HDD kills Display

dsperber said:

Sorry for that long previous post, but I didn't have a feeling for your overall machine environment or long-term objective. So I asked some basic questions... still need some answers before recommending what might be best to achieve your goals.

(1) Is this a brand new machine which arrived with Win7 pre-installed on HDD, and you added SSD, installed Win10 to the SSD, and now want to undo your Win10 result and just get Win7 over to the SSD and off of HDD?


No, this computer has had windows 7 since I installed it many years ago, I had bought a new SSD to upgrade my PC a bit but when I tried to install windows 7 the mouse n keyboard died so I just stuck windows 10 on it for now. I have a PS/2 connector now so I can install windows 7, but I can't use my old HDD to format the SSD now because it's killing the display when the HDD is connected

Best approach here would probably be to use Macrium Reflect Free and simply "clone" your existing HDD-based Win7 partitions, then boot into BIOS Setup utility to change the boot sequence list to show the SSD first (in front of HDD), and then boot to Win7 (which would now be picked up from SSD).

Then while now running from the cloned Win7 (booted from SSD) you could use Partition Wizard Free to delete all partitions on the HDD, and create one or more new "data" partitions there. You would now be permanently set up to run Win7 from SSD and have your HDD as a second "data" drive.

(2) Is this a new second machine, and your HDD and Win7 is from an existing older machine? So are you trying to use Win7/HDD directly from one old machine just transplanted into a new Ryzen second machine?

Same machine, just updated to Ryzen last year and updated to SSD this month

(3) Do you want to end up with just Win7, just Win10, or both Win7 and Win10 in a dual-boot setup? It's clear you want to end with SSD and HDD, booting from SSD. But the rest of your environmental objective determines how to proceed.

SSD to have windows 7 OS and my old HDD some files from it, that's all, can get rid of that HDD then as I have a new one to store things on

(4) Are you really just having problems trying to install Win7 from scratch on a Ryzen machine? Could be that you need to create updated Win7 install media which includes USB 3.0 driver, same as for wanting to install to a Skylake machine.

Yeah I had problems but I bought a PS/2 connected, but a windows 7 ISO with usb 3.0 drivers as a backup just incase would be good as I've not had the chance to try the PS/2


(5) If (1) is your objective but because of your install of Win10 to SSD and resulting issues when you re-install the HDD and can no longer boot properly, I suggest you re-examine your BIOS Setup utility boot sequence (typically in STARTUP or BOOT tabs) to ensure you're booting from the device you want to boot from, either HDD or SSD. Or you can use F12 to manually select the boot device.

But if this Win7 HDD system previously worked on this machine (because it came pre-installed), it should still work if you are sure you're booting to HDD and haven't damaged the contents of that drive. The presence of a second Win10 setup on SSD should be irrelevant.

If that HDD is truly untouched from its previous usable Win7-bootable condition, seems you could just boot to it without problem. I don't understand whether you're running Win7 (from HDD) or Win10 (from SSD) in the problem situation where you say "kills display" with both drives physically present?

Anytime the HDD is plugged in it kills display, that's all I know
Windows 7 > on HDD
HDD on its own > kills display
HDD and SSD both plugged in > kills display
Cannot see anything from the moment its plugged in

Have to pull gpu and PCI connector, disconnect hdd, reconnect everything including SSD to bring the display back

Windows 10 > SSD


I had an IT tech out to my house, hes been working with PC's for 20 years, even he said after he took it all apart etc, switching ram, using 1 stick etc etc etc that it was weird..

Technically I should just be able to plug in the HDD and it should work, he didn't have a lot of time, but he said the motherboard graphics should've showed something? he seemed a bit surprised when he reconnected the GPU and the PCI connector thing that it showed signal again with the SSD~

-----

Last night I tried connecting the HDD to the PC again and that's when it killed the display.. so I did what he did.. Disconnected the GPU, PCI connector thing & removed the HDD

Hooked it all back up with the SSD included and the display came back


Hopefully I'm making some sense now lol, apologies

Right now my end goal is just getting back to windows 7. But how will I go about formatting the SSD ?
Should I just get someone to do it on a non Ryzen build or even just another Ryzen build, with all drivers etc included? Will it work like that? Or get them to format it and make it so it's ready to be installed on my desktop? with my PS/2 connector I should be able to navigate through the installation, or even with the USB 3.0 support included onto the ISO?

