Zoostorm PC wont show boot menu.

[Frogger]

Im trying to fix a zoostorm 7910 desktop.

It has a foxconn G31MX-K mobo. The thing is, upon power on, it keeps looping from start menu to restart and back.

I cant press the esc button to enter the boot menu. Ive removed the battery and wiped the cmos and even tried it with no jumper on, but I cant access the boot menu as it doesnt seem to be there.

I changed the boot options in bios and set the DVD-Rom to boot 1st but its just not operating at all. I put a Sata DVD rom in and set this to master and set the HD to slave and vice versa.

Basically no matter what I do, nothing will allow me a boot menu. I tried downloading the bios and burnt it to disc but as I said its no use if I can select which drive to boot from.

[mtv1]

tried f2 or the space bar on starting ?

might try a ide dvd rom :dontknow:

[Frogger]

tried f2 or the space bar on starting ?

might try a ide dvd rom :dontknow:

IDE not recognized. Wont show up in bios.

Tried spacebar and all f buttons, but not getting past startup. Its stuck in a loop of some sort.

BTW the keyboard is working as delete allows bios access.

[cunny]

So the board posts. Then what happens?? You say it loops but what exactly is happening.

If its win xp shows loading screen then reboots?

If so run chkdsk /r from a xp cd iin repair mode

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[Frogger]

So the board posts. Then what happens?? You say it loops but what exactly is happening.

If its win xp shows loading screen then reboots?

If so run chkdsk /r from a xp cd iin repair mode

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Its windows 7. Basically it boots with the normal options, but the only working option is the bios and Tab to show boot screen. All other commands are null.

No access to boot menu suggests the very bios may be corrupt, but as i cant access the boot menu I cannot reflash the bios.

By a loop, I mean pc boots, show a few options, like press tab for post screen, and once I press tab, basicaally the whole system restarts.

I tried a different hard drive and and another stata drive and its he same.

The PC is like this due to a friend changing his PSU from 305w to a 550 to install a geforce 9800 gt gfx card.

Now with both psu`s its just looping.

What causes this? Would the board be damaged?

[Reapers]

ok lets fix it first before trying to do a clean install windows on it shall we?
do you have a windows disc of the same bit as the operating system?
its not the psu btw if it was the psu it would not boot at all same goes for the board or bios
also you said you could not get to safe mode can you access the list? disable the auto restart to find the error?

put all the hardware back to what it was first and reset bios to factory and have the hdd as top and cd/dvd/bluray as second
if you get to the windows logo screen the bios is fine if it crashed and restarted their then thats the issue whether its a hardware configuration
issue/sometimes viruses can do damage to the boot sector/master boot record which is easily fixed

put in the windows disc
go to repair the computer
then let it load then
go to command prompt then
type bootrec.exe /FixMbr
bootrec.exe /FixBoot

[Frogger]

ok lets fix it first before trying to do a clean install windows on it shall we?
do you have a windows disc of the same bit as the operating system?
its not the psu btw if it was the psu it would not boot at all same goes for the board or bios
also you said you could not get to safe mode can you access the list? disable the auto restart to find the error?

put all the hardware back to what it was first and reset bios to factory and have the hdd as top and cd/dvd/bluray as second
if you get to the windows logo screen the bios is fine if it crashed and restarted their then thats the issue whether its a hardware configuration
issue/sometimes viruses can do damage to the boot sector/master boot record which is easily fixed

put in the windows disc
go to repair the computer
then let it load then
go to command prompt then
type bootrec.exe /FixMbr
bootrec.exe /FixBoot

Before posting on here at all..

I know its not the PSU.

I done all the reset to defaults and removed the cmos battery etc and also tried switching and booting with and without cmos jumper on the board.

Basically, it sounds like a hardware error as it only happened when PC was fitted with new geforce gfx card and new psu with 6 pin power i/o.

I have backtracked on everything that was dont and the only thing i notice is that IDE CD-rom is not being recognized.

PC makes a clicking noise and reboots when IDE drives inserted, but thats due to SATA only set in bios, or it could be that could be the CDVD-Rom failing, as the friend said it was acting up before it ended up like this.

@ Reaper. Yes. I have all OS on disc. I`ll have a few different/varied attempts at your suggestions and post back. Im not ruling a virus out, but its the least likely at the minute.

Thanks for your help folks.

BBS...

[Reapers]

@ frogger sorry i assumed the card came with pc how new is it? did you install drivers for it?
because that might be the issue their some nvivda drivers go corrupt (the display driver) and
make the computer unable to boot.usual ways to try to fix that is remove and reinstall the driver
either through safe mode.also using another graphics card or on board graphics and then removing
the driver to allow you to reinstall your driver

[Frogger]

@ frogger sorry i assumed the card came with pc how new is it? did you install drivers for it?
because that might be the issue their some nvivda drivers go corrupt (the display driver) and
make the computer unable to boot.usual ways to try to fix that is remove and reinstall the driver
either through safe mode.also using another graphics card or on board graphics and then removing
the driver to allow you to reinstall your driver


PC is a few months old and came from a catalogue and the gfx card is pretty new, but it came from a Gaming PC from a mate who was upgrading his GFX card.

Im just about to upload a video of whats happening. I can`t find the "disable Auto Restart" in cmos.

The drivers were installed pre the PC failing. But I cant even get to safe mode.

You will see whats happening once I up the video.

Im bluetoothing it now. Its upoaded now.

Let me know what ya think or whats wrong with this. Pressing TAB shows post screen but no Boot menu.

[cunny]

This is what i would do.

