Samsung Ultrabook NP900x4D not going in to BIOS

Hello,

All of the sudden my ultrabook stopped booting and simply says error in boot either press 'Esc' for UEFI settings or F5 to repair, when I pressed F5, nothing happened, when I press 'Esc' it takes me to BIOS, there I changed boot setting to USB but it did not boot so I thought by disabling the windows manager and hard disk in boot sequence I may be able to boot through usb but after disabling it did not boot from usb and it will not go to BIOS even.

My ultrabook has a password and not when I restart the computer it will ask for password and when I enter it will restart immediately and again asking for password. After entering password I tried to press F2, F5 and F10 but nothing happened with any function key. Looks like I messed in a big way. Please help me to go in to the BIOS and recover my Windows 8.

Thanks in advance

 

Study the discussions here and here to see if any of the fixes might work in your case.

Does F4 to get into Samsung Recovery Solution still work?

John

 

No, no key is generating any output

 

Then there seem to be many similarities to the problem discussed here.

See if any of the suggestions work for you.

John

 

Your CMOS/NVRAM (the storage area used by BIOS) has been messed up. Unfortunately this is prone to happen on some Samsung Win8/UEFI models. Definitely study those threads linked by John, and pay particular attention to member Halback's case in the first thread.

Your focus should be:

1) Perform a CMOS/BIOS reset and hope that gets your Boot Priority back to normal. With some luck, it may also "unstick" your F-keys so that you can enter BIOS (F2) and Recovery (F4).

2) Make sure you create a proper, UEFI-compatible USB stick with Windows Setup. Microsoft's ISO/USB creation tool does NOT work with UEFI. You may have to remove your SSD to force booting it (if your F-keys don't work and/or if Fast BIOS/Boot is enabled in your BIOS). This should allow you into BIOS through the Windows Setup Repair options.

3) Ultimately, you need to re-flash your BIOS in order to clear the ailment. Updating to the latest BIOS version will sometimes do the trick. But in some cases (or if you already have the latest version) you have to roll back to an earlier version, then update again. This requires some form of running Windows: Either a "real" Windows running from the SSD or a WinPE running from USB.

4) If/when you are able to enter Recovery (F4), make sure to create a Bootable Factory Image backup on a 16GB USB stick (32GB required for some models) as described in this post.

5) If/when you are able to enter (F2) make sure to disable to Fast BIOS/Boot and SecureBoot to enable booting external sources. Once everything is back in order, you can change these settings back to slightly improve boot speed and security.

All of these are described in more detail in that thread.

Do note that the official solution to this problem (and often the only one) is to send the computer in for repair, where Samsung will replace the motherboard. But some members have been able to fix it on their own. Just be prepared to put some significant amount of study and work into it.

 

Thanks John,

I tried all of them but nothing worked for me. Once I start the notebook it asks for password and when I entered the same, it will restart and ask the same, I tried all solutions what John suggested in his threads in between after entering the password and restart but I don't see any time between them as I press enter it restarts immediately. Now I don't know what to do. I will check on Dannemand's suggestions.

 

Hello Dannemand,

Can you please state the procedure to reset the CMOS/BIOS, I tried to find in that thread but could not.

Thanks

 

It's the battery disconnect procedure mentioned in the second post of the thread we linked:

http://forum.notebookreview.com/samsung/755985-how-boot-bios-when-function-buttons-not-showing.html

Note that there is an extended variant of that procedure which requires waiting 48 hours after the reset to make sure all residual charge has left the system. Of course you have an additional challenge because of the BIOS password. I don't know if the reset will take of that too

Don't get me wrong, but you really need to study that thread carefully and understand what the members there went through. If there were a simple fix that could be stated briefly, we would have given it to you already. Your computer is basically bricked at this point, and the alternative is to send it in for repair. For many users in this situation that is, in fact, by far the best option.

 

Hi Dannemand,

Thanks for your reply, I tried to find the procedure to reset CMOS/BIOS but could not find it. I will try to load from a DVD as it was not disabled and then see it boots or not. Thanks for your help

 

It's not that I mind giving you precise instructions, only that I am not on a PC these days. Let's see what can be done from Tapatalk to help get your computer going...

