Samsung laptop only boots to Vista when disc is in the drive.

[Saxon2012]

Hi all,

Here's hoping someone can help me please.

I have a Samsung R505 laptop that was brought to me for a simple Windows reinstall, I was even supplied with the original recovery media (always a bonus). The problem I am having is that after completing the Vista installation, which runs with no errors and goes to the desktop, and then rebooting the laptop, it will not boot without the Vista disc in the DVD Drive.  I have tried several HDD's, different CD Drive, different versions of Windows (original Vista and  tried installing Win 7 and get exactly same result.), BIOS updates, swap tested RAM, nothing makes any difference, it will only boot to Windows if i leave the Vista, or other bootable disc, in the drive and ignore the 'Press any key to boot from CD' message. If the disc is ejected when the prompt is on screen, it will continue to boot normally, but will not boot if the disc is not in the drive when the laptop is 1st powered on.

There are no options to change any relevant settings in BIOS. I have been repairing laptops for over 10 years and this is by far the biggest challenge to date.

If anyone else out there has any other ideas i would gladly try them, having exhausted everything i can think of.

Many thanks in advance.

Tony

[hartbeatmr]

Good afternoon Saxon2012

Go into the bios and make sure the 1st boot device is the HD and then look and see if "network / pxe" booting is enabled if it is disable the PXE booting this will not disable the network devices it just will stop it from network booting.

Maybe the simple windows install was the reason of why you got it and there is a underlying issue that you were not made of.

If there is an option for "booting from other devices"like e-sata. If they are there just disabling them also.

When you are booting is there any usb / Bluetooth devices plugged in.

Another thought is there any cards in the card reader? 

If I can think of anything else I will let you know, Mike

 

[Allan]

So you are sure the mbr is correct (you've run fixboot and fixmbr?) and hd is first device in the bios boot order (I know it shouldn't matter, but given the circumstances of this problem......)?

[patio]

Vista Repair Install...

[Saxon2012]

Thanks for the responses guys,

However, none of the suggestions work. I have tried all of them before i resorted to asking for help (i hate being beat by a machine )

It has had 3 different HDD's fitted, so i can rule out a physical failure there, or even mbr issues. PXE boot is disabled by default, no eSata, no 'external' devices plugged in, even removed the DVD drive so there is only 1 physical device it can boot from, still fails.

Completely stumped and about to admit defeat 

Tony

[Computer_Commando]

Modify the Boot Configuration Data (BCD) with BCDEdit.exe or Easy BCD.
Bootloader must be missing from HD.
http://neosmart.net/EasyBCD/

I suspect that you did not use the Recovery Partition & the recovery media corrupted the System Partition.  Vista & Win7 do not have a boot.ini like XP had.  They also have a System, Boot, (likely a Recovery), & Tools (maybe) Partitions.

[year+ old attachment deleted by admin]

[patio]

3 HDD's...probably part of the issue here...
Remove all but the Vista HDD and run the repair i linked to above....re-boot after.

[Computer_Commando]

3 HDD's...probably part of the issue here...
Remove all but the Vista HDD and run the repair i linked to above....re-boot after.

It's a laptop, only 1 drive installed at a time.

[Saxon2012]

Commando,

Surely using 3 different HDD'S & different recovery media will rule out any problem with the BCD and/or recovery partition? but just to test the theory, i had already used Easy BCD, made no difference.

It's last chance saloon for this machine today, spent 4 days on it now and got nowhere. I am suspecting some kind of MB fault, just never seen anything like this before.

and Patio, Commando is right, it's a laptop so only ever one drive fitted at any one time.

[Computer_Commando]

If you haven't already done so, I would flash the BIOS with the latest version; 08VA, 5 Jan, 2010
http://www.samsung.com/uk/support/model/NP-R505-FA02UK-downloads

If you have, then try removing or disconnecting the CD drive.

[Saxon2012]

Already updated BIOS to 08VA, and tried booting with DVD drive removed.

I've decided 4 days is enough and I'm giving up on it. Have come to the conclusion that there is some wierd kind of MB fault, so am giving it back to customer.

I'll give them the option that they can use it perfectly fine if they don't mind leaving the disc in the drive when booting.

Thanks for all your contributions and suggestions guys, and if anyone ever comes across a similar thing and finds a solution, please let me know just so I know what it was that beat me   

[patio]

You are stating that the Vista Repair Install did not work ??

[Saxon2012]

Yes I am, Vista Install repair failed, as did Win 7 when i installed that.

[mikef666666]

Hi Mate,

Did you manage to get this problem sorted ?

Cheers Mike.