Two Identical PCs, faulting at startup

[azureblue]

Hi there,

I have two identical Advent branded computers, they both have Windows 8.1 fully updated, they're used as encoders around the office and recently they were wiped, switched to Windows 7, wiped again, and put back to 8.1, and now they started having issues booting up.

Sometimes they'll post successfully and hang on the Windows circle (the spinning one) and won't load the OS. Sometimes they'll just go black, sometimes black with the mouse showing and able to move. A restart usually always works and it'll boot perfectly fine, but it's strange how this is happening.

It's hard for me to believe it's a hardware issue because it started happening on both of the PCs at the same time, and it was working absolutely fine before.

I've tried stress testing and hardware diagnostics and it passed a FULL memtest and chkdsk diagnostic. What else could be the culprit?

PS: I have looked through the "check this thread before posting about boot issues" thread. Everything is plugged in fine, no hardware was disconnected or changed, we just wiped the harddrives.

 

[Eduello]

Did you install all the latest drivers for your hardware (check manufacturer's website)?
Try updating BIOS if the newest drivers don't help.

 

[azureblue]

I ran a dxdiag and found out that the motherboard is a FOXCONN model, so I downloaded all the appropriate drivers for it and installed them, and let Windows do the rest. This included chipset and bios. The fact that these computers were working before and aren't working now is odd to me, it must be software-based, perhaps I made an error with the updates? Windows couldn't detect the network adapter before I installed the LAN drivers from the foxconn website.

 

[Eduello]

Do you have the GPU drivers installed (if the PCs have those)?

 

[azureblue]

Sorry for the lack of hardware information, they have onboard graphics, and I installed the drivers for it from the manufacturer's website. GPU, Sound, LAN, Chipset, Bios, were all I installed from the website.

 

[Eduello]

Have you used Windows Update to download all the possible updates? And are you 100% sure you downloaded the drivers for Win 8.1, not some other OS?

 

[sandravlado]

Hi,

you said you re-installed them recently to Windows 8.1 and since then, you are having issues with them?
Did you use the same DVD? Maybe the installation disc is corrupted, so the build was not as it should be.
Since this is a new build, maybe rebuild would be the best option.

 

[azureblue]

The motherboard is a Foxconn H61MXL-K, I just downloaded the latest bios and I got three folders - DOS Image, MEBIOS, and SYSBIOS, I formatted my 16GB Flash Drive to Fat32 and used Win98Boot instead of the DOS Image, since I can't format the drive to FAT, only FAT32. I booted into it and ran the files in mebios and then sysbios and I got the following error messages:

"Error 25: The host CPU does not have write access to the target flash area."

and "The File Size Does Not Match Existing Bios Size"

The motherboard is definitely the model I mentioned, but just to make sure I also tried the files for the non -K model, and it still didn't flash. I updated the chipset but I'm still getting the issues I explained earlier, so I'm kind of confused as to what to do next.

Thanks for your responses btw.

PS: @sandravlado, perhaps, this could be the case. but if it were, I'd prefer to try to do a recovery than a reinstall - we only have so many licenses for Win8. Would recovery be a case of inserting the DVD, booting into it, and selecting recovery like with Windows 7?

 

[Eduello]

You could try it with a different installation disc; The license is tied to the motherboard, so you can use whatever disc you want and use the key from the original installation disc as long as it is the same OS.

 

[azureblue]

Hi Eduello, it seems to have been an issue with the OS - the disc we used must have been temperamental because all of the PCs we used with it reported the same issue. After reinstalling with a different copy so far everything is good. I won't resolve this thread yet until I do more testing tomorrow, though!

 

[Eduello]

Good to know they're working now, let's hope no issues turn up

 

[azureblue]

So at first I didn't have the issue, I installed every single update and patched to 8.1 and installed more updates, I shut down and started up five to ten times and it was perfectly fine, I just installed four applications - Filezilla, Flash Media Live Encoder, Chrome, and the drivers for our Osprey 825e capture card. I installed all of that and shut down, I powered on and yep, black screen. Off, on, windows 8 loading circle freezes. Hmmm..

 

[Eduello]

Odd, try removing one of those programs/drivers at a time and see if it still happens. The issue is probably caused by one of them being incompatible with your BIOS/hardware/OS.

 

[azureblue]

I'm going to try that now - but I need a bit of help with something first... My BIOS. I'd like to update it, but the only way to do it is by flashing, and I tried all of the ones from the foxconn website and they both gave me the errors I detailed. Is it just a lost cause to try and flash the bios, then?

 

[Eduello]

Well it may indeed be a lost cause since you already tried it...

 

[azureblue]

Honestly I reiterated it because I wasn't sure if I did it properly. I used a Win 98 image to boot from my usb stick and then I tried running the bios files and I got errors. I shouldn't have had to do anything before then, right? Like replace the cmos battery or anything like that?

 

[azureblue]

It's the Osprey drivers! They're causing the issue. Wow. I'll follow it up with those guys directly and see if they have a solution for this issue..

 

[Eduello]

Yeah, that would be best, they'll probably have to fix the drivers. Try using an older version of the drivers, maybe that'll work.

 

[azureblue]

Thanks, I shot them an email since they don't have any drivers archived. We're also going to try reverting to Windows 7 if this won't work. You'd think by now people would have caught up with Windows 8, oh well!

 

[Eduello]

Hopefully they'll answer, I don't have experience on the quality of their customer support...

 

[azureblue]

They got back to me with a new beta driver. I installed it but now I'm getting problems with the rear usb ports - they aren't functioning, and under device manager Intel Management Engine Interface is yellow exclamation marked, as is an entry for Unknown USB Device under USB Controllers..

When plugging the mouse and keyboard into the frontal ports they work fine, I tried updating the chipset and found a Management Engine driver, but they didn't work. I wish I could update the bios properly because on the foxconn website they say under the newest entry "support for windows 8", so not having it is a little disconcerting, but it'd be nice if they could update their bios to an executable.

 

[Eduello]

Well I'm not so knowledgeable with Foxconn boards (never had one), so I really can't give you any detailed answers on the BIOS update. You could try contacting Foxconn and hope they have good customer service...

 

[azureblue]

Turns out it was a driver incompatibility with Windows 8.1.

 

[Eduello]

So you won't be able to use the Osprey cards? That's a shame, but at least we know what caused the issue.