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P8Z68 V PRO GEN3: Cannot boot from USB??!

O

OJay

Member
Tring to boot from my usb stick in order to flash my card's bios. USB is fine and perfectly bootable as I've tried it on a laptop and it boots just fine.

I've noticed when I plug the USB stick in the BIOS reads 'UFI: SMI USB stick'. I've changed that entry to priority 1 and no-go. Went into advanced tab in the UEFI BIOS and categorized it as HDD. Went back to boot menu and now it just reads 'SMI USB Stick. Changed that to priority 1, still no go. Disabled all other boot devices in which case it gives me a blank screen asking me to insert a boot device.

Help please.
 
Not sure if this would make a difference, but have you checked to see if you are using a USB2.0 drive versus a USB3.0 drive?
 
In the bios ez menu does the usb stick show up?

UEFI_BOOT.jpg


You can barely see it in the photo but did you click on the boot menu and pick the drive.

Maybe try redoing your usb stick. When I did my 5850 I think I used this guide to make my bootable stick.

http://www.techpowerup.com/forums/showthread.php?t=57750

Not sure why your motherboard won't boot it....Other than maybe it's corrupt?

With the usb stick in on bootup when you go into bios > advanced > boot options does the stick show up in the boot over ride section if so you can click it and it'll boot if bootable.
 
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I've had the same problem with that board (the non GEN3-revision).

My experience is that it will NOT progress down the boot sequence after checking certain devices (like a raid 5 array controlled by the chipset).

Make sure it's the absolute first boot device, or else it won't boot.
 
well, it gets a bit tricky
It actually says UEFI SMI USB
SMI is brand name
Any FAT32 formatted USB drive in a UEFI bios is considered UEFI GPT - because the UEFI Win 7 O/S efi.sys is FAT32
So when inserting the FAT32 stick and booting to it and going into bios, TWO icons are created - UEFI and non UEFI. If you do a mouse rollover on EZ page you will see two HDD icons (USB is considered HDD), one SMI with UEFI strap, one SMI without strap. You need to drag and drop the non UEFI SMI to first place, reboot to shutdown, boot to USB. Also note that a FAT32 formatted or Win 7 X64 UEFI GPT HDD (USB) will NOT boot through a non UEFI icon HDD or optical.
If you wish to boot any UEFI designated EZ page ICON you must pick the winbootmanager option in boot page and place it first in boot order,.

It would also be helpful to have a screenshot of exactly whats on your stick, so I can see whats involved
 
Kenmitch, I'm using the advanced BIOS menu and the USB does show up there as bankster says in two entries. I've tried prioritizing with both and it does not boot. I also disabled all other boot devices and it tells me 'insert boot device'. I've also tried booting from it using the F8 key and it gives me 'no system files' error or something along these lines. I tried a different stick (I used the same guide u gave me for both sticks btw) and this time if I boot with the F8 key I get a blank screen with 'j' on the top left corner and the text marker isnt blinking. I cant type anything. Btw this is all using the non-UFI boot option for the USB (the UFI option just goes straight to windows).
 
bankster55 said:
well, it gets a bit tricky
It actually says UEFI SMI USB
SMI is brand name
Any FAT32 formatted USB drive in a UEFI bios is considered UEFI GPT - because the UEFI Win 7 O/S efi.sys is FAT32
So when inserting the FAT32 stick and booting to it and going into bios, TWO icons are created - UEFI and non UEFI. If you do a mouse rollover on EZ page you will see two HDD icons (USB is considered HDD), one SMI with UEFI strap, one SMI without strap. You need to drag and drop the non UEFI SMI to first place, reboot to shutdown, boot to USB. Also note that a FAT32 formatted or Win 7 X64 UEFI GPT HDD (USB) will NOT boot through a non UEFI icon HDD or optical.
If you wish to boot any UEFI designated EZ page ICON you must pick the winbootmanager option in boot page and place it first in boot order,.

It would also be helpful to have a screenshot of exactly whats on your stick, so I can see whats involved
Click to expand...

Yes you are right. There is always two entries: UFI and non-UFI. As I understand I need to do a non-UFI boot to get into DOS. (my OS is Win7 pro x64 and I formatted the usb with FAT32 using hp bootdisk utility and win98boot files. If I select the UFI option btw, thre system just boots into windows. Here are the two screen shots of each of the USBs I tried:

usb1.png

By ojay77

usb2h.png

By ojay77
 
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those pics are too small to see, change monitor res to something lower and use win 7 snip tool, save as jpg
Make sure you have legacy USB 2-3 enabled in bios
You dont need the HP utility, its for making bootable O/S
You should format the stick in Win 7 as FAT32
then you should load just the basic 98 setup files

msdos.sys
I/O.sys
command.com
firmwareupdate.exe
firmwarexxxx.bin
You may need a generic KB driver
The fw update doesnt happen automatically, you will have to use dos to type in firmwareupdate.exe when you see correct drive letter for USB

Just tell me where the updater and file is - so I can download them
 
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1. tried flashing in win7 using winflash but it didnt work.... just got a loading bar but no confirmation message... BIOS is still the same

2. how r u gonna trouble shoot this? do u happen to have the same mobo?

thanks for ur help man
 
Make sure it is formatted with MBR and not GPT. Also, make sure it is FAT16/32. If you format it with FAT! NTFS WILL NOT WORK FOR FLASHING BIOS...from a usb stick. Also, as a boot disk, GPT is just a pain in the neck for boot drives, windows 7 does not get along with GPT on boot disks without a ton of hassle.

