Help (Boot Device)

[groober]

Hi!
So recently I built a new pc and everything has been working just fine for a few days but then all of a sudden when I tried to start it, this came up on boot (Reboot and Select proper boot device or insert boot media in selected boot device and press a key) which tells me that it can’t read the harddrive, even though it’s been working fine for a few days. Also this doesn’t happen on every boot up, only ever second or third time booting the pc up, so most of the time it starts up as usual but sometimes this pops up and after hard rebooting it, it works fine again. I’ve been in the bios settings and made sure that it should boot from the correct harddrive but doesn’t seem to make much difference. Fairly new to this stuff since this is the first pc i’ve built and the guy that helped me is studying kinda far from me so can’t really ask him to help me so thought I should drop a question here instead.

Thanks in advance for any help.

[phillpower2]

Welcome to PCHF groober,

If you built this rig yourself you are obviously ok with working inside of a computer, would recommend that you check that all internal connections are securely in place, if the problem persists, try swapping the SATA and power cables to the MB and boot device around then get back to us with an update.

If unsure on anything you should ask here and post all of your hardware specs at the same time.

[phillpower2]

Not heard back from you groober, do you still require assistance or is the issue now resolved, an update would be appreciated.

[groober]

Not heard back from you groober, do you still require assistance or is the issue now resolved, an update would be appreciated.

Yeah sorry, have been really busy the last few days, will try to check inside this weekend when I get home, will respond on Sunday maybe Monday if that’s alright, I really appreciate the help, my week has just been chaotic.

[phillpower2]

No problem and thank you for getting back to us (y)

[groober]

Hi! So I tried checking all the connections and swapping the cables but to no help. the problem persists.

[phillpower2]

If you swapped the cables and the ports around to which the boot device goes it narrows things down slightly, the drive itself, the MB/SATA ports or an outside chance that the power supply could be fluctuating.

Can you tell us what exactly happened after swapping the cables around as in was the behaviour exactly the same as before + all of your hardware specs, brand and model name or number of the MB, the RAM (including the amount) add on video card if one is used and the PSU (power supply unit).

[groober]

Yeah after swapping everything it booted up just like before, the first boot just the normal black screen until “Reboot and select proper…” error pop up and the second time it booted up perfectly like there is no problem.
MB : MSI B250 Krait Gaming, Socket-1151
RAM: Ballistix Sport LT DDR4 16GB
GPU: MSI GeForce GTX 1080 Armor OC
PSU: Corsair CX750M, 750W

[phillpower2]

The fact that the computer works fine for a few days suggests that this is a random hardware fault but can I just make sure that when you built this rig you did install the MBs chipset and other important drivers such as those for the Intel Rapid Storage devices etc.

Have you checked the Event Viewer to see if it gives any clues, not sure what version of Windows you are using so here is an example for Windows 10[

Right-click or tap and hold the Start icon > Click on Event Viewer.

On the left choose Event Viewer > Custom Views > Administrative Events, it may take a short while for the results to populate so please wait.

Can you post your hard drive details for us as well when you next reply.

Please download MINITOOLBOX and run it.

Checkmark the following boxes:

Flush DNS
Reset FF proxy Settings
Reset Ie Proxy Settings
Report IE Proxy Settings
Report FF Proxy Settings
List content of Hosts
List IP configuration
List Winsock Entries
List last 10 Event Viewer log
List Installed Programs
List Users, Partitions and Memory size
List Devices (problems only)

Attach the results to your next reply for us please.

[groober]

All drivers should be downloaded and good, was thorough during initial boot.
Harddrive: Samsung PM961 256gb (mzvlw256hehp)
In event viewer I do get an operating system error which I’ve attached
Some text is in swedish since the pc’s system is set in Swedish

[phillpower2]

Not seeing anything in the logs that would explain this behaviour.

From your OP;

I tried to start it, this came up on boot (Reboot and Select proper boot device or insert boot media in selected boot device and press a key) which tells me that it can’t read the harddrive,

Info in your reply #10 tells us that you are not booting from a standard hard drive but a Samsung PCI-e X4 M.2 SSD device, this particular device is not on the MSI motherboards compatibility list which means there may not be any specific MSI drivers for the M.2 card, see Compatibility tab here

Quick test, your MB has two M.2 slots with the one that the device should be in slot M.2 -1 being nearest the CPU, if the card is already in that slot try swapping in into slot M.2 - 2 and vice versa if already in slot M.2 - 2 swap it into slot M.2 - 1 and test.

If no joy with swapping the M.2 slots, try booting into Safe Mode a few times and see how that goes.

[groober]

Okay so I tried swapping the Harddrive into the other slot and after that I tested shutting down the entire pc and turning it back on 10 times and it booted perfectly every time which was not the case before, it seems that the problem is resolved but I guess time will tell. Thanks for the help. I guess it was something wrong with the slot then.

[jmarket]

Hey @groober

I’m glad it’s working now I’ll mark this thread as pending and leave it open in case something else goes wrong We’ll give it say, a week? And if nothing else happens, we can mark this as solved? (y)

[phillpower2]

That is good news and thank you for letting us know (y)

You are welcome btw

[groober]

Hey @groober

I’m glad it’s working now I’ll mark this thread as pending and leave it open in case something else goes wrong We’ll give it say, a week? And if nothing else happens, we can mark this as solved? (y)

Sound great, once again thanks for the help!