ok, so I am working on a customer’s PC, and the SSD shows up in BIOS, but not when trying to install windows, so I switched to Linux Mint, which is what I had on hand, thinking I could install that, then reinstall windows, but it keeps giving me errors, so I tried another HDD that I had spare, and it’s only letting me “repair” windows, I’ve never come across anything like this. BIOS is on current, latest, version and should support the 15 11400 cpu. I’m pulling my hair out over this. Any ideas? It’s probably something simple, and I’ma feel real stupid.
What is the model of laptop - what SSD slots are available (2.5" or any M.2). Does the SSD/disk work in another device, or USB enclosure.
What errors did Linux Mint give when it failed - you could try running memtest86 also.
addendum regarding boot devices - ventoy can put many iso’s (like mint, windows, memtest86) on one usb flash device.
first of all it’s a desktop, not a laptop, I have all types of slots, m.2, SATA, etc. Both the OEM drive and my own 2tb SSHD drive work in external USB and are recognized by the machine in BIOS. The error code Linux is giving me is long, let me see if I can type it out.
[ 0.152621] mce [Hardware error] CPU 0: Machine Check: 0 Bank 6: ee20000000
[ 0.152624] mce: [hardware error]: TSC 0 ADDR fef20000 MISC 438800000086
[ 0.152626] mce: [hardware error]:PROCESSOR 0:a0653 TIME 1671894672 SOCKET 0
APIC 0 microcode ea
[ 1.987302] ACPI BIOS Error 9bug0: could not resolve Sumbui [\ SB.PC00.PGON.P
BGE], AE_NOT_FOUND (20190816/psargs-330)
{ 1.9873021] ACPI Error: Aborting method _SB.PC00.PGON due to previous error
(AE_NOT_FOUND) (20190816/psparse-529)
{ 1.987321] ACPI Error: Aborting method_SB.PC00.PEG1.PGO1._ON due to previous error (AE_NOT_FOUND) (20190816/psparse-529)
with windows, it will either refuse to install the operating system, only letting you repair, or it will give you the option to install it, but when you get to bootable media, it can’t find any drives.
because of the error message in Linux, I saw ee20000000 and there was a mismatched ram stick installed, so I pulled the kit, and put in a matching known good pair. Nothing. I recognized the number string as memory address.
If you had another Windows machine you could do the diskpart thing? (Assuming the ram issue is red herring).
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yeah, maybe? I tried formatting all the drives already, is there something I’m missing??
Have you tried resetting the BIOS? Is it keeping decent temperatures in the BIOS? What other devices are connected when you try to perform the installation? Can you retrieve SMART data about the customer’s SSD?
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I probably can collect the Data on the SSD, I’m formatting it again right now though. I have not tried anything with the BIOS, it’s reporting the latest update, so I’m not messing with that yet. I didn’t check temp in BIOS.
I’ve sometimes been able to fix weird disk-related errors by repartitioning to something completely different, then back again. Try blowing away all partitions to turn everything into free space, then partition using a different scheme than the one you want to end up with. Once that’s done, repartition back to the scheme you actually want.
Merely formatting a drive does not freshen or recreate the partition map.
PS: Partition (MBR/GPT/etc) != Filesystem (EXT4/NTFS/ZFS/etc)
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yeah so I went in CMD and deleted the restore partition manually, then extended the other partition over it. So hopefully I can now get windows to install on the SSD like it’s new.
if the drive is fine in another machine, and known good drives are also showing bad, could the controller be faulty?
BIOS sees it, but the OS is not populating in the available devices?
Maybe try a controller card / raid card / sata card, and see if they become valid targets?
It could be some ACPI / legacy mode / raid mode has been toggled in the BIOS, but unlikely, as no-one would intentionally trigger a switch?
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I don’t have anything to replace a faulty controller, I’m working with very limited parts, (basically a few old broken machines, and my own personal PC) and attempting to do diagnostics with them.
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just a thought. Could well be wrong anyway…
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thank you for your feedback! I do appreciate it. I’m just starting out however, so money and equipment are shoestring to say the least. I’ve removed all the partitions and reformatted the disk to GPT instead of MBR. Hopefully this solves the problem?
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Resetting the BIOS is nothing fancy, it will just revert some changes that can be applied once again for sure. Maybe even save the settings in the BIOS as a profile and than reset it to factory, just to remove another variable.
Temps are really important to check. If the system is overheating while installing it’s gonna crash 100% of the time and make all your boot devices useless.
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tried adding the noacpi kernel parameter before booting into linux?
also, setting up LVM on a drive will sometimes make windows freak out and not want to touch a drive unless you do a low level format or zero out the first few hundred megabytes of the drive.
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Here’s my cheat sheet for fixing something that sounds like your problem:
Plug SSD into other windows machine, via USB ideally, otherwise sata is fine, just need to make sure your machine boots from it’s normal disk.
Then CMD (as admin) and type diskpart, then:
“list disk” If curious, or just:
“Clean” to completely format and make ready for windows install.
YOU MIGHT WANT TO CHECK BEFORE DOING THIS UNDOABLE ACTION.
You might need to list disk, I’m afraid it happens so rarely I can’t remember!
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I’m medium-sure I know what is going on, in lieu of making a long semi-technical post that is hard to follow,
Do you have the ability to use DVD installation media to install windows instead of the USB media? (this would overcome the problem without the longer explanation of how to make usb media work)
I downloaded the driver installation media for the SATA controller on the MB, that seems to have done the trick, I hadn’t even considered this to be needed, as the BIOS was the latest and greatest revision, but who knows, maybe it got overwritten? Thanks you guys for all your suggestions and help!
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