Hi guys, bit of a weird one here. Or maybe not and im just really tired. Decided that to fund a better pc server, id get rid of my lenovo mini pc, was used for batocera and retro gaming, but really.... it wasnt and just gathered dust mainly, played with some linux and other os distros. So today though ok ill get my stuff off it format it install windows 10 back on it.....and i cant seem to do it. I dunno what is going on ive tried literally everything i can think of. So i have 2 drives here, 480gb ssd and a 500gb 2.5inch 7200rpm drive, and i have 3 usb drives here, Lenovo thinkcenter m93p -usb drive 1 - Ventoy, has all my linux and windows installs -usb drive 2 - Windows 10 media creation tool installer -usb drive 3 - Rufus windows 10 installer All uefi, so boot machine and try to boot from usb....and nothing, black screen when uefi selected, and blinking line with legacy (tried both option in the bios, and disabled secure boot so the rufus and ventoy ones work as planned. Nothing worked, i thought might be one of these ones where you leave it, but i cant even get it to boot the linux distros either which is super odd. Even tried my backup drive with my windows 10 install from my laptop and still wouldnt boot. Reset the bios, updated the bios, changed the boot orders, cleared the cmos. disabled vt-d as some forums suggested. Nothing works, i get a black screen or flashing cursor, left it for 20 mins or so to see if it was just slow. But no. Tried every usb port thinking it was maybe a specific one to do it... nope. Im kinda at a loss. Anyone has this before. All usb drives work on my pc and laptop. as do the hard drives in caddies. The machine is recognizing them but just not going forward, and i assume its a stupid bios setting im missing somewhere.
pull all drives except the one you want for the boot drive. f8 at boot (assuming its f8 for your device ) for boot override and select the usb directly (ventoy is great) and not via uefi option.
Tried that buddy, yeah i had legacy on for ventoy still didnt work, i have even tried it with no sata drives attaches and it still wont boot. Was maybe gonna try bios downgrade see if maybe its updating the bios thats done it. Will have a go later. But all attemps were 1 flash drive only and the sata drive inside it, its a SFF there isnt any space for other drives, and i should have clarified i dont have all the flash drives plugged in at once
still no joy . Even tried it in legacy and rufus to make an mbr version of the drive. Just wont boot, going to black screen when selecting it or a blinking cursor. Flash drives are all prepped differently and working on other systems so cant be the drives. Im missing something silly here
What options do you get when pressing F12 on boot out of interest? I think it's F12 for Lenovo anyway.
yeah so when i press f12 depending on bios set up i get my sata hard drive, and i get the flash drive in question at the time, if i enable the auto boot type option i get the option of uefi or legacy for each device. The hard drive with the cloned windows install would give me the option of windows boot manager. But when selected would do nothing.
Ill see if i can take a video later on today and show you what its doing. What settings im using. Its just super odd
Ok guys, some screen shots for you, tell me where im being a pleb. So 1 flash drive. Brand new, windows 10 creation tool. Boots on my uefi windows pc, and my legacy alienware straight into the installer. On this. I get the black screen with uefi or the flashing cursor in legacy. Also flashing cursor if i boot from the internal drive which is a clone of a windows 10 install . Pics included Please put me out of my misery
A workaround rather than a fix, but could you set up a TFTP server and netboot the installer instead?
I honestly can't see anything wrong. Another workaround would be burning a DVD and booting from that,
I had something similar and it was because the machine was waiting for input and I could not see it because it was displaying on the VGA port not HDMI.....Once plugged into an old TV I could move forward and then after initial install I could go back to HDMI, very weird.
Super odd, there dosent even seem like an option in the bios to change the output, its only display port thats on this, and i know it will do it as it did the first time around before it went to pot. Im running the integrated systems test on extended mode see if it catches anything, i cant even reflash the bios the way it is since i cant boot to them if it a corrupt bios. So har tho its oddly passing every test with flying colours. Head scratcher. When i figure it out, im 100 percent making a youtube video on it. Or just selling it as possibly faulty
This is a totally out there suggestion, but it seems like you might be at the end of all sensible ones - have you checked the board can even boot from USB into a Win install natively? Although that doesn't explain why the SSD isn't doing so, depending what you used to clone it, it may not have the required boot info. For example, I used to used DriveImage to clone my HDDs which was fine, but when you clone from a HDD to an SSD, there was a known issue that prevented complete boot info being copied and the SSD won't be any good, even though the OS install itself is fine. Additionally, I've had an older board (which yours might be, judging from the BIOS and dates) which wouldn't install from USB due to the drivers/stick version not being compatible, plus I've had a more recent board (Asus Z68) where it only had USB 3 ports onboard and that wouldn't install Win 7(?) from USB as the basic Win 7 iso didn't include USB 3 drivers, so I had to look for a workaround whereby drivers could be slipstreamed into the install iso. Like I say, might be blowing smoke but possibly worth checking. Can you boot a Linux Live OS from USB, rather than an iso?
Have you tried turning CSM off. Do you have usb disabled from the boot order in the primary boot sequence?
Hi buddy, thanks for the suggestion, yeah i had windows 10 installed on it before i even put batocera on it, even before i went to reinstall it i could get the windows 10 usb to boot and get to the install stage, its only been on that initial restart that all the problems have come from. I done an ssd to ssd clone, although i did do ssd to hdd as well, but again met with the same result. So the board looks like it will do and has done usb boot installed in the past for both windows and linux just wont now for some odd reason. That was off off usb 3 sticks and it only has usb 3 ports also. Hi buddy i do not no, i had left the usb options, and the sata option. Disabled the network boot and a few others, even leaving them as is and putting it as first boot priority it just does much of the same. Tried csm enabled. Disabled, depending weather its on or off ive tried to change the boot option to legacy or uefi rather than leaving it on auto. Just dont get it Who ever manages to fix this i shall buy them a beer .....No .....A case of beers !!! EDIT: Also noticed i do have vga out, tried that too and same issue
Ok, try enabling OS Optimized Defaults. This should disable CSM and enable Secure Boot etc. Then make sure Boot Priority is set to UEFI. Also make sure that your SSD is set as your first boot option and that network boot is disabled. Save and restart, mash the boot menu key and go for the Windows 10 USB in UEFI mode. Same results? Failing that we can install Windows 10 onto the SSD manually, but it will require you to plug it into a working Windows 10 computer. Edit: If you get it to boot from the USB, hit Shift+F10 after choosing your language. You should get Command Prompt enter the following: Code: diskpart list disk sel disk x clean exit exit where x is the disk number of your SSD. Then carry on with the install as normal.
