[SOLVED] Can't get PC to boot straight to windows

[imaxium]

Background: upgraded PSU in PC, and now PC boots to BIOS and not straight into windows. I can select windows boot manager, and then save and exit, and PC resets and boots to windows and works fine. Selecting restart from windows power options will reboot PC straight to windows. However, if I select shutdown, and then hit power switch. it boots to bios instead of windows, and I have to manually select windows boot manager. when booting PC, I notice the no boot device LED lights up, then PC goes to BIOS.

How do I get PC to boot straight to windows?
Is BIOS refusing to recognize/save windows boot manager as a bootable device?

Fixes tried:
A fresh install of windows 10 on SSD.
replaced CMOS battery
reset CMOS, unplugged SATA cables, booted, shutdown, replugged SATA cables, rebooted
updated BIOS to latest firmware
disabled fast boot, and CSM
startup repair couldn't fix, (the logfile looks like windows passed all tests)
bcdboot c:\ windows /s c: (gave me a duplicate windows boot manager in bios)

diskpart/ list disk
Disk ### Status Size Free Dyn Gpt
-------- ------------- ------- ------- --- ---
Disk 0 Online 111 GB 1024 KB *

diskpart / list volume
Volume ### Ltr Label Fs Type Size Status Info
---------- --- ----------- ----- ---------- ------- --------- --------
Volume 0 C NTFS Partition 111 GB Healthy Boot
Volume 1 FAT32 Partition 100 MB Healthy System
Volume 2 NTFS Partition 499 MB Healthy Hidden

(dont know how to format above correctly)

System:
Motherboard: z97-AR (BIOS: 3503)
CPU: i5-4690k
GPU: GTX 760
PSU: RMx 550
memory: 16gb DDR3
ssd: 120gb samsung
OS: Windows 10 Pro 10.0.19042

 

[Colif]

what happens if you turn this off?
https://www.tenforums.com/tutorials/4189-turn-off-fast-startup-windows-10-a.html

it shouldn't make any difference but the behaviour where it works fine after a restart but not on a normal boot looks like the sort of thing fast startup can cause. It could be a driver although that sounds odd, cause drivers don't run at bios but with fast startup on, the PC isn't off so what it does at startup isn't a fresh start, its more a wake up. And it can trip over drivers not designed for fast startup
If you boot off ssd you don't need it on, its more for people with hdd

 

[imaxium]

turning off fast startup didn't fix.

Since you mention drivers, there are two unknown devices in device manager. incase its related here:
SM Bus Controller, event: Device PCI\VEN_8086&DEV_8CA2&SUBSYS_85341043&REV_00\3&11583659&0&FB requires further installation.
Unknown device event:
Device USB\VID_8087&PID_0A2B\5&dc4a972&0&6 requires further installation.

 

[Colif]

update intel management engine interface, I believe that fixes both of those.
I have seen them before, I don't think that is cause of your error.
if fast startup didn't help, i don't think its windows.

I had a Asus Z97 Pro with a 4690K up until 6 months ago, I don't recall it having windows boot manager but I didn't go into bios very often.
I wonder if its the CMOS battery as it shouldn't forget the boot order on startup.
Its the bios that is stumbling, not windows.

 

[imaxium]

I replaced the CMOS battery with a new one.
So the system is old. built in 2014 with windows 7 installed on SSD. Upgraded to windows 10, and had no problems till upgrading PSU. Then it refused to boot straight into windows. I created a windows boot manager with EasyBCD. but that didnt fix. still had to manually boot from ssd or WBM. Thus, formated ssd, changed it to GPT for latest windows 10 installer(it didnt like ssd being MBR). fresh install of windows.

If I have CSM in bios enabled, trying to boot from ssd sends me back to bios. can only boot from WBM manually. disabling CSM, so only boot option is WBM, still no fix.

It seems like BIOS refuses to recognize WBM as a bootable device on initial boot, and refuses to save WBM as boot option. If I select or disable WBM in boot priority options, bios says no change to settings, on save and reset.

 

[Colif]

So the system is old. built in 2014 with windows 7 installed on SSD. Upgraded to windows 10, and had no problems till upgrading PSU.

Is this first reinstall since upgrading?

drive is formatted as gpt, you can't use csm as gpt was created after csm existed.
GPT matches UEFI boot, which uses Windows Boot Manager to tell bios where the FAT32 partition on ssd is.
MBR matches CSM, and it only looks for the boot partition at the beginning of the drive.
UEFI can boot GPT or MBR
Legacy only boots MBR.
a little history -

Spoiler

Up until 2009 all PC used Legacy bios.

They didn't know what a mouse was, you had to use arrow keys on kb to navigate them. They weren't very modifiable, they had to be a certain size and were only 32bit.

