Weird G53SW boot issues

My G53SW will only start from a cold boot. Reboots cause it to hang at the POST screen until you manually press escape and select a boot device, upon which the computer will show the windows start animation indefinitely without any disk activity. The only way to boot up after rebooting accidentally is to run startup repair a number of times, or, as was suggested in a thread about another G53 with boot issues, remove and reinsert the RAM. In addition, the disk drive lights up and makes a noise, but neither the BIOS, nor Windows detect it.

 

Is your G53SW stock or do you have any aftermarket components?

Have you run memtest86+ or windows memory test?

 

I have a Samsung 830 series 128GB SSD and 8GB ram instead of the standard 6. I used the SSD for about two months without issues. Memtest says that my memory is fine, and samsung disk wizard states that my SSD is healthy.

 

Seriously? Has no no one else had this issue?

 

Have you tried resetting the EC (embedded controller) by removing the AC adapter and battery for 30+ seconds? Have you tried resetting your BIOS to user defaults?

Have you upgraded the SSD firmware recently?

 

I've tried an EC reset, with no success, and also tried resetting the BIOS defaults. The SSD firmware has never been updated, as no new versions have come out since I bought it.

 

From what I read your model has 2 hard drive bays. Have you tried swapping the SSD into the other bay?

Also if you have your original hard drive with windows loaded, try swapping it with the SSD and test. If the issue persists with the original HDD, and it is under waranty I would RMA it.

 

I had a similar problem with my g53sx after I installed a dummy card in the sd slot. It caused my computer to lag for about a minute with no video and no hard drive activity. Odd things happen with these computers, you'll have to go though a list and try every suggestion you run across. You could try a clean install on an extra drive or a clean install on your ssd after backing up your data. It might be that the ssd is having a problem and works intermittently. Either way, i hope you have a backup machine while you're trying to diagnose and solve this issue.

Good luck

 

Yes that is a good point, SD card readers can be finicky and cause boot problems. Also try removing any peripherals you have like USB devices, etc.

 

I fixed it! Turns out my broken DVD drive was causing the issues.