system hanging before windows boots, unless...

I have a really strange problem that I've managed to narrow down fairly specifically. I pray someone here might have a good idea. Basically, I bought a new Gateway system, and made some changes. I decided to put in an additional hard disk, connected directly to the MOBO and install Win7 ultimate on that one, allowing me to preserve the win7 home that came installed on the supplied drive. I went into BIOS and made the correct tweaks I believe, but I'm left with a hanging system after it boots up.

I've narrowed it down to this: if I press [DEL] to go into BIOS and [save and exit], the machine boots and then where the machine normally hangs, it follows with an opportunity to [Ctr-P] to get into the Intel Management Engine BIOS, and then boots to Windows as it should. So it hangs in between those BIOS's unless I first [save and exit] the first BIOS.

Obviously Gateway's tech support is less than worthless, especially since I committed the cardinal sin of deigning to make changes to the system.

Thanks to anyone taking the time to read this and ping their brain cells for solutions!
-John

Capt.Jack Sparrow said:

Hello !!

According to what you said it quiet clear that it might be the BIOS. Try to update the BIOS Firmware and see if that fixes the problem. Also try to reset the defaults and see if that makes any difference.

- Captain

Resetting to defaults was the first thing I tried and it did lead to Win7 starting, but subsequent boots failed (status quo on problem). I also restored the original configuration, removing the extra disk and attempting to boot with the Gateway supplied disk/OS, but the result was the same.

Updating the BIOS firmware sounds like a good idea, but I have concerns about it. First, it's a brand new computer. Wouldn't Gateway put their newest/best BIOS in it? Maybe not.

It turns out to be difficult to find the right information to update firmware anyway. Eyeballing the MOBO for identification purposes yielded I believe:

MOBO: MBGAH09001953008E6EK00

I found from boot screen:

AMI BIOS version: P01-A2 12/14/2009 exclusive for Gateway
64-0100-000001-00101111-121409-LfdHvdImc-9A2A1007-Y2KC

I looked for AMI codes and supposedly the 3rd part of that tells you the mobo manufacturer, but all the codes I see are only 4 numbers.

"Let's show you an example of an AMI BIOS id:
51-0102-1101-00111111-101094-AMIS123-P
To find your motherboard manfacturer, please look at the third (3) set of numbers in your BIOS string. Find the corresponding numbers in your BIOS string and match them with the numbers below.
This BIOS string would indicate SUNLOGIX INC."

So basically I don't know how to go about changing the BIOS... Thanks a lot, and if you know how to update my BIOS please let me know!

Also, additional ideas still welcomed!
-John

L0stKeys said:

I have a really strange problem that I've managed to narrow down fairly specifically. I pray someone here might have a good idea. Basically, I bought a new Gateway system, and made some changes. I decided to put in an additional hard disk, connected directly to the MOBO and install Win7 ultimate on that one, allowing me to preserve the win7 home that came installed on the supplied drive. I went into BIOS and made the correct tweaks I believe, but I'm left with a hanging system after it boots up.

I've narrowed it down to this: if I press [DEL] to go into BIOS and [save and exit], the machine boots and then where the machine normally hangs, it follows with an opportunity to [Ctr-P] to get into the Intel Management Engine BIOS, and then boots to Windows as it should. So it hangs in between those BIOS's unless I first [save and exit] the first BIOS.

Obviously Gateway's tech support is less than worthless, especially since I committed the cardinal sin of deigning to make changes to the system.

Thanks to anyone taking the time to read this and ping their brain cells for solutions!
-John

Are you dual booting with a menu?

can you change the hardware location of the drive (Ie move it to sata3)?

if y ou safe boot what happens?

ken

I've managed to fix this issue, so this is a report.

I did reorder the SATA locations on the mobo to closer reflect the way that Gateway did it:
1 and 2 for a new SSD to boot from (with a Casper image of previous C drive) and a spinner.
3 and 4 were for temporary disks with cables connected to front bays - I filled one with another spinner.
5 and 6 for BD, DVD.

These changes were not enough to get it running smoothly however. It still moved very slowly with anomalies in the boot process if it got there at all. It seems like it helped for me to hit the keyboard :/ as if I were walking it through frame by frame of a video. I learned that not having turned on one of my external drives (that by the way was in an enclosure, not a self-contained drive) apparently took a load off its back. It will now boot with that drive turned on (though it still slows POST intolerably).

Thanks for the help and good luck to anyone who messes with a Gateway FX6831-03 !

L0stKeys said:

I've managed to fix this issue, so this is a report.

I did reorder the SATA locations on the mobo to closer reflect the way that Gateway did it:
1 and 2 for a new SSD to boot from (with a Casper image of previous C drive) and a spinner.
3 and 4 were for temporary disks with cables connected to front bays - I filled one with another spinner.
5 and 6 for BD, DVD.

These changes were not enough to get it running smoothly however. It still moved very slowly with anomalies in the boot process if it got there at all. It seems like it helped for me to hit the keyboard :/ as if I were walking it through frame by frame of a video. I learned that not having turned on one of my external drives (that by the way was in an enclosure, not a self-contained drive) apparently took a load off its back. It will now boot with that drive turned on (though it still slows POST intolerably).

Thanks for the help and good luck to anyone who messes with a Gateway FX6831-03 !

Thanks for the fix

Ken