New GA-880GMA-UD2H fails to boot from usb

[al_undy]

I am putting together a new HTPC system with the following components:
GIGABYTE GA-880GMA-UD2H
AMD Athlon II X2 240
G.SKILL 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 Model F3-12800CL9D-4GBNQ
OCZ Vertex Turbo OCZSSD2-1VTXT30G (SSD)
TRENDnet TEW-623PI 32-Bit PCI Wireless N-Draft Adapter
Hauppauge WinTV HVR-1250 Hybrid TV Tune

Bios loads correctly but when trying to boot Ubuntu from USB stick (image created by Unetbootin) for install, I get
"loading operating system...
Boot error"

I have tried various combinations of boot priority and used f12 to select boot device to no avail. The usb boots on my other computer.

My concern is with the ram. The post screen goes by long before my Dell monitor wakes up so i don't have confirmation on it but assume that it is working. I put sticks in banks 1 and 2 as that is how I interpret the manual. Also, the cpu can only handle ddr3 1066 ram but I was told the ddr3 1600 would work. Any of this sound fishy?

Thanks in advance.
Al

 

[bilbat]

GB's BIOS will only boot USBs formatted to FAT-32, conforming to normal MBR bootloader. I've seen this before, and surmised that the 'stick-maker' was formatting in ReiserFile, or one of the EXT 'flavors', but no one ever followed up to confirm or deny... Also, if it's putting the bootloader into its own partition - won't work!

In the BIOS, on the "Integrated Peripherals" page, the "USB Storage Function" item must be enabled (which should be the default) to allow USB booting...

I've put a little work into a 'GB USB booting tutorial', and frankly, I'd just go ahead and finish it up for you, but I really don't want to reboot the several times it will take me to 'firm up' procedural details, and take the BIOS/boot pictures for the post - just noticed VAIL finally went 'public beta', so will be downloading for likely twenty-six hours or so [:jaydeejohn:3] There's likely enough there to test a 'raw DOS boot', just to see if your hardware (especially the USB stick itself) will do it...

As for memory testing - that's another 'on-going' project - most of the MemTest info is in place, take a peek here..., it'll give you download pointers and how-to, mostly?

As for 1600 - should work, but odds are tremendous that you'll have to 'hand-configure' it - G.Skill is some of the best - I always spec it, and have never been let down, or gotten a bad stick...

 

[al_undy]

bilbat,
Thanks for the response. I am using a 8gb sd card/reader formatted to fat32 with a live Ubuntu 10.04. I am able to use this to boot my other computer with a ga-ep45-ud3p mb. I will reformat and install the usb stick and try again.

USB storage is enabled.

When i get home i will try removing the second stick of memory and look at settings.

 

[bilbat]

Hmmph! Fat-32 should work! Brought up a whole new subject, though - I've never thought of, never heard of, never considered even the possibility of USB booting to a 'card'! Umm, looks like a disk (to the OS anyhow...), acts like a disk; lord [:lorbat:5] knows, I've got enough mSD cards floating aroung here to panel a wall (Sony camera...), just never thought of using 'em like a disk! They're probably all, like, 3% full - would probably be handy to have a few set up as various 'boot agents'! Might also relieve my RAIDs of some of this:

[:bilbat:9]

 

[al_undy]

Best answer selected by al_undy.

 

[al_undy]

Fixed. Here is a brief summary. Since my ubuntu live usb sticks (2gb kingston and 8gb sandisk sd/usb reader - fat32, created in ubuntu 10.04) would not boot this board even though they would boot my ga-ep45-ud3p, I decided to try bilbat's suggestion with the HP usb boot program. I created the win98 boot disk on the kingston 2gb stick without reformatting. It booted right up. Next, I used windows version of unetbootin to write the ubuntu live cd to the kingston disk. This fired right up and completed the install. Everything seems to be in good order now. I checked the memory settings and optimized settings set it to 1066. Thanks bilbat.

 

[bilbat]

Always [:graywolf:9] !

...and, excellent 'process' deduction! Thanks again for the 'hint' re memory cards; gotta set up to 'fiddle with it' [:bilbat:8]

 

[Guest]

Fixed. Here is a brief summary. Since my ubuntu live usb sticks (2gb kingston and 8gb sandisk sd/usb reader - fat32, created in ubuntu 10.04) would not boot this board even though they would boot my ga-ep45-ud3p, I decided to try bilbat's suggestion with the HP usb boot program. I created the win98 boot disk on the kingston 2gb stick without reformatting. It booted right up. Next, I used windows version of unetbootin to write the ubuntu live cd to the kingston disk. This fired right up and completed the install. Everything seems to be in good order now. I checked the memory settings and optimized settings set it to 1066. Thanks bilbat.

Super! this worked like a charm! (after 2 days of head scratching) Thanks much!