[SOLVED] New windows desktop can see boot drives only if video card installed ???

[jeffw_00]

Hi - a couple of months ago the MOBO in one of my wife's business's whitebox Desktop PCs finally died. I took the machine to my local shop and asked them to build a new machine and use the existing SSD drive. They did so, but they said that when they originally booted it, Windows (10) flagged a licensing issue, so they installed the video card from the old machine (a old nVIDIA GeForce 210) and it booted fine. I was a little disappointed (I was intending to use the dual HDMI on the new Asus B560M-A AC MOBO) but we needed to get the PC back in service quickly so I went with it. 6 weeks later, things slowed down, and I wanted to verify the licensing issue. [I paid for all my windows licenses and so have been successfully been able to move them from machine to machine without issue. Here, where the SSD was moved from one machine to another, it surprised me that they couldn't move it into the base machine but needed to move the video card with it.]

So, I opened up the machine and pulled the video card. Long story short, here's what I observed.

a) Video card installed, monitor connected to video card: Works great

b) Video card not-installed, OR Video card installed and video not connected to video card (connected directly to PC): It stops at the BiOS and claims there are no bootable drives. The BiOS lists the drives, but it no longer thinks any of the drives are bootable.

I called the store and asked them if they did anything special to the BiOS when they put the card in, they said no. (and in fact, the graphics selection menu in the BiOS is set to AUTO). They did say they check the Sata controller, CSM, and secure boot settings, but not the graphics.

I am baffled.

Use the Video card, Works great.
Don't use the Video card, BiOS says "no Bootable drives".

Any suggestions?

Thanks!
/j

 

[rgd1101]

full system spec?
version of the windows?
try doing a fresh os install?

 

[SkyNetRising]

They did say they check the Sata controller, CSM, and secure boot settings, but not the graphics.
I am baffled.

Disable secure boot.

 

[jeffw_00]

Asus B560M-A AC MOBO, Intel I5-10400 CPU 8GB Memory x64, Windows 10 Home, 19044.1645

Not following your other question - I can't boot off the drive (It's a BIOS issue), so why/how would I do a "fresh OS Install"?

 

[USAFRet]

Hi - a couple of months ago the MOBO in one of my wife's business's whitebox Desktop PCs finally died. I took the machine to my local shop and asked them to build a new machine and use the existing SSD drive. They did so, but they said that when they originally booted it, Windows (10) flagged a licensing issue, so they installed the video card from the old machine (a old nVIDIA GeForce 210) and it booted fine. I was a little disappointed (I was intending to use the dual HDMI on the new Asus B560M-A AC MOBO) but we needed to get the PC back in service quickly so I went with it. 6 weeks later, things slowed down, and I wanted to verify the licensing issue. [I paid for all my windows licenses and so have been successfully been able to move them from machine to machine without issue. Here, where the SSD was moved from one machine to another, it surprised me that they couldn't move it into the base machine but needed to move the video card with it.]

The GPU has nothing to do with the OS function or licensing.

A whole new PC, you really really need to do a full OS reinstall.
Any "shop" that is even a little bit clueful would have told you this, and advised on a way forward.

The licensing and actual operation are two different things.
Since you have a valid Windows license, no problem.
But it still needs a full OS reinstall.
Apply that license to the new install.

 

[jeffw_00]

SkyNetRising - you said
"Disable secure boot. "
Thanks.
I believe it is disabled. Secure Boot - OS Type is set to "Other" (other option is "Windows UEFI Mode") And Secure Boot Mode is set to Custom (and not Standard).

 

[jeffw_00]

USAFRet: Thanks for your response. I do not want to disagee with a moderator, but if the problem is that the BiOS can't find a boot drive, how will reinstalling the OS on the Boot Drive that the BiOS can't find, help the BiOS find it?

Also - please note that this machine in it's current configuration has run fine for weeks, and shows all signs of continuing to run fine in the future, as long as the video card is installed. So the move of the disk to new hardware (which W10 does support) seems to have gone smoothly here. I just can't figure out why the BiOS needs a Video card in order to detect bootable drives. It's a puzzler.