They only used Legacy boot method (it wasn't called legacy yet)

it uses MBR - MBR stands for Master Boot record

MBR drives can only have 4 partitions and max drive size is 2.2tb

Boot partition on MBR drives is always 1st partition on drive



In 2009 UEFI was released to replace Legacy bios. UEFI stands for Unified Extensible Firmware Interface

it uses a graphical interface that knows what a mouse is

It can be expanded and have new features added

It can use UEFI or Legacy boot method

It can boot legacy drives since it was made to replace BIOS, can't not be backwards compatible.


It supports GPT drives. GPT stands for GUID (GUID = Global Unique ID - every GPT drive on earth has its own number) Partition Table

GPT drives can have up to 256 partitions and max drive size is a silly 18.8 million tb

Boot partition on a GPT drive can be anywhere.


All PC before win 7 used MBR

Win 7 32bit uses MBR only

Win 7 64bit can be MBR or GPT

win 10 64 bit can also be either but it prefers GPT


UEFI boot method can boot both MBR & GPT drives

Legacy can only boot MBR, it doesn't know what GPT is for booting

what boot method do you have as enabled?

so you clean installed win 10 and it still puts you into bios at boot?

Adding PSU shouldn't have anything to do with boot up

 

[imaxium]

yes first reinstall since upgrading PSU.

correct, I was just trying to give a timeline of what I've done in case it helped.
Additional info: was ignoring bios boot issue for a bit, but then windows updater got corrupted, and that's what prompted fresh install.

yes. still puts me into bios at boot. (formated ssd to gpt, it was only disk connected to motherboard. installed windows 10 fresh. )

 

[Colif]

I believe the asus has a choice called auto under CSM which should restart PC if it doesn't find a boot sector and try the other. (I found my manual to confirm it)

What happens if you disable csm as that should make it only use UEFI

 

[imaxium]

I tried enabled, but UEFI first/only in settings. no fix.
tried disabled. no fix.

 

[Bob.B]

Background: upgraded PSU in PC, and now PC boots to BIOS and not straight into windows. I can select windows boot manager, and then save and exit, and PC resets and boots to windows and works fine. Selecting restart from windows power options will reboot PC straight to windows. However, if I select shutdown, and then hit power switch. it boots to bios instead of windows, and I have to manually select windows boot manager. when booting PC, I notice the no boot device LED lights up, then PC goes to BIOS.

How do I get PC to boot straight to windows?
Is BIOS refusing to recognize/save windows boot manager as a bootable device?

Fixes tried:
A fresh install of windows 10 on SSD.
replaced CMOS battery
reset CMOS, unplugged SATA cables, booted, shutdown, replugged SATA cables, rebooted
updated BIOS to latest firmware
disabled fast boot, and CSM
startup repair couldn't fix, (the logfile looks like windows passed all tests)
bcdboot c:\ windows /s c: (gave me a duplicate windows boot manager in bios)

diskpart/ list disk
Disk ### Status Size Free Dyn Gpt
-------- ------------- ------- ------- --- ---
Disk 0 Online 111 GB 1024 KB *

diskpart / list volume
Volume ### Ltr Label Fs Type Size Status Info
---------- --- ----------- ----- ---------- ------- --------- --------
Volume 0 C NTFS Partition 111 GB Healthy Boot
Volume 1 FAT32 Partition 100 MB Healthy System
Volume 2 NTFS Partition 499 MB Healthy Hidden

(dont know how to format above correctly)

System:
Motherboard: z97-AR (BIOS: 3503)
CPU: i5-4690k
GPU: GTX 760
PSU: RMx 550
memory: 16gb DDR3
ssd: 120gb samsung
OS: Windows 10 Pro 10.0.19042

Put the old psu back in the machine.......what happens?

 

[imaxium]

Put the old psu back in the machine.......what happens?

cant test that. I dont have the old psu anymore

 

[Colif]

if it was easy to do, i would plug old PC in and see what its bios settings are, but its not so simple.

I have to go for a few hours but will come in later and see if I can think of reasons.

 

[Bob.B]

cant test that. I dont have the old psu anymore

Don't know what options you have in your bios.
I have this thing called........boot delay......it allows the bios splash screen to sit on the monitor longer before moving on to loading the OS.

 

[imaxium]

Don't know what options you have in your bios.
I have this thing called........boot delay......it allows the bios splash screen to sit on the monitor longer before moving on to loading the OS.

it was set to 3 secs as default. changing to 10s, didnt fix.
initial bootup of the motherboard still thinks theres no bootable device. (no boot device led turns on) so it puts me into bios. I can then manually select boot device, or simply exit and reset with no changes, and then it then reboots into windows just fine. and this is why im so confused as to why it doesnt recognize boot device on initial startup but does on a reset or restart.

 

[imaxium]

figured it out. plugged front panel power switch into Directkey connector on accident. So yes, this problem did start when I got PSU, but it wasnt cause of PSU, it from me being a dumbass.

TLDR: dumb computer following dumb human's orders perfectly