boot up problem with external drive

HarlanBear

Hi,

I have a 4 year old HP 515n computer and recently atttached an external drive, Seagate FreeAgent, through UBS connection to hold pics and music. When I boot up the computer it freezes on the HP Logo page and does not kick to the Windows load. If I hard boot the computer off (hold power button until it shuts off) and then hit the power button again, it works fine. If I disconnect the external drive and then power up, it boots up fine. Then reconnect the external drive and all is well.

I am told that this is happening because I have an older machine with older USB, but it is 2.0, and the computer is reading that external drive before going to the hard drive and therefore freezing.

It's not the worse thing in the world, but wondering if anyone knows a work-around or a change I can make to the BIOS or whatever so I don't have this problem.

Thanks for any help.

kini62

HarlanBear wrote:

Hi,

I have a 4 year old HP 515n computer and recently atttached an external drive, Seagate FreeAgent, through UBS connection to hold pics and music. When I boot up the computer it freezes on the HP Logo page and does not kick to the Windows load. If I hard boot the computer off (hold power button until it shuts off) and then hit the power button again, it works fine. If I disconnect the external drive and then power up, it boots up fine. Then reconnect the external drive and all is well.

I am told that this is happening because I have an older machine with older USB, but it is 2.0, and the computer is reading that external drive before going to the hard drive and therefore freezing.

It's not the worse thing in the world, but wondering if anyone knows a work-around or a change I can make to the BIOS or whatever so I don't have this problem.

Thanks for any help.

You say when you boot up the computer and you also say "hard boot". Are you not turning it off or are you using standby?

Standby and Windows has issues.

Does it hang when booting from being totally off?

If it hangs and you do a hard reboot, (hold power button) it loads OK?

I doubt it's in the BIOS, AFAIK Windows doesn't allow booting from a USB drive (not sure though) and if it did and you haven't made any changes then it's not even trying.

Is the external drive on when this is occurring?

What version of Windows are you running?

Gene

ChrisJ

kini62 wrote:

I doubt it's in the BIOS, AFAIK Windows doesn't allow booting from a USB drive (not sure though) and if it did and you haven't made any changes then it's not even trying.

Windows does not control how the system boots, the motherboard BIOS does. Your BIOS may need an upgrade.

I had a similar problem with a system I just built. My system would not boot properfly with my USB scanner attached. I upgraded the BIOS and the problem went away.

You'll need to go to the HP web site and find downloads for your specific computer. It's possible you'll need to make a boot floppy, but that's getting rarer nowadays.

You may also be able to change the Boot order in your current BIOS and the problem will go away. Have you tried that?

HarlanBear

kini62 wrote:

You say when you boot up the computer and you also say "hard boot". Are you not turning it off or are you using standby?

Turning off completely with hard boot.

kini62 wrote:

Does it hang when booting from being totally off?

Yes.

kini62 wrote:

If it hangs and you do a hard reboot, (hold power button) it loads OK?

Yes.

kini62 wrote:

Is the external drive on when this is occurring?

Yes. The external drive has no power button, unfortunately, just a plug and play device. Kind of a bummer here. Wish it had a power button.

kini62 wrote:

What version of Windows are you running?

XP Home.

Thanks for any help, Gene

HarlanBear

ChrisJ wrote:

Windows does not control how the system boots, the motherboard BIOS does. Your BIOS may need an upgrade.

I had a similar problem with a system I just built. My system would not boot properfly with my USB scanner attached. I upgraded the BIOS and the problem went away.

You'll need to go to the HP web site and find downloads for your specific computer. It's possible you'll need to make a boot floppy, but that's getting rarer nowadays.

You may also be able to change the Boot order in your current BIOS and the problem will go away. Have you tried that?

Hi Chris,

I'll check with HP site to see about upgrade. If this is not available or does not work, I can try the boot order in BIOS, though not sure how to do that. I may be able to figure it out, but may need instructions. Do you know how this is done?

Thanks,

ChrisJ

HarlanBear wrote:

Hi Chris,

I'll check with HP site to see about upgrade. If this is not available or does not work, I can try the boot order in BIOS, though not sure how to do that. I may be able to figure it out, but may need instructions. Do you know how this is done?

Hi Mick,

I just took a look at the HP web site. Here is a link to the latest BIOS for the 515n.

BEFORE doing that, try to get into your BIOS. The HP site says to hit F1 repeatedly until the BIOS screen appears. There's a screen shot at Step 3 of this page, but ignore those instructions.

Use the arrow keys to move to the "Boot" screen. Make sure that external devices are not set to boot before your hard disk (wording may vary here). Take a picture and upload it if you have trouble.

Hope this helps...

HarlanBear

Thanks, Chris, very helpful info.

Makes sense to check the boot order first. I'll let you know one way or another here in a couple of hours. Have to put in time at the salt mine, if you know what I mean.:(:

HarlanBear

Hi Chris,

Changing the boot order in the BIOS worked like a charm So far, anyway. Sure enough "external devices" was listed first in the order, so simply moved it down under C Drive and we seem to be good.

Thanks so much again for your help. You're my new best friend.

I love this site.

Best regards,

Mick

ChrisJ

Woo hoo! Glad that worked. Definitely an easier fix than the BIOS upgrade.

Happy to help! :ivar