Desperate help needed - PC won't boot!

[Harrybizzle]

New build. At the moment is just an i3 in a B75M-ITX motherboard.

PSU and fans all hooked up. Trying to use internal graphics. No optical drive atm.

I can boot and get into UEFI no problem. Sometimes it can find the SSD, sometimes it can't.


It basically sits on the splash screen and does nothing. If I go into the UEFI I can change the boot order, etc, but it still won't boot from the USB with Windows 8 on it (it is a bootable USB). If I hit F11 I can pick what to boot from - it sees the USB and I can select it, but then it freezes.


Any help would be much appreciated -I'm tearing my hair out here. Is my mobo faulty?

[Terbinator]

Have your formatted the USB driver properly so it is bootable?

Make sure the USB drive is in a USB 2.0 slot as well - Windows installation won't play nice if its in a 3.0 one.

[Harrybizzle]

Yes, I've done both of those things. This is driving me crazy. Going to try to install Ubuntu via USB and also going to try installing windows on a HDD and putting that in to see if it works.

[Terbinator]

What brand board are you using and what is the model name of your other components?

[rtyall]

Have you tried booting another PC using the USB stick, to make sure it works?
Have you tried recreating the windows 7 on the stick & did you use the MS tool rather unetbootin or another app?

Terbinator is right, the blue USB3 ports cannot be used to install Windows with, only the black USB2 ones.

If the SSD is intermittently you should definitely try another sata cable, preferably one with locking clasps.

[Harrybizzle]

I am using an ASrock B75M-ITX motherboard, i3-2120, 8 GB (4x2) Corsair 1.5V Vengeance LP and Coolermaster RS5 500W PSU.


I don't have an ODD so I put the SSD in my laptop and installed Windows 8. I put this in the PC and it booted up once and then failed to do so afterwards. On putting it back in my laptop it said "No OS found." The SSD is new so may be faulty.

I then did the same with a mechanical drive. This has not booted at all and is also intermittently detected.

I have created the USB stick by both the MS tool and creating a bootable USB in cmd.exe and extracting the ISO. Both work fine in my laptop.

I have tried both SATA cables.

Tomorrow I will be heading down to the shops to get an Optical Disc Drive to try an install directly on the device. If it can even boot from the ODD I'll be making progress.

Otherwise I may have to return the mobo.

[rtyall]

Take it even with only a USB device attached & the SSD disconnected it still won't boot?
Sounds like it may be more than one issue then, judging by your diags, & I would also be thinking about returning the mobo.

[Harrybizzle]

Hi,

I got a new Asus motherboard and it's worked perfectly.

Thanks very much,

Harry.