1

I have an Acer Aspire laptop, and I installed a new SSD. It worked with no issues, at which point I installed Windows 8, and started getting boot messages of media test failure, check cable and No bootable device -- insert boot disk and press any key.

I thought maybe it was a software problem, like Windows 8 hosed the machine. However, after awhile, I tried again, and it booted perfectly. It would give me the boot error maybe 10-12 times in a row, then it would successfully boot, and run without issue. I've since installed Windows 10, and the machine has the same exact issues.

When I open the BIOS, most of the time it doesn't even recognize that there is a hard disk.

My assumption was that there was a problem with the disk, or the disk cable, or the connection. I took it to Frys Electronics, and they say everything is physically fine - it passed diagnostics everywhere. They think it's a software issue, and are talking about refreshing the OS.

I think they're full of it, but is there any way that what I'm describing could be a software issue? I'm considering just buying a new SSD since they're cheap, but I'd like to go through free options first...

4
  • 2
    if the OS is on a disk that the motherboard cannot see or enumerate, how can it possibly be an OS problem?
    – Yorik
    Feb 12, 2016 at 22:35
  • @Yorik That was exactly my argument, but I really know nothing at all about how BIOS works, so I don't know if it's possible for the OS to somehow screw with the boot process. I doubt it, but these guys get paid to do this, and I'm not a hardware guy.
    – Joe Enos
    Feb 12, 2016 at 22:37
  • If there is some "fast boot" option in the BIOS, try disable it and see if the issue goes away. (Btw, did you replace the original drive with the SSD or this is some laptop that can hold two drives?)
    – Tom Yan
    Feb 12, 2016 at 23:51
  • @TomYan Thanks, I'll take a look for that. This is a replacement drive. There's not room for a second disk.
    – Joe Enos
    Feb 13, 2016 at 0:37

3 Answers 3

2

The "no bootable device" failure has always historically indicated whether or not the system found a disk with a bootable partition present.

At boot, the BIOS will obtain a record of all devices that could potentially contain bootable media. It will go through this list in a particular order, and once it finds one containing a Master Boot Record (MBR) partition with bootable code, it loads it and starts executing it, eventually loading the operating system or whatever other software you might be running.

There are multiple reasons why you might get the error you are seeing, though:

You have a faulty connection to the drive and/or it is underpowered.
This could happen if your SATA cable is faulty or has a loose connection, either to the motherboard or the drive itself. It could also be that the drive is underpowered or not powered at all. Check all connections between the drive and the motherboard and PSU. Ensure that connections are tight and that cables aren't kinked or stretched. Try different SATA and power cables to see if there's any difference.

You have a faulty SATA port on the motherboard.
These headers are soldered onto motherboards and can experience strain or stress as you dig around inside of it. You might put strain on a cable and pull it such that the soldering cracks or breaks. The electric connection between the contacts could still occur, but it will be unreliable, as moving the device around, or atmospheric conditions, could change the conductivity of the space between them (or how large it is). If there are other SATA ports available, try switching to one of those. Chances are at least one of them will work. If not, either they are all broken or are all working fine and the reason for your problem lies elsewhere.

You have some buildup of dust.
I've seen dust do all sorts of strange and mysterious things to computers. It carries static, and can interfere with the electronics inside a computer. Anything is on the table when dust is involved. Give it a good shot of compressed air and see if anything changes. It doesn't even have to be particularly dusty or visible to still have an effect.

The drive is actually faulty.
It seems you've ruled it out, already. But it's good to ensure that the drive actually responds to reads and writes correctly. This is the only reason that can be detected by testing the disk, physically. Everything else can happen regardless of the physical health of the device.

There is a misconfiguration in the BIOS.
The BIOS is software, and can be configured. It has to know how to talk to the onboard devices and where to look for bootable partitions. You can often configure the list of where it looks for a bootable device, and the order. Only until it checks the whole list will it report the error you're seeing. Make sure that it's actually trying to boot from your SSD at all. And make sure that the BIOS settings are persisting between boots. (If they are not persisting, you might have a faulty motherboard or may need to replace the CMOS battery, if you have one.)

Additionally, you should make sure that whichever mode the BIOS is accessing the drive in (RAID, AHCI, PCI, etc) is the same mode that was set when installing the operating system. Usually computers are shipped with AHCI as the default. If you change this setting, oftentimes the computer will fail to boot properly. Additionally, if you're in RAID mode, you might need to run a separate configuration to set up your RAID volumes. (I suspect this isn't the issue if it's a laptop.)

The operating system installation could be hosed.
Pretty simply, if the operating system wasn't installed properly, or someone tried to reconfigure it and messed up, the operating system just would fail to load. Since it isn't finding a bootable device at all, it's possible that the MBR could have been damaged itself. If the operating system's files became corrupted, but the MBR was loaded just fine, you would likely see an OS-level error, rather than your BIOS-level message.

Addendum:
I wrote this from the perspective of building a desktop computer, but laptops also apply. They have a different form factor, but the general principles all still apply. Given your issue is intermittent, I'm leaning more towards a loose/faulty SATA connection (port or cable), power, or a faulty drive. I don't know what Fry's does to test, but often I suspect places like that do a bare minimum or just brute-force, opting to reinstall the OS if it's any more complicated than a simple fix, or just replacing the device completely. I've seen one shop (not Fry's) even do a simple test by plugging a drive into an existing computer and seeing if it was detected by Windows by showing up in My Computer (a horribly limited test method). SMART tests are also not reliable methods in cases of drive failure. It will catch some reasons but not all.

4
  • Thank you. I don't remember if the sata cable was replaceable, but if so, I'll give that a try. Reinstalling Windows is on my list too although I really doubt that's it. It's been dusted, so I don't think it's dirty. If it was a straight up bios problem, it would be consistent, right? The bios settings do persist. My next step is to get a new disk, since I actually don't know what I did with the old one (it's been awhile since I did this). We'll see whet happens.
    – Joe Enos
    Feb 13, 2016 at 0:43
  • Correct. If it was a BIOS configuration issue, you probably would be seeing this error every time you boot. Not just some of the time. Feb 17, 2016 at 16:33
  • 1
    Not 100% definitive, but I replaced the hard disk with a new SSD (nice that they're so cheap now), and it's been working fine for a couple days (knock on wood). So I'm leaning toward a bad disk.
    – Joe Enos
    Feb 17, 2016 at 18:50
  • @JoeEnos Sounds promising! Might be worth just RMA'ing the old disk anyways, then, since you have a replacement that appears to be working better, or at the very least, no differently. They might send you a free replacement or at least refund your money. Feb 17, 2016 at 19:17
1

Sounds like an intermittent hardware problem. As Ben suggested. Since it's a laptop you can't really test with a new SATA cable and port on the board. As a guess I'd say that the SSD has failed. As easy test would be to swap in the old drive, or use a linux live CD and see if it's mountable.

1
  • Not 100% definitive, but I replaced the hard disk with a new SSD (nice that they're so cheap now), and it's been working fine for a couple days (knock on wood). So I'm leaning toward a bad disk.
    – Joe Enos
    Feb 17, 2016 at 18:50
-1

Did you just upgrade the OS to a new higher OS? If do, then better to refresh your operating system by reformatting first, then install new OS, deep reformat will be better.

1
  • 1
    Can you explain how the OS can prevent the BIOS from recognizing a hard disk?
    – Joe Enos
    Feb 12, 2016 at 22:44

You must log in to answer this question.

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged .