Booting to EX HDD can't change BIOS settings

Discussion in 'Processors, Motherboards & Memory' started by Jer25, May 7, 2010.

  1. Jer25

    Jer25 Newbie

    Hello,

    This is my first post and I'm not sure if I have it in the correct area. Please let me know and I can remove it if it should be elsewhere.

    I am helping out at a local non-profit place and they are relying on me (not a pro) to fix their systems because they can't afford to take it in.

    The problem I'm having is with an external hard drive and the bios setting (I think) of the computer it is hooked up too.

    The plan was to leave the ex hd connected to a desktop and have it available over the network for the other computer to access.

    Everything is working fine except for when the desktop needs to be rebooted. If the ex hd is connected it freezes that computer at startup. I've checked the bios setting and there is no options for USB devices so I've just made the boot priority like this:

    1. on-board HD
    2. DVD Drive
    3. Floppy Drive
    4. Disabled

    The machine is kinda a piece of crap but it works for them. The mother board is by ASUS and it's a no-name tower.

    I'm pretty sure the issue isn't with the ex hd because when it's hooked to the other computer I can load into the os without any issues.

    Any suggestions would be appreciated,

    Thanks.
     
  2. zy

    zy zynine.com Staff Member

    you could try to find a bios update.

    Do you have the model of the motherboard?
     
  3. Jer25

    Jer25 Newbie

    It's a K8V-MX. I tried several updates on it but none of them would work. There were two different errors but I forget what they were exactly. One was something about it not being accepted by the hardware and the other was that the bios version was too old.

    I did also read somewhere that if it doesn't have the USB option originally updating the bios isn't going to make a difference. I don't know if that's true or not.

    I don't really get why the updates I found on the Asus site don't work with that model. Are there more factors than just the motherboard when updating it?
     
  4. zy

    zy zynine.com Staff Member

  5. Jer25

    Jer25 Newbie

    Sad for them that they have gotten less help than I've received within an hour. Hope it means I've picked the right forum to ask. :)

    If we can figure out a solution on here I'll post the answer on that one.

    Thanks
     
  6. Adrian Wong

    Adrian Wong Da Boss Staff Member

    Hmm.. I wonder if it helps if you disable legacy USB... It's a long shot, but worth a try if there's a legacy USB option.
     
  7. Jer25

    Jer25 Newbie

    I read something that told me to try in on enabled instead of auto. I changed that but I didn't try the disable yet. After I try I'll let you know.

    Would that mean it's disabled all the time, will I be able to use the USB properly?
     
  8. zy

    zy zynine.com Staff Member

    If i'm not wrong, Legacy USB is only needed if you want to use USB devices outside of windows.
     
  9. Jer25

    Jer25 Newbie

    So if I dual booted linux or ran it off of a live install I wouldn't be able to grab files off the hard drive and put them on a flash drive?

    If that works it's still worth it. (Until the hd crashes and I have to recover it. I will have forgotten that bios step by than). :)
     
  10. zy

    zy zynine.com Staff Member

    I'm not sure if it will affect Linux, sounds like it won't but I'm not a Linux user, so I can't confirm on that one.
     
  11. Adrian Wong

    Adrian Wong Da Boss Staff Member

    What legacy USB does is load a USB driver. It's actually for USB support in DOS.

    I can't confirm whether USB would be enabled in Linux. But any operating system that has native support for USB will load its own USB driver and USB devices will have no problem functioning once the OS loads.
     
  12. Jer25

    Jer25 Newbie

    Thanks! Disabling it worked!!
     
  13. Adrian Wong

    Adrian Wong Da Boss Staff Member

    Glad it worked! :thumb:
     

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