Clean install on new Series 5 UEFI cant access BIOS problem please help?

Hello everyone

I have a problem. I recently purchased a brand new series 5 ivy bridge 6gb RAM 'ultrabook'. Its great but on receiving it I tried to perform a clean install of Windows 7. Firstly (and maybe stupidly) I tried doing this from a Windwos formatted USB flash drive. It seemed to work, but when windows got to the point where it restarts itself it wouldnt boot. So I tried again using a USB DVD drive. This didnt work until I changed the Bios to enable UEFI. It worked and windows installed ok.

But ths is where the problems started.

Now when I boot from a cold boot, it boots up to the normal Samsung Phoenix Bios page, but it wont accept F2 or F4 keypress. Then it shuts down, and reboots with the same bios screen and boot normally into windows. At second boot I am also unable to access BIOS. Then when I try to run Samsung Easy Settings the whole system crashes.

I have tried running the windows installation again and exactly the same thing happens. The only problem now is that I cannot access BIOS at all. Not on either of the strange system startups. It is obviously looking for a boot process on the

first boot up but cant find it. Can someone tell me what I have done and a way to access the old BIOS again and hopefully put it right. I am tearing my hair out.

Thanks everyone
Jamie

 

Somehow you need to get out of the UEFI mode. Samsung + UEFI currently = fail. Is Samsung fast boot enabled or disabled? Does F10 (or Esc) to select a boot device work?

Are you trying to boot from a USB 2.0 or USB 3,0 port. The latter is not supported by Windows 7.

John

 

Hi John
Thanks so much for getting back to me. I have tried both disabling and enabling fast boot but it doesn't help. And I have tried F10 and every other combination during 'both' boot ups. Instead of taking me to bios it just keeps taking me to windows boot manager. I have also tried updating the bios but utilities keeps saying cannot download even when connected to the internet. I am clean out of options. Is there a way to flash the bios somehow or do a total revert to factory settings. Any suggestions most gratefully recieved.
I may have to contact Samsung support but i havee head that they arent that helpful. I fo have 3 year warranty.
Thanks
Jamie.

 

Easy Software Manager has server problems. You can get the BIOS updater program from the download site. It usually seems to get through to its server. First it checks the current installed BIOS against the latest available and then offers to download a newer BIOS if it exists. It is quite likely that a BIOS update may clear your problem because it resets certain parameters (such as the Battery Life Extender option) but it is also possible that a newer BIOS may fix your particular UEFI-related issue.

Otherwise it is back to Samsung. You need to find someone in support who can understand the issue. I use the email system here. If the first person doesn't come up with a solution then send another message referring to their reply and your subsequent action. etc...

John

 

Hello again John
So I updated the bios, which worked and now it does boot into bios if I press F2. But if I don't it just keeps going in a never ending loop of booting and turning itself off. But after 2 of these it boots to a bios boot menu with a list of 1 item - SATA HDD:: Hitachi HTS545050A7E380, if I hit enter on this the screen goes blank for a few seconds and then comes back to the same screen.

Do you have any ideas on what I can do next. UEFI is currently disabled in the 'new' bios. But I am worried that if I re-enable it I will be back in my previous situation of not being able to access Bios. Should I try and re-install windows in its current state using a DVD USB drive (in USB2.0 port) or try enabling UEFI and see if I can now boot normally into windows. Or thirdly, enable UEFI and then try and re-install windows from DVD.
thanks John again
Jamie

 

It is trying to boot to either ACHI or IDE drivers whenh the other is insrtalled. Go to bios and force ACHI mode if it loops try ide mode. One or the other should work then if you need to switch search around, two regedit entries to swap ACHI and IDE mode for the OS..................

 

Here is a potentially helpful discussion about fixing the possible storage device driver problem.

John

 

Wow John thanks I did it and it all works fine, no weird ghost boot up, easy settings works, Express Cache works, everything.