Its sounding like the HDD is shorting out your motherboard. Since you cannot get anything on your display with it plugged in, my recommendation is you throw it away as who knows, the next time you plug it in it may break your motherboard.

So that leaves you two options, installing win7 from scratch on a ryzen board or customizing win10. For the second I would download classicshell on the win10 drive and give it a try. For the first, you'll save yourself some headaches if you get a ps2 keyboard for the install. I have not seen a detailed thread on sevenforums that discusses installing win7 on ryzen, but there are a few threads on other forums. Here's one....

How To Get Ryzen Working on Windows 7 x64

johnhoh said:

Its sounding like the HDD is shorting out your motherboard. Since you cannot get anything on your display with it plugged in, my recommendation is you throw it away as who knows, the next time you plug it in it may break your motherboard.

So that leaves you two options, installing win7 from scratch on a ryzen board or customizing win10. For the second I would download classicshell on the win10 drive and give it a try. For the first, you'll save yourself some headaches if you get a ps2 keyboard for the install. I have not seen a detailed thread on sevenforums that discusses installing win7 on ryzen, but there are a few threads on other forums. Here's one....

How To Get Ryzen Working on Windows 7 x64

-------------------

Yeah I'm thinking of just forgetting the old HDD
I have a PS/2 connector to USB, so that should work, if not I'll just get the keyboard as a backup
So how will I go about formatting my SSD if I can't do it from my old windows 7?

sezan1 said:

Windows 7 was working perfectly fine on the HDD before I installed windows 10 on the SSD
Fast boot is disabled and secure boot can't seem to get that one disabled in BIOS for some reason

When you installed Win 10 it turned Secure boot on.
Win 7 isn't compatible with secure boot.
When you try to boot from the HDD with Win 7, it locks.
You must turn off secure boot, or you will never be able to boot Win 7.

Last BIOS version for Asus PRIME B350-PLUS is 4207 (2018/12/13)
Witch BIOS version you have?

Megahertz07 said:

When you installed Win 10 it turned Secure boot on.
Win 7 isn't compatible with secure boot.
When you try to boot from the HDD with Win 7, it locks.
You must turn off secure boot, or you will never be able to boot Win 7.

Last BIOS version for Asus PRIME B350-PLUS is 4207 (2018/12/13)
Witch BIOS version you have?

Imgur: The magic of the Internet

Seems like it's outdated

Download Asus PRIME B350-PLUS BIOS 4207 (2018/12/13) - B350-PLUS BIOS 4207

BIOS_Update

Extract the PRIME-B350-PLUS-ASUS-4207.CAP and copy to a flash disk.
Enter BIOS and launch BIOS update. Browse to the PRIME-B350-PLUS-ASUS-4207.CAP on the flash disk.

I have downloaded the manual and will study it.

The Asus PRIME B350-PLUS doesn't have all BIOS settings explanation.
Once you have updated the BIOS, on top you have Boot tab. Enter it. What are the options for boot configuration? Is it now set for Windows-UEFI?

So.. I managed to disable secure boot for a second

OS type > UEFI

Went to key management under the boot tab in advanced mode and clear secure boot keys

Switch OS type > other OS

Secure boot was disabled at this point

Reset and the damn secure boot was enabled again..

Do I have to set passwords in BIOS to get the option to not be greyed out?

* I've not updated BIOS yet *

Hi

W7 MUST be the FIRST OS installed
If your Primary is W10 your defaults wont accept the W7 settings

Roy

torchwood said:

Hi

W7 MUST be the FIRST OS installed
If your Primary is W10 your defaults wont accept the W7 settings

Roy

It was originally but the HDD is doing something to the display
Now I cant disable secure boot to install windows 7 on my SSD or maybe secure boot is messing with the HDD? idk