Samsung notebook NP500E5C issue

Upon powering up the laptop this is what happens : turn on > Samsung logo > shut down itself > turn on it self > massage " All boot options are tried press <F4> ... " The Cause : Secure boot is disabled and selection OS is CSM OS instead of UEFI and CSM OS. What I can do : F4 boots to recovery , I can boot from DVD and access the boot menu. The laptop is Windows 8 pre-installed , used WinNT Setup to dual boot it with win7 , everything was okay until OS selection mode was changed from UEFI and CSmOs to CSM OS. Can anyone help me please , I will provide more info if needed

 

Hi hamode112, welceome to NBR.

The reason you cannot boot is because your disk is prepared for UEFI mode, using so-called GPT partition layout. When you changed OS Mode Selction to CSM OS, it can no longer boot from GPT disks.

You need to get OS Mode Selection switched back to UEFI OS (or UEFI and CSM OS). But the fact that you are posting here, probably means you are unable to get into BIOS settings with F2, is that correct?

First make sure you try hard enough with F2: Hold down the power button for a few seconds to fully power off, then immediately after power on, keep tapping F2 about 2 times per second. If you can get into BIOS to change OS Mode Selection, that will be your easiest solution by far.

If this doesn't work, your laptop probably suffers from corrupt NVRAM (the memory used by BIOS to store your settings).

The solution in that case is to clear the NVRAM, which is done either (1) by updating your BIOS if you're not already on the latest version, or (2) by running the the BIOS flashing utility with the /cvar /patch parameters to directly clear the NVRAM.

Either way you need to boot some form of Windows, such as WinPE. The fact that you are able to boot from DVD is positive, but you have to be very careful now or you can brick your computer entirely.

The overall steps are described in this post (an unbricking guide) but much of that guide deals with how to boot something. You already know that you can boot from DVD.

Fingers crossed for you. Please keep us posted on your progress.

 

Yes , I cannot access the BIOS via F2 , I will use another DVD to burn WinPE , I also have a Win8 installation DVD.
Edit: I remember back then when I switched to CSM OS , it wasn't able to boot but it didn't brick the laptop , so why did it happen now?
Edit2: Regarding BIOS, last time I ran Samsung utility it gave me the current Bios version and the latest version , Both version are the same , so I might have to flash an older version and then update

 

You don't have to roll back to an earlier BIOS. Just download the latest BIOS (which is a lot easier to find), extract its contents, and run the flashing utility with the parameters I mentioned. That is the point with the guide I linked.

Do NOT use Samsung Update for any of this -- it is not safe for BIOS updating, and it won't work in WinPE either. Use the steps in that guide I linked.

Changing of OS Mode Selection in itself is not what caused the NVRAM corruption, it merely caused an inability to boot (because your partition layout doesn't match your UEFI/CSM mode setting).

We don't know exactly what triggers this corruption, only that it is related to UEFI and is often caused by OS installations and changes on models with this generation of UEFI implementation.

You are lucky that you are able to boot from DVD. Often NVRAM corruption causes BOTH a failure of the F-keys during boot (F2, F4, F10) AND inability to boot an external boot source.

 

This might take a while , because the only machine I have now is Windows XP , it has no mouse , just a keyboard and no internet access , so I have to download WinPE image from mi phone and move it to this machine, Sorry about this

 

I understand. Just take your time and do it right.

In addition to WinPE, you also have to download and extract the BIOS update. I suggest you do that on another PC as well, then place the extracted files on a USB stick or memory card that you can access on the Sammy after after booting WinPE.

 

This is what happened after booting from WinPE DVD : it shows me a black screen for 2-3 minutes , then a.blue screen appears and it stays like this , Now it's not booting from External devices anymore and in the device selection menu the " boot from DVD" has been removed, the only thing in there now is SATA HDD
Edit: another attempt , it boots from DVD but it gives me this massage : "CDBOOT: Memory overflow error"

 

Another attemp: it boots from DVD , now it gives me this massage "CDBOOT: Memory overflow error"
Edit: Now this "BOOTMGR image is corrupt. The system cannot boot."
Edit2: now it shows me the menu where I select the Strelec PE , I guess it's just a matter of luck

 

IMPORTANT UPDATE: it appears that I don't need to reset the NVRAM to boot to Windows , I selected Search & Start Windows 7/8 and it worked!

But I do want to reset the NVRAM to boot to W.7 without the DVD, So what do I do now?