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    Random boot order changes?

    Discussion in 'Alienware 17 and M17x' started by ejohnson, Jul 30, 2014.

  1. ejohnson

    ejohnson Is that lemon zest?

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    I have had this computer with my computer a few times, nothing that has alarmed me, but I think I should get to the bottom of it.

    Randomly my computer when booting will say no boot device as its trying to boot from network.... I load up the bios and see that the boot order has changed to network, dvd, hdd, msata.... I should be booting from the msata. I will change it to that, then a month of 2 down the road it will change back to network first.

    Today it did it kinda odd.... I started the computer, it booted up fine. I restarted it (didnt change anything, just restarted) upon restart it said no boot device with the bigfoot network card. So I restarted again and it said the same thing. I shut her down and went into the bios to find my order all messed up. I changed it back and everything boots fine.

    I have had this same issue randomly with my work desktop, but it usually comes back to life after a few restarts.
     
    ejohnson, Jul 30, 2014
    #1
  2. mariussx

    mariussx Notebook Evangelist

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    Is your BIOS date and time changing as well? If the answer is 'YES' - then your problem is most likely flat CMOS battery (small coin battery on the mainboard). If the answer is 'NO' - you will need to investigate this further. I would start by checking your mstata ssd and all the hard drives with something like Seatools or other HDD testing tool to see if they are faulty or not.
     
    mariussx, Jul 31, 2014
    #2
  3. DDDenniZZZ

    DDDenniZZZ Notebook Deity

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    I think sometimes updating the BIOS can flash the settings back to default. But I havent noticed anything. But like Mariussx says, could be flat CMOS battery.
     
    DDDenniZZZ, Jul 31, 2014
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  4. Alienware-L_Porras

    Alienware-L_Porras Company Representative

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    It does change the settings but it should save them once you change them in the BIOS. @OP, Do you have any external storage device attached to that PC?
     
    Alienware-L_Porras, Aug 1, 2014
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  5. ejohnson

    ejohnson Is that lemon zest?

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    No externals plugged in other than my mouse (logitech g502)
    Internals I have 4 hdds (3 1tb drives and a msata)

    It hasent popped up in a few days, but it seems like it will do it at random every month or so.
     
    ejohnson, Aug 4, 2014
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  6. MogRules

    MogRules Notebook Deity

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    To weird....if it was the battery you would think it would be doing it every time he shut the system down...if it is intermittent I would be more scared of a hardware issue.
     
    MogRules, Aug 4, 2014
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  7. ejohnson

    ejohnson Is that lemon zest?

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    The strange thing about it, is that my work desktop (ibm thinkstation) does the same thing at random. Goes for a few months, then it reverts back to the wrong boot order.
     
    ejohnson, Aug 4, 2014
    #7