Series 9 NP900X3C-A01CA windows 8.1 hangs on first boot

Hello:

I just got this notebook from someone. They upgraded from windows 8 to 8.1. I have checked with SW Update and all software is up to date. It constantly hangs on first boot at the beginning of windows. The start image shows up. Then the circling dots will not appear. It hangs there with the windows start image. I have to turn off with the power button. Then it starts at the second boot regularly.

Once booted, it seems OK for most part. The touch pad could be a bit better.

I would appreciate help on what to check and change.

Thank you.

 

Hi skipper, welcome to NBR and the Samsung forum. And congrats and Series 9.

The boots that fail are almost certainly ones that are not real cold reboots, but rather resuming from hibernation -- which is default in Win 8.x when Fast Startup is enabled. When you force it off with the power button, it will cold boot next time -- and that works.

As a temporary fix, you can disable Fast Startup in the Power Options control panel. The screen shot below is from Win8, I don't remember if it looks different in 8.1 -- Microsoft moved a lot of controls to the Charms menu.



But of course we want to find out where the conflict is that causes resume from hibernation (Fast Startup) to fail. You can look in the Windows System log in Event Viewer (Control Panel - Administrative Tools) and see if it gives any clues to which device or service fails to resume.

It could be related to the problems with Win 8.1 and Samsung drivers, which has been a lot of trouble in general (though less so on Series 9 models which don't have issues with switchable graphics). Still if you search or scan our Win 8.1 update thread (linked below) you may find some answers. I suggest you scan backwards from the last posts. I would pay particular attention to any posts about graphics drivers, and whether to get the latest directly from Intel or the latest from SW Update or the default Win 8.1 driver. It varies with each model, and I don't remember the answer for yours. I also include a link to another small thread with Series 9 specific 8.1 advice.

http://forum.notebookreview.com/sam...pgrade-until-samsung-has-updated-drivers.html

http://forum.notebookreview.com/sam...-series-9-windows-8-1-including-touchpad.html

You can also check the Owners Lounge thread for your model (linked below) where some Win 8.1 update discussion ended up.

http://forum.notebookreview.com/samsung/656442-13-3-samsung-np900x3c-ivy-bridge-cpu.html

It is also possible that the problem is a conflict between Windows Hibernation/Fast Startup and Intel Rapid Start (IRSTRT), which is a more sophisticated hibernation technology supported on your model. If you installed IRSTRT (when you installed drivers with SW Update) you want to make sure it is configured correctly, as described in the thread linked below:

http://forum.notebookreview.com/sam...x4b-c-guide-intel-rapid-start-technology.html

If all fails, a re-install of Windows (Win8 or 8.1) may be your best option. We have several guides for that which may help. Or a factory restore, if Samsung Recovery is still intact on the SSD (loaded by hitting F4 immediately after cold power on).

One question: In your BIOS (F2), on the Boot Menu, is SecureBoot enabled or disabled, and what is selected under OS Mode Selection? This determines whether your computer runs in the new UEFI mode or in Legacy BIOS mode (so-called CSM) and must remain unchanged after Windows has been installed. See this post.

You could spend days going through all that. But if you can narrow it more, there is a good chance someone here can help you. Please keep us posted

 

Thank you for helping.

I have managed to fix it. After reading around a bit, I changed 3 things. I uninstalled the intel rapid storage, intellimemory, and disabled the internal lan in the bios. After that it was all happy and booting faster than I have ever seen any computer does. Apparently one of them fixed it. I just don't know which.

I checked the bios for you. I have the safe boot disabled with [uefi and csm] option turned on. I tried only uefi and it refused to boot. So I guess the windows is actually booting csm or gpt.

I also checked and saw the fast boot was turned on in the windows power button setting. At least in this case, it was not causing it. However, I prefer shutting things down properly and not hibernating. So I turned it off. It now boots a little slower, but still fast enough for me.

I will probably try dual booting it with linux soon. That's another reason I need clean shutdowns.

Will the current [uefi and csm] bios setting allow a second OS to dual boot in uefi mode?

 

Excellent, good job getting it fixed. And thank you for the update.

You said you uninstalled Intel Rapid Storage (which is just a SATA driver). You're sure it wasn't Intel Rapid Start you uninstalled (the hibernation feature, which would make more sense as a fix for the problem you described)? The two always get confused, as described in this post.

And I think you're right about your current installation: If it only boots Windows in UEFI and CSM OS mode, not in pure UEFI OS mode, that probably means it's a CSM installation on an MBR disk. You can check if there is an EFI boot partition (so-called ESM) and whether the disk is GPT or MBR. UEFI will only boot from a GPT disk, and CSM will only boot from an MBR disk. So if it's a CSM/MBR installation (MBR disk, no EFI partition) you can change OS Mode Selection to CSM OS to keep it simpler.

I am no Linux expert, but I don't believe you will be able to install it in UEFI mode as long as your disk is MBR. I imagine you should be fine installing it in CSM mode on a second partition. Otherwise you will have to convert the disk to GPT (which will wipe everything) and re-install Windows as well.

 

I confirm I deleted intel rapid storage which may have had nothing to do with the problem. I still have the intel rapid start which may be next to go to get the 4G hibernation disc space back. I also dont hibernate my computers usually. I would either put them to sleep or shutdown.

The disc is partitioned as an MBR disc. I see only 100MB system reserved NTFS primary, main NTFS primary and hibernation partitions. It is not gpt and there is no uefi boot partition.

To reinstall windows for uefi booting, I would need the installation media which I do not have. I don't know if it is even possible to get one from MS or Samsung. I understand previous owner bought it with windows8 pro on it. He did get the SSD upgraded to bigger size. I suspect it became mbr/bios after the upgrade.

I am no expert on linux either. I think you are right about dual booting both only in either bios or uefi. I don't really have anything against using mbr and bios or installing linux on it. I am not sure that the performance differences are enough for a normal user like me to notice. One little annoyance of mbr and bios booting is the limitation of the primary partitions and now windows have already taken up 2. But may be I can still install linux on it.

 

I think you got all of that right: It's a BIOS(CSM)/MBR installation on a new SSD.

You could ask the previous owner for the original SSD (I bet it's just lying in a drawer somewhere). It may still contain Recovery partitions and a factory image. But an even better solution is to call Samsung and persuade them to send you a Recovery disc -- they do that sometimes when people have Recovery issues. It is a clean Windows OEM disc, and will give you the freedom to re-install whatever and whenever you like.

As for the speed difference between UEFI and BIOS, it's only during boot, and I would think it is negligible on your machine. Once it is booted, there shouldn't be any speed difference. So if you can make do with four primary partitions, the current BIOS/MBR installation will be fine.

 

Thank you for your help and tips. Appreciate it.