Question No physical memory is available at the location required for the Windows Boot Manager. The system cannot continue

[jkrim]

I have a UEFI capable Dell Latitude E6530 laptop that is set to Legacy Boot mode and Legacy Boot ROMOS enabled and it was working perfectly with MBR on the hard disk booting Windows 10 PRO and another non-Windows OS. Now all my Legacy Boot options (F12 when BIOS appears) when tried (Hard Disk and DVD/CD) give the message "No physical memory is availible at the location required for the Windows Boot Manager. The system cannot continue. " I am booting loegacy so why in the world is the Windows Boot Manager even involved now? I have checked the memory multiple times (16 GB) and no errors occur. All data on the disk is available. I have tired repairs using the Recovery disk which only boots in UEFI mode so that may be a problem dealing with the MBR disk but I have been informed many tools should adjust to whichever is actually on the disk. I think this problem happened because I pulled a USB stick out of the computer while the BIOS screen was active (maybe just booting Windows?). I don't see how that could have created a hardware problem, but I have been told that error message is indicative of a hardware issue. I have checked and rechecked the BIOS settings and I cannot see anything pointing to UEFI still being enabled, so suggestions entertained. But otherwise, I need some input on what else could be "broken" in the hardware or firmware to possibly think the computer is still in UEFI mode even though the F12 options say Legacy Boot and non of them will boot any legacy device except perhaps a FreeDOS based CD but certainly not Macrium Reflect, any Windows ISO or recovery disk, or Hiren's PE CD. All those have to boot with UEFI. Before the death of Legacy Boot I think many of these woulkd boot fine in Legacy Boot (F12) mode.

Thanks,
Jordan Krim

 

[Colif]

if recovery drive will only boot in UEFI mode, try using the installer instead as it should boot in either. I don't use many recovery drives myself - On another PC, download the Windows 10 media creation tool and use it to make a win 10 installer on USB

It seems unlikely that the bios only works in UEFI boot mode, I guess it is possible as in many UEFI, legacy functions are an add on. Most have both choices though.

UEFI is the BIOS. See Spoiler below

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
Win 11 only supports GPT for new installs.


UEFI boot method can boot both MBR & GPT drives.
Legacy can only boot MBR, it doesn't know what GPT is for booting

it is both the BIOS and a boot method. That is what confuses people.

can you show some photos of what you see in bios?
Upload to an image sharing website and show links here.

What did you use to test the ram?

causes of that message include
ram that isn't seated right... seems unlikely in a laptop but maybe.
hdd not connected right

 

[TerryLaze]

I have a UEFI capable Dell Latitude E6530 laptop that is set to Legacy Boot mode and Legacy Boot ROMOS enabled

With romOS do you mean a basic operating system that is part of uefi?
Maybe it is on a small partition and that got too full for it to run?

 

[Colif]

I think he means Legacy Boot roms, if you look in bios manuals you often see them mentioned under CSM area. They used by UEFI to emulate BIOS features.

for example

Dell (Bios already set to UEFI w/ Legacy Boot Rom enabled & SecureBoot Disabled before upgrade)

link

 

[jkrim]

if recovery drive will only boot in UEFI mode, try using the installer instead as it should boot in either. I don't use many recovery drives myself - On another PC, download the Windows 10 media creation tool and use it to make a win 10 installer on USB

It seems unlikely that the bios only works in UEFI boot mode, I guess it is possible as in many UEFI, legacy functions are an add on. Most have both choices though.

UEFI is the BIOS. See Spoiler below

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
Win 11 only supports GPT for new installs.


UEFI boot method can boot both MBR & GPT drives.
Legacy can only boot MBR, it doesn't know what GPT is for booting

it is both the BIOS and a boot method. That is what confuses people.

can you show some photos of what you see in bios?
Upload to an image sharing website and show links here.

What did you use to test the ram?

causes of that message include
ram that isn't seated right... seems unlikely in a laptop but maybe.
hdd not connected right

I used Memtest86 and the built in Dell Diagnostics to test the memory. I actually took out both 8 GB DIMMs and swapped them and only installed one at a time. It did not change the error message.