Summary:

FOR FLASHING BIOS:

MAKE SURE USB STICK IS MBR, NOT GPT
MAKE SURE USB STICK IS FORMATTED AS FAT32 AND NOT NTFS

TO BOOT

DO A MANUAL OVERRIDE, do NOT choose UEFI boot! YOU ARE not doing a UEFI boot, do the plain boot. That is the "usb drive" in the boot menu that doesn't have a UEFI precursor beside it! You aren't UEFI booting.
 
OJay said:
1. tried flashing in win7 using winflash but it didnt work.... just got a loading bar but no confirmation message... BIOS is still the same

2. how r u gonna trouble shoot this? do u happen to have the same mobo?

thanks for ur help man
Click to expand...

I have 5 SB mobo including yours

All my USB are 3.0 and 32GB and larger

I'm gonna have to buy a cheap USB 2.0 8 GB drive at Fry's.
Maybe formatting doesnt get the bootblock - I'm gonna try killdisking it.

I will get it figured out, never let anything beat me with this crap.

Two things:
In GPU-Z are you ALEADY at the bios you want?
Somebody renamed the bios to 6970.rom - there is no such thing. The downloaded bios are as such:
ATI.HD6970.2048.101124.bin
If you are not in DOS you dont need 8 letters or less.
So, I ask again, WHERE did you get the bios? From some idiot who modded it?
Whats the link to the bios and whats the link to the forum thrd where this is promoted?
 
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Ah, finally, did need to use the HP utility to get the boot image integrated
Automatically came up as "C" even tho "K" in windows
I ran the atiflash.exe but it wanted switches - gave me a big list of them, Which can easily be researched, but not by me. If your windows flash showed action but did nothing means you have a file prob. If it didnt run in windows, it wont run in DOS.
Right?

2djaulw.jpg
 
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OJay said:
Kenmitch, I'm using the advanced BIOS menu and the USB does show up there as bankster says in two entries. I've tried prioritizing with both and it does not boot. I also disabled all other boot devices and it tells me 'insert boot device'. I've also tried booting from it using the F8 key and it gives me 'no system files' error or something along these lines. I tried a different stick (I used the same guide u gave me for both sticks btw) and this time if I boot with the F8 key I get a blank screen with 'j' on the top left corner and the text marker isnt blinking. I cant type anything. Btw this is all using the non-UFI boot option for the USB (the UFI option just goes straight to windows).
Click to expand...

Hmm....I haven't tried my flash drive in my current motherboard to see if it still works. I've got a measly 5850 so if I remember correctly the last time I flashed it was around April/May of 2010. I think I've changed cpu/mb/ram 3 times from then.

I'll try booting the flash drive and see what happens.

EDIT: Just rebooted with my flash drive installed. Went into setup clicked the boot menu and clicked USB FLASH MEMORY5.0 before my finger was fully up from the mouse I was at the dos prompt! DOS boots uber fast at 4.5ghz. I didn't try to flash my card again as I have no need to.

Have you tried other USB ports yet? Might be worth a shot if you haven't.
 
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bankster55 said:
Ah, finally, did need to use the HP utility
Automatically came up as "C" even tho "K" in windows
I ran the atiflash.exe but it wanted switches, which can easily be researched, but not by me. If your windows flash showed action but did nothing means you have a file prob. If it didnt run in windows, it wont run in DOS.
Right?

2djaulw.jpg
Click to expand...

1. the 6970.rom is a BIOS I created in the RBE utility. It's actually a 6950 unlocked I should rename it.

2. how did u get it to boot? any special remarks to give me to get it to work?
 
use the HP tool in windows and format FAT32 and also check create DOS setup disk and point the browse to the DOS files in "floppy files" folder I am PMing you a link for. I have about a 20 dif DOS based USB boot file compilations, it just so happens this one worked this time. I named the Vol label "Flasher" fwiw.
http://www.allbootdisks.com/disk_contents/me.html

Then disable full screen logo in bios, shutdown, insert USB 2.0 stick with the bootfiles integrated by HP tool and add your flasher and the flash file, then boot and when you see the (DMI) screen showing all the drives hit F8 (boot override) and arrow down to the USB with no UEFI and click it.
 
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I used the boot override function from within BIOS (not through the F8) and it's booting from one of the usb's now. the other is still displaying 'j'...

so i guess thats good enough for me thank u every1 for ur help i appreciate it guys....

now on to my new issue.... my brand new unmodified 6950 is not recognized by atiflash.... -i command says no adapters connected....
 
OJay said:
I used the boot override function from within BIOS (not through the F8) and it's booting from one of the usb's now. the other is still displaying 'j'...

so i guess thats good enough for me thank u every1 for ur help i appreciate it guys....

now on to my new issue.... my brand new unmodified 6950 is not recognized by atiflash.... -i command says no adapters connected....
Click to expand...

Are you inputing the command as follows? Not sure by your post but you need to specify the card.

atiflash -i 0 < (zero) only the red part this is for clarification
 
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