Gigabyte P55A-UD3 won't boot up

[Sgt_Strider]

There's a problem guys. For some odd reason, my motherboard is now stuck hanging in the POST screen.

So this is what happened. Earlier today, I put Windows 7 on my USB flash disk to install on my computer. I went to the BIOS to change the boot order to USB HDD, but for some odd reason the motherboard won't recognize the flash drive and boot from it. So I went to the hard drive boot list to change the order so that the USB flash drive is on top of my SSD. Once I restarted the computer, everything booted up fine and Windows 7 proceeded to install. Once the installation was completed, the computer restarted as normal, but now it just hangs after the POST screen. It's at the Serial ATA AHCI BIOS list and it shows the first device on controller bus#00, which is my blu-ray reader. It just hangs right there. It doesn't list the SSD or any other components. I tried to press "delete" to access the BIOS, but it doesn't work. I restarted the computer many times and even removed the flash drive, but the mobo will attempt to load, but it'll eventually get stuck on that screen.

So what do I do right now?

[Lsdmeasap]

To boot from USB stick hit F12 at bootup and choose +HDD, then on the next screen choose your USB Stick by name.

You must have USB Storage Detect enabled in the BIOS, then shut down and put in the USB Stick and reboot with the stick installed and hit F12 to do the above mentioned.

Ohh, sorry I replied as I read this!!

Please try clearing the CMOS now, and remove your SSD because you will need to format it on another PC or via install CD. You will need to reinstall windows, because the bootloader will have been put on your USB Stick likely since you set USB As first boot device.

Next time around when you install leave your SSD at the top of the hard drive boot priority list and boot from USB how I mentioned above. Then this wont happen.

[Sgt_Strider]

There's a problem! My Gigabyte P55A-UD3 doesn't come with a jumper to clear the CMOS! What do I do?

[Sgt_Strider]

To boot from USB stick hit F12 at bootup and choose +HDD, then on the next screen choose your USB Stick by name.

You must have USB Storage Detect enabled in the BIOS, then shut down and put in the USB Stick and reboot with the stick installed and hit F12 to do the above mentioned.

Ohh, sorry I replied as I read this!!

Please try clearing the CMOS now, and remove your SSD because you will need to format it on another PC or via install CD. You will need to reinstall windows, because the bootloader will have been put on your USB Stick likely since you set USB As first boot device.

Next time around when you install leave your SSD at the top of the hard drive boot priority list and boot from USB how I mentioned above. Then this wont happen.

Why are you telling me to remove my SSD because I will need to reformat it on another computer?

[Cleatus]

There's a problem! My Gigabyte P55A-UD3 doesn't come with a jumper to clear the CMOS! What do I do?

Pull the battery and let it sit for a little while and then install it back and try to boot, if that wont work and your 100% there is not a clear cmos option than pulling the cpu will do it, i know its a pain but it will be the only option

[radaja]

was your install,installed with AHCI enabled?or was it installed under IDE mode?
if it was installed under IDE mode the OS wont be able to boot now under AHCI.
but you can install under AHCI and then set IDE mode it will boot fine

[Sgt_Strider]

was your install,installed with AHCI enabled?or was it installed under IDE mode?
if it was installed under IDE mode the OS wont be able to boot now under AHCI.
but you can install under AHCI and then set IDE mode it will boot fine

Yea, when I installed the SSD, I installed it with AHCI enabled because I wanted TRIM support. So you're telling me to reset the CMOS and set it to IDE? Cuz I'm now back to square one and everything locks up in the AHCI BIOS.

Also, what's with the #23 that I described in the above post? I tried to search it up in the manual, but it doesn't correspond to an error in the list of problems.

[radaja]

no if you installed your OS under AHCI then dont set it to IDE.i was just saying that
if you install an OS in IDE mode and then go into bios and set AHCI it wont boot to the OS.
not sure what the #23 thing is your refering to.
have you tried just installing from your CD/DVD drive to the SSD?or do you not have one?
is that why you tried installing from the usb drive?

[Sgt_Strider]

no if you installed your OS under AHCI then dont set it to IDE.i was just saying that
if you install an OS in IDE mode and then go into bios and set AHCI it wont boot to the OS.
not sure what the #23 thing is your refering to.
have you tried just installing from your CD/DVD drive to the SSD?or do you not have one?
is that why you tried installing from the usb drive?

No, I do have one. I just wanted to install from the USB because I have customized a Windows 7 image and I don't want to be burning discs all the time when I can just load the file into a USB drive. It works on my laptop, but for some odd reason it ed up the desktop. Now I'm not quite sure what to do.

[radaja]

i see.well i dont know what to do then.maybe someone who has done the usb install might come in and help.
me myself have always wanted to try it as i heard its faster and since i do a lot of installs i thought it might save me some time

[Sgt_Strider]

Here's an update on my situation.

I'm a little stunned by this update and so will Bill Parish. Anyways, I decided to reset the CMOS again and just try to boot everything in default. This means the SSD will operate in IDE mode instead of AHCI and guess what, everything worked! Nothing freeze and I was able to reinstalled Windows 7 on the SSD.

I honestly can't believe what had happened. Is this any closer to figuring out what caused the whole commotion? Leaving things in IDE mode is not an option due to the fact that I'm using an SSD and I need TRIM support.

[Lsdmeasap]

Sorry, I just meant you would need to remove your SSD to format on another system, OR format it on your current one with the install CD

Glad to see you got it all sorted out now!

FYI, TRIM will work in IDE or AHCI mode, but AHCI mode will be better for performance.

You can switch back and forth between IDE/AHCI and RAID if you want, just make the following registry changes first

Enable switching between all IDE/AHCI/RAID modes by changing "Start" Values in these keys to 0

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Services\Msahci\Start
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Services\Pciide\Start  
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\services\iaStorV\Start

[Sgt_Strider]

Wow, I'm so surprised that no one here has figure this out or even experience this problem. After spending hours on this problem, I am now confident that the problem lies in the fact that the Gigabyte P55A-UD3 motherboard has a problem with my Liteon iHOS104 Blu-Ray reader in AHCI mode. How do I know? Everything works when under IDE mode, but it'll hang if AHCI is enabled and only by resetting the CMOS, can I access the BIOS.

Over at Anandtech, one of the reviewers for the Gigabyte H55-USB3 experienced the same problem as me:

Setting AHCI mode for SATA ports results in not being able to boot from our Pioneer 215-DBK SATA DVD drive (IDE mode works fine). Fortunately there is a workaround for this, press the pause key during the POST sequence just before the drive boot sequence starts, let the board pause for a few seconds and then resume. We’ve reported the problem to Gigabyte and a fix BIOS should be up on the support site shortly, so you won’t need to work around if you flash over.

Gigabyte H55N-USB3 : Mini-ITX done the Gigabyte way... - AnandTech :: Your Source for Hardware Analysis and News

Unfortunately, pressing the pause key didn't help me at all. The screen will pause and then nothing will materialize as I wait.