 

[USAFRet]

USAFRet: Thanks for your response. I do not want to disagee with a moderator, but if the problem is that the BiOS can't find a boot drive, how will reinstalling the OS on the Boot Drive that the BiOS can't find, help the BiOS find it?

Also - please note that this machine in it's current configuration has run fine for weeks, and shows all signs of continuing to run fine in the future, as long as the video card is installed. So the move of the disk to new hardware (which W10 does support) seems to have gone smoothly here. I just can't figure out why the BiOS needs a Video card in order to detect bootable drives. It's a puzzler.

Have you tried booting from a Win 10 install USB?


When changing a motherboard and using the old drive+OS, three possible outcomes:

1. It works just fine
2. It fails completely
3. It "works", but you're chasing issues for weeks/months.

Seems like you are at #3.


As far as the BIOS + GPU thing...what are the actual parts in this system?

 

[jeffw_00]

Have you tried booting from a Win 10 install USB?


When changing a motherboard and using the old drive+OS, three possible outcomes:

1. It works just fine
2. It fails completely
3. It "works", but you're chasing issues for weeks/months.

Seems like you are at #3.


As far as the BIOS + GPU thing...what are the actual parts in this system?

Hi USAFRet:
- When the card is not installed I have not been able to boot it off -any- device, HDD, USB, or DVD-ROM.
- I've moved Hard disks to new MOBO/CPU/Memory dozens of times and it's always been #1 for me. It's #1 for me this time too. I probably shouldn't have told the long story of how I got here because the simple fact is that "video card installed, system boots, video card not installed, system claims there are no boot drives". This is independent of whatever is on the boot drive (old windows, new windows install, Linux, whatever).
System: Asus B560M-A AC MOBO, Intel I5-10400 CPU 8GB Memory x64, Windows 10 Home, 19044.1645
Video card: nVidia GeForce 210 (yes, it's quite old, that why I don't want to depend on it).

 

[USAFRet]

Hi USAFRet:

• When the card is not installed I have not been able to boot it off -any- device, HDD, USB, or DVD-ROM.
• I've moved Hard disks to new MOBO/CPU/Memory dozens of times and it's always been #1 for me. It's #1 for me this time too. I probably shouldn't have told the long story of how I got here because the simple fact is that "video card installed, system boots, video card not installed, system claims there are no boot drives". This is independent of whatever is on the boot drive (old windows, new windows install, Linux, whatever).

System: Asus B560M-A AC MOBO, Intel I5-10400 CPU 8GB Memory x64, Windows 10 Home, 19044.1645
Video card: nVidia GeForce 210 (yes, it's quite old, that why I don't want to depend on it).

Well, from my 1-2-3 above, I've personally seen all 3.

But, to the current problem...with no GPU and "no boot", does it give any error messages?

 

[jeffw_00]

USAFRet: No error message - with the card pulled it boots to the BiOS menu. Everything looks fine. It even lists the connected drives. But under "boot order" there are no devices listed, and F8 -> Boot Menu produces a popup "No Boot Devices available". Really weird. I put the card back in, connect the monitor to it and it boots perfectly. Very repeatable and no other issues. I'm an engineer who used to design CPUs back in the day. I generally understand this stuff and I'm very meticulous about what's on my machines and so my experience may be better than most. But this one baffles me.

 

[USAFRet]

USAFRet: No error message - with the card pulled it boots to the BiOS menu. Everything looks fine. It even lists the connected drives. But under "boot order" there are no devices listed, and F8 -> Boot Menu produces a popup "No Boot Devices available". Really weird. I put the card back in, connect the monitor to it and it boots perfectly. Very repeatable and no other issues. I'm an engineer who used to design CPUs back in the day. I generally understand this stuff and I'm very meticulous about what's on my machines and so my experience may be better than most. But this one baffles me.

I can't visualize how the GPU impacts the BIOS and boot order.

All I can think of is faulty motherboard.


Maybe someone else will chime in.

 

[rgd1101]

latest motherboard bios?

 

[jeffw_00]

yes

 

[jeffw_00]

In another forum it was suggested that some new integrated video solutions only work with UEFI/GPT setups, and my boot drives are all MBR.