[alwang17]

My friend has finished building his Sandy Bridge build. Relevant hardware:

CPU: i7-2600K
Mobo: ASUS Maximus IV Extreme
GPU: Gigabyte GTX 580
SSD: Crucial 256GB SATA III

We inserted the Windows 7 Ultimate (64-bit) CD into the CD drive. The screen goes to the windows installation screen, but among the drives, the SSD is not detected. Additionally, even when we remove the drive, it seems that the computer is still looking for the CD drive, even thought there's nothing in there. We can't enter even the EFI BIOS after pressing "delete" when prompted. After we press delete first, it then proceeds to do the drive searching, loads the "press delete" screen again, but then promptly goes to a black screen with one underscore flashing about three lines down the screen. What's going on? He's worried the SSD is dead, which I doubt but it could be. Just for additional info, the CD drive and SSD are plugged into the SATA III ports using the Marvell controller. Any ideas what's going on and how to solve it?

EDIT: The motherboard gives the code AE, which, in the manual, says "Legacy Boot event". Dunno if that's significant or not but any info is good info in this situation I guess.

 

[alwang17]

although i hate to do it....
bump

 

[UrbanDropbear]

Ah this happened to me when i installed win7 ulti on my SSD, i cant remember what i did to fix it, sorry.
but try putting it into a different PC to check if its dead

 

[dragosmp]

Try the SSD in an Intel SATA2/3 slot; I'm not sure how this is relevant, but I've seen threads complaining about not being able to install Win on the Marvel controller. After installing Win on an Intel SATA port you can switch back to the Marvel.

 

[alwang17]

Quote:

Originally Posted by dragosmp;13047492
Try the SSD in an Intel SATA2/3 slot; I'm not sure how this is relevant, but I've seen threads complaining about not being able to install Win on the Marvel controller. After installing Win on an Intel SATA port you can switch back to the Marvel.

So it's possibly a driver issue related to the Marvell controller? It makes some sense, cause all the hard drives using the intel ports are detected.

 

[TDS]

Quote:

Originally Posted by alwang17;13047509
So it's possibly a driver issue related to the Marvell controller? It makes some sense, cause all the hard drives using the intel ports are detected.

Not a driver issue, but you should not have any other drives connected. Only connect the SSD into port 0. Install, and then swap it to the Marvell controlled one after, and then hook the other drives back up.

 

[alwang17]

Well i hooked the SSD up to one of the other ports but still no detection during Windows installation. Haven't tried doing it by itself will try now.

 

[zorg1983]

Did you try to reset the CMOS by taking out the battery for 5 min ? if not do it and try again..

 

[mach1]

If you still can't enter the efi by pressing del, clear the RTC and you'll get a press f1 to enter setup. That should get you in.

 

[alwang17]

Just tried the drive by itself and nothing happened. Taking out the battery and seeing what's up now.

 

[alwang17]

So we've managed to get to the America Megatrends screen where it prompts you to press F1 but pressing F1 doesn't work. >.< We think the wireless keyboard may be part of the issue but previously it worked so probably not that.

 

[TDS]

Quote:

Originally Posted by alwang17;13047700
Just tried the drive by itself and nothing happened. Taking out the battery and seeing what's up now.

Just double checking, but you are sure you have power to the drive ?

 

[TDS]

Quote:

Originally Posted by alwang17;13047764
So we've managed to get to the America Megatrends screen where it prompts you to press F1 but pressing F1 doesn't work. >.< We think the wireless keyboard may be part of the issue but previously it worked so probably not that.

I would eliminate the wireless keyboard. I have had issue trying to do installs with those. I have an old style one I use just for things like this.

 

[alwang17]

Quote:

Originally Posted by mach1;13047566
If you still can't enter the efi by pressing del, clear the RTC and you'll get a press f1 to enter setup. That should get you in.

Quote:

Originally Posted by TDS;13047860
Just double checking, but you are sure you have power to the drive ?

Quote:

Originally Posted by TDS;13047867
I would eliminate the wireless keyboard. I have had issue trying to do installs with those. I have an old style one I use just for things like this.

We got into the EFI bios screen and looked around, changed to IDE/AHCI mode. Oddly enough the BIOS only shows six SATA ports total. We'll keep experimenting with ports and settings. Just checking: a reboot is needed for these effects to take place?
And yes it should have power but i'll double check the connection anyway.

 

[kiwiasian]

Does the BIOS recognize the SSD plugged into port 0?

Do you have a spare HDD? You could check if the SATA controller is damaged. If you do connect the HDD to each SATA port and see if BIOS recognizes it.

 

[zorg1983]

Well? the CMOS reset helped?

 

[alwang17]

So we just basically did a complete reinstall of all components and now they seem to be working in order. Not sure if it was clearing the CMOS, the power plug, or whatnot but the point is now everything's fine. Thanks everyone who gave helpful suggestions!

 

[zorg1983]

Cool