From the 2nd post in that thread:

If you are not able to enter BIOS with F2, even after several thorough attempts (as described in the first paragraph) we're on to that CMOS reset procedure (mentioned in the second paragraph). The blue italic text is a link to this post (which contains the actual procedure):

If that still doesn't unstick the F-keys, you can try the same procedure again, but this time open it up and disconnect the small CMOS battery as well before pressing the power button for a minute. Then leave the computer disconnected for 48 hours.

Please let us know how that goes, and we can take it from there.

 

Thanks for the reply Dannemand, I misunderstood the CMOS reset procedure, but now I realize that I already did it but did not produced any result, still function keys won't generate any out put. Now I will try the second method you mentioned. Then I will revert back to you/ Thanks once again.

 

Thanks. I'll cross my fingers for you. It is probably only a majority of cases where the simply CMOS reset really solved the problem. But it does happen, I would estimate in 15% of cases, based on the reports here.

As previously stated, the goal should always be to get to a point where you can boot some form of Windows and re-flash your BIOS, since that has the greatest chance of fully clearing the CMOS.

As for temporarily getting into your BIOS (to disable Fast BIOS/Boot and SecureBoot, and in your case, to disable that password) your best chance is booting a USB with Windows 8.x setup and using its Repair feature to access the Firmware page. Just make sure the USB is formatted as FAT32 with GPT layout. And you may have to temporarily unplug the SSD to force external boot (if Fast BIOS/Boot is currently enabled, since it skips looking for external boot sources).

Booting a Windows Setup DVD is more difficult unless you have an original Microsoft or OEM disc. The ISOs downloaded from Microsoft are known to have problems booting from DVD. And on your model there are no benefits to booting a DVD (it's only on models with ExpressCache, since it confuses Windows Setup when booting from USB).

Edit:

Something else: When you have the results from that extended CMOS reset procedure, I suggest you post the outcome in that other thread (linked below), so that we can gather information about these semi-bricks in one place. Please copy some of the background from this thread: Your model, what happened and what you tried, maybe even a link back here.

http://forum.notebookreview.com/samsung/755985-how-boot-bios-when-function-buttons-not-showing.html

 

Hello Dannemand,

Sorry for the delayed reply, I was stuck with something so I could not start the laptop, today I started it almost after 5 days but it is still the same thing,asking for password and no function key works. When I opened the back cover I found on the right side two connectors which were connected to a socket, I was confused that which was the CMOS battery, I found on the net one with the black color cover on it and I simply unplugged the wire and left the laptop for 5 days. Had I done right? Please let me know.

As this did not worked out now I will look in to making a usb with windows 8, but the issue is that when I try to format with FAR 32, it is not allowing says that this type of file system could not be larger than 4GB. Please suggest me a way that how can I make a windows 8 usb with fat32.

Thanks

 

Hello Dannemand,

I tried the USB FAT 32 with GPT also but still it did not boot and I tried Ubuntu also but nothing will start or any key works so now I see only option of taking it to service. Is there any way that we can flash the BIOS externally?
Thanks

 

Hi cmfugen,

Sorry, I have been away for a couple days.

If you want to try other things before sending it in for service, keep following the first response I posted to you ( here).

You probably need to remove the SSD temporarily in order to boot an external source. If your USB boot source is properly made (GPT/FAT32) it should boot when it cannot find the SSD. That should allow you to get into BIOS through the Repair option of Win8 Setup, and that way you can disable Fast BIOS/Boot and SecureBoot and your password. Once those are disabled, booting external sources will be easier. The challenge will still be to re-flash BIOS, which has the best chance of clearing your NVRAM/CMOS.

So far, everything you are experiencing is the same as member Halback in the other thread (again, starting here). That is why I keep referring to his case.

But sending it in for service is of course the only guaranteed solution. Particularly if you have warranty, you should definitely consider that.