's what happens.

1. I turn on the computer and I get a message that reads, "Reboot and Select proper Boot Device or Insert Boot Media in selected Boot device and press a key." This was part of the original problem with the old HD. Also, the old HD would beep constantly, the new one seems fine.

2. So, I shut down and press F2 to enter the BIOS so that I can confirm that the Boot Priority is correct, it is. The HD is listed first, followed by the DVD/CD drive. I then press F10 to save any changes (remember though, I didn't change anything) and the computer loads windows and everything is great.

3. Next, I shut down again and restart. The same message appears. So I enter the BIOS, press F10 WITHOUT checking the Boot Priority, and Windows does NOT load. So it seems like I MUST simply check the Boot Priority and save any changes (even though I don't change anything) for the computer to load after shut down.

Why? How can I change this?

By the way, the new HD is very similar to the old one. However, it is a bit faster, the old HD spun at 5400rpm while the new HD spins at 7200rpm. They are both 500GB Seagate Momentus Hard Drives. Also, just in case it helps, I can restart the computer with no problems and it can wake up from sleeping too. Finally, it's an Asus so it has something called Fast Boot. I don't know much about it, but I think it doesn't load Windows, but allows Internet access, Skype, and has a photo and music manager as well. If I enter it and then go to Windows, the computer loads easily. So, I guess I only get the message after I shut down and press the power button.
 
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Well, now upon booting up it's doing something slightly different. I went back into the bios and reset everything to their default settings. I am still getting the same error message, but now it is the second message I get. I've posted a few picts below to show what is happening.

004-1.jpg

Above is the first message I get.

005.jpg

Above is the what eventually happens after about 2 minutes. At that point I press "a key."

006.jpg

Finally, after I press "a key" the whole thing starts all over again.

Why is this happening? What can be done to fix it? The computer runs fine when I'm in Windows.
 
Looks like your hard drive is bad. Find out what the manufacturer of the drive is and download their diagnostic utility, burn it to a CD, and boot to it.
 
Did you reinstall Windows? New HDD's are totally blank. You need to install Windows.
 
Yes. I reinstalled windows from the Recovery Disks.

The computer only shows these messages when I press the power button to start it after a complete shut down. Otherwise, it runs perfectly. It wakes up from sleep and can even be restarted without problems.

Is there a possibility that when I press the power button the boot order gets all messed up?
 
Change your boot priority so that the HDD is first. The screens you show are for booting to LAN.
 
voyagerfan99 said:
Change your boot priority so that the HDD is first. The screens you show are for booting to LAN.
Click to expand...

That happened after I went into the BIOS and set it back to Default. Since then I have changed the priority so that the HD is first. However, I'm still getting the same message.

I was thinking about changing the CMOS battery, but I can't get at it. Any suggestions?
 
Well, some progress has been made. I went into the bios and disabled booting from LAN. I don't know why that is a default setting, but I guess it is.

However, I'm still getting the error message, "Reboot and Select proper Boot Device or Insert Boot Media in selected Boot device and press a key." whenever I boot up after a complete shut down.
 
voyagerfan99 said:
Changing the CMOS battery won't make any difference.
Click to expand...

I was told that it might since the computer seems to be "forgetting" the boot priority after shut down. A weak cmos battery might affect the HD from holding the boot settings.

With that said some progress has been made. I went into the bios and disabled booting from LAN. I don't know why that is a default setting, but I guess it is.

However, I'm still getting the error message, "Reboot and Select proper Boot Device or Insert Boot Media in selected Boot device and press a key." whenever I boot up after a complete shut down.
 
Change the cmos battery and I bet it will be fine. Another thing to check is to see if there is a bios update for the machine.
 
johnb35 said:
Change the cmos battery and I bet it will be fine. Another thing to check is to see if there is a bios update for the machine.
Click to expand...

I tried getting at the battery, but I can't open the correct panel. One panel, where the HD, RAM, CPU, and fan is was easy. I must have taken out 12-15 screws, but it felt like I was going to break it. I didn't want to force it. Any suggestions on what I should do to get the back cover off.
 
Well, I've pretty much confirmed that it wasn't the cmos battery. The computer still thinks that the CD/DVD drive is first in priority. I think I've confirmed that by pressing ESC while it was booting. I got the following screen that lists the CD/DVD drive as the only option.

001.jpg


Is it possible to make the computer think it doesn't have a CD/DVD drive to boot from? Then, once the computer is up and running b/c it booted from the HD, can I reinstall the CD/DVD drive easily? Maybe by just doing a system restore?
 
If the bios doesn't detect the hard drive then its either a bios issue or intermittent failure on the hard drive. You can disable cdrom boot but if the bios doesn't detect a hard drive then it won't boot to that either.
 
johnb35 said:
If the bios doesn't detect the hard drive then its either a bios issue or intermittent failure on the hard drive. You can disable cdrom boot but if the bios doesn't detect a hard drive then it won't boot to that either.
Click to expand...

I thought that it would go to the second option, which would be the HD.

What if I updated the BIOS? I don't think there are any updates, but even if it just reinstalled the same version, maybe that might help? How would I do that? How do I know what version BIOS I have?
 
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