Except that is Easy Software Manager, It keeps saying 'Unsupported Model' I have tried uninstalling the current one and downloading the new one from the Samsung UK site, same problem, And again from the US site, same problem. Sorry to keep asking for help
thanks
Jamie

 

Re ESM, did you make a backup drivers and software disc using Samsung Recovery Solution? The version of ESM on that should be that originally installed and known to be compatible. If you didn't make that disc you can still do so provided you haven't deleted the recovery partition.

John

 

Hello, I know this is a relatively old post but I have been receiving the exact same problem...
I can only boot into the clean windows with a 3rd party program which I am booting off which has the option 'boot windows from hard drive' otherwise it would not boot and would just go into the boot menu as a loop.
The bios of the samsung series 5 does not have many options.
OP I have checked that you have not been online for a while but if you do see this message could you please provide me with your solution? I have tried the listed solutions above, could anyone else help ?
Thanks in advance !

 

If you have done a clean Windows installation from USB and your computer has ExpressCache then read this thread. The windows installer puts some boot files on the ExpressCache drive but it's not supported as a bootable device.

John

 

Also, if you changed UEFI mode in BIOS make sure to change it back. UEFI mode (or the opposite, legacy BIOS mode, also called CSM) is baked into the Windows installation and the disk format and cannot be changed in the fly.

If the PC was delivered with Win8, you want OS Mode selection=UEFI OS (assuming you didn't re-install Windows in non-UEFI mode). If the PC was delivered with Win7, you want UEFI Boot Support=disabled (assuming you didn't re-install Windows in UEFI mode).

If you updated BIOS, that sometimes causes settings to change on their own. Try the command to reset BIOS settings to default, and see if that helps.

This is in addition to the advice John gave you: If you re-installed Windows from USB on your model, you almost certainly ran into the issue of Windows setup placing its boot partition on the ExpressCache drive -- which isn't bootable. The first two posts in the thread John linked contain various workarounds.

 

I have been busy this week and have just managed to find time to try the solution.
IT HAS WORKED !
Thanks a lot guys, really appreciate it !

 

Hi All,

I know this is an old thread and I am not sure if the people who were able to help out with this is still here. But I am desperate.

I have a slightly different situation.
I tried installing SteamOS to my Samsung Series 5 np500p4c laptop - and now I can't get passed the phoenix boot up screen. Pressing F2 doesn't do anything pressing F4 for recovery sometimes takes me to recovery screen but recovering windows doesn't fix the problem -- once the laptop restarts it still loops in the phoenix boot up screen. F10 takes me to a boot selection screen but it is empty regardless of what usb device I plug in and where I plug it in.

I can't even try updating the bios as it really does not allow me to go into bios settings.

Please help me out.

 

Hello shogrran, welcome to NBR.

That does sound a nasty. But the fact that you can still boot into Recovery is positive. Just be careful what you try now, so you don't lose that as well.

First of all, we need to know some things about you computer that help determine the cause and what to do next:

1) Which model number? Do you know if it has ExpressCache? (Determines whether you may have an issue with OS Setup programs incorrectly determining the boot device.)

2) Which Windows version came pre-installed? (Determines whether it was delivered in UEFI mode, and whether its BIOS has the new UEFI implementation, and which version of Recovery).

3) Did you change UEFI settings in BIOS at any point? If yes, did you re-install Windows or another OS afterwards. (This affects everything.)

4) I am not familiar with SteamOS. Did you install it on a separate partition? If so, is that partition active? (Again, whether you are in UEFI mode affects everything here).

Your first priority should be to backup your data, since you may have to perform a Complete Restore in Recovery (where it wipes everything and re-partitions). How to perform that Restore depends on the version or Samsung Recovery Solution (displayed when you F4 boot).

But I realize that you do not have an OS from which to perform the backup. If you are able to get into BIOS (F2) we could make some tweaks to help boot a USB or DVD. But again, these tweaks depend on the questions above, so let us know about those first.

Edit: Duhh... don't know what I was thinking: You can use Recovery (F4) to backup your data on an external drive before performing a Complete Restore. Again, the exact commands depend on the version of Samsung Recovery Solution (SRS5 or SRS6), but it's pretty easy.