Member Avatar for chrisbrunke

Hello,
I am doing an older system rebuild. I was in the process of installing Win 7, and everything seemed to be working just fine. It restarted on it's own, and now it won't go past the initial bios splash screen, or load into bios. I've tried resetting the CMOS, replacing RAM and swapping CPU... nothing.
I've seen this before and it was a bad mobo, but it was working completely fine through the initial installation... it was only after the reboot that it started doing this...
Any suggestions?

Thanks in advance.

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  • Latest Post Latest Post by IntegratedTweak

Dani AI

Generated

As observed, a board that POSTs when the HDD is removed but stalls while the drive is attached points away from RAM/CPU and toward drive enumeration, controller mode, or a BIOS/firmware interaction. A mid-install reboot can expose problems that only appear when the motherboard probes storage devices: bad SATA power/data cable, failing drive electronics or firmware, a mismatched SATA mode (IDE vs AHCI/RAID), or a buggy BIOS that chokes on a malformed partition table or device signature.

Common causes and quick checks:

  • Drive/cable/power: swap the SATA data cable, move the drive to a different SATA port, and try a different Molex/SATA power lead. A failing drive can hang the SATA bus and stop POST.
  • Drive health and firmware: connect the HDD to another PC or via a USB-SATA adapter and run the manufacturer's diagnostic (SMART tests). A drive that causes hangs on another machine is suspect.
  • SATA controller mode: ensure BIOS controller mode matches how Windows was installed. If Windows was installed under IDE and the BIOS is set to AHCI (or vice versa), the OS may fail to boot. In-place mode changes require enabling the correct driver in Windows (Windows 7 typically needs the AHCI driver enabled before switching modes) or reinstalling with the desired mode.
  • BIOS/POST visibility: disable fast/quick boot and full-screen logo so POST messages appear. Apply the latest stable BIOS update for the motherboard if available.

Practical isolation workflow: boot minimal hardware (CPU, one RAM stick, GPU/keyboard) with all drives disconnected to confirm POST; then attach only the suspect drive with a known-good cable and port; if it stalls, test the drive externally and run diagnostics. If the drive is healthy, use the Windows installer Recovery -> Startup Repair or repair tools to fix MBR/boot sectors. These steps separate a genuine motherboard failure from a drive/cable/controller/settings issue and build on ’s cold-boot idea and ’s follow-up.

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Member Avatar for rubberman

Try a cold reboot (not a warm restart) and hold down the F2 or Esc key immediately after hitting the power switch/button.

Member Avatar for chrisbrunke

Nothing.
To get into BIOS, I need to press delete. If I press delete as soon as the system boots, it goes to the CMOS splash screen instead of the regular splash screen and it says "entering setup..."
but nothing ever happens.

Member Avatar for chrisbrunke

Took out the HDD, wiped it again, and it boots fine. I'm thinking there was an issue in the BIOS... maybe set to IDE mode instead of AHCI... Seems to be working fine now. Thanks

Member Avatar for IntegratedTweak

Glad you got the problem rectified if any other problems arise i'll be glad to help :)

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