Put the HDD on IDE Channel 0 as Master (ensuring that jumper is set to master)

IN bios ensure that HDD is selected under HDD's

[Frogger]

This is what i would do.

Put the HDD on IDE Channel 0 as Master (ensuring that jumper is set to master)

IN bios ensure that HDD is selected under HDD's


Did you view the video I upped?

HDD is SATA only.

[cunny]

This is what i would do.

Put the HDD on IDE Channel 0 as Master (ensuring that jumper is set to master)

IN bios ensure that HDD is selected under HDD's

I only saw IDE, try changing drive mode see if it boots then

Mine is under storage configuration. Try changing from IDE to AHCI see if it helps then.

Did you say you had a spare HDD. You could format that with windows. Putt off any data needed off the other drive then format it then.

[Frogger]

Weird thing is. I cant see AHCI in the bios. What do you all think has caused this?

A hardware error causing a fault in the bootsector?

[cunny]

Im not sure. Its not seeing the bootsector but seeing the hdd. If it was the bootsector it would say its missi g or something. Try booting a windows dvd see if it recognises the hdd under setup. If it does. Id format thst spare drive and pull any pics an stuff u want savin then wipe the drive and start a fresh

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[Frogger]

Im not sure. Its not seeing the bootsector but seeing the hdd. If it was the bootsector it would say its missi g or something. Try booting a windows dvd see if it recognises the hdd under setup. If it does. Id format thst spare drive and pull any pics an stuff u want savin then wipe the drive and start a fresh

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I tried booting OS Vista there on Dvd-rom with HDD set to channel 0+ 1 and slave/master but its still looping. Jumper on Master as well. But when I swap the Jumper to cmos 2 the PC wont even power on.

Tried the win7 HDD in my PC and it boots up no problem. Is it possible a virus could cause this to the boot sector? Or could it be that the zoostorm HDD boots fine in my PC but not in the mates due to a fault in Boot.mem?

What if I try my HDD in the PC thats not booting? If it doesn't boot, would I be able to set my HDD to create a dump or a mini log file of what's happening on the non-booting PC?

[Frogger]

@ frogger sorry i assumed the card came with pc how new is it? did you install drivers for it?
because that might be the issue their some nvivda drivers go corrupt (the display driver) and
make the computer unable to boot.usual ways to try to fix that is remove and reinstall the driver
either through safe mode.also using another graphics card or on board graphics and then removing
the driver to allow you to reinstall your driver

Tried that with my HD card in the PCI slot on the Zoostorm. THe HDD boots in y PC but not his.

Im gonna try my HDD in his now.......


The bios has a stack of different boot options, and allows me to change from HDD to DVD rom as the priority boot, but the main boot priority only has the following to change......

ch 0: Hitachi (serial num hdd)
ch 1: bootable add-in cards

Should there not be a DVD-rom or Removable USB devices in the section?

[cunny]

Have you checked the manual for this board see if it can shed any light?

If the hdd works fine in your machine then jts not a hdd iissue. How abiut ram?

Try changing sata cables and reset all jumpers back to orignial settings. If they are sata then they wont need jumpers plus try resetting bios again by loading defaults.

Whats the make and version of the bios?


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[Frogger]

Have you checked the manual for this board see if it can shed any light?

If the hdd works fine in your machine then jts not a hdd iissue. How abiut ram?

Try changing sata cables and reset all jumpers back to orignial settings. If they are sata then they wont need jumpers plus try resetting bios again by loading defaults.

Whats the make and version of the bios?


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The Phoenix award bios ID is G31-M04.GA.C4.S.07

The mobo is FoxConn G?1MX-K (Series = N15235)

I checked before posting here for PDF files on this but couldt find any that had the right info on it. They were basic PDfs with just power settings and socket I/Os.

What dya mean by "how about ram?"

I tried different sata leads and it picks up the HDD and DVD drive but wont boot Windows Disc still.

Its as though the bios has some form of safe boot built in and is rebooting to stop any changes creating otp faults.


Check This Link to foxconn (http://www.foxconnchannel.com/ProductDetail.aspx?T=motherboard&U=en-us0000452)

This is all I could find on the mobo. What about USB boot to erase and reflash bios?

[cunny]

Have u reset your boot order and drive orders? In the bios can you highligh the hdd and change any settings?

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[Reapers]

after taking a quick look at the video its the driver theirs nothing wrong with hdd
its the driver if it was the card itself it would not boot at all and if it did it would with weird colors
and pixels on the screen

like cunny said best to check ram check each 1 at a time if there fine then lets move on also after hearing about
the ahci go to the bios check the settings and also check the sata controller is enabled since the bios was reset
most likely driver though corrupt drivers was common with the 6000-9000 of nvidia products at that time

options?

i checked your board specs says you have an onboard graphics card

http://www.foxconnchannel.com/Upload/Mainboard/201112175b38f96f-192f-4f55-b703-dfab9d8cdc1dSmall.jpg http://www.foxconnchannel.com/upload/Mainboard/201112190ad6469e-6daa-4757-8fde-36b3bc22e7d3Small.jpg
did you change it to agp/pci express graphic on the bios?

when theirs more than one graphics options sometimes you have to set which to use in the bios
save/exit/restartif make no difference

go back to bios change it on board graphics switch your vga/dvi/hdmi ito the onboard the boot using on board
graphics card then remove the driver the restart the pc

go to bios change card to your Nvidia graphics let it boot windows

switch your cable to your card as well then boot windows

then reinstall the driver

[cunny]

I think its either hdd controller issue or as you said. Graphics controller. Doubt its ram but wont hurt to remove a dimm or ensure its seated right.



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