Arch Linux

sebastian4989

Member

Registered: 2016-02-23

Posts: 2

mSata SSD prevents BIOS from starting

Hey guys,

It is not my first attempt to install Arch Linux, in fact it's running nicely on my Desktop. However I did want it also on my Laptop, which is an Acer Aspire V5-573g. I do have a Sata SSD as well as an mSata SSD. On sdax I have Windows installed, on sdbx I do have Ubuntu running, all in UEFI and therefore grub is installed at sda. I just did want to replace Ubuntu with Arch. So I did format the sdb partitions so that I can format them clean and sober after the Arch USB boot. That's what I did and could normally boot
Arch from USB. First thing I did was formatting the partitions, one swap 16GB and an ext4 afterwards for root /. There I do have the same issue everytime that I cant run mkfs.ext4 immediately afterwards, I guess because some table might not be updated yet. So I did always a reboot to solve that issue. But this time after a reboot, the Acer logo appears and nothing happens. I can't get into BIOS, I can't get into the bootmenu, nothing. I did take off all peripherals as well as the USB Stick itself, same behavior.
After that I grabbed out the mSata SSD and then it worked again so it's definetely because of that.

So does anyone have an idea what happened there? Why can a HDD/SSD even prevent the BIOS from starting? I mean shouldn't the BIOS be the one that gets started before everything else does? And how can I fix this? I dont have an Adapter for mSata yet though...

Thanks a lot,
Sebastian

Awebb

Member

Registered: 2010-05-06

Posts: 6,286

Re: mSata SSD prevents BIOS from starting

First of all, I call this the "Aspire Effect". Every single Aspire I had to deal with so far was pretty nice and not expensive, but had this one little random quirk, that made working with a it a pain.

So, about your problem. Enter the UEFI settings and set everything to default. Turn off secure boot. Make sure the remaining disk's UEFI entry is configured as default boot option. Then turn off whatever "Boot logo" and "Quick boot" option you see. Make sure the SATA ports are set to AHCI. Try booting Windows. If it boots, make sure fastboot is off in Windows and shut down the machine completely. To be on the safe side, unplug the power chord and remove the battery. Then plug in the mSATA and see what happens.

If you're feeling adventurous, remember that SATA is generally hot pluggable. I cannot really recommend this, because I don't know how good you are with electronics, but you could try booting Windows and plugging in the mSATA drive afterwards.

sebastian4989

Member

Registered: 2016-02-23

Posts: 2

Re: mSata SSD prevents BIOS from starting

Hi and thanks for your answer.
I did try changing every BIOS setting that was possible (it's kind of minimalistic) and I disabled Windows fastboot but nothing changed. Same behavior, no booting/BIOS when SSD plugged in. I also tried to hot plugging while in Windows or in the Arch USB boot. Nothing. So my wild guess is that it's either the SSD itself thats broken or the mSata mainboard port. I've got the feeling it's the SSD since it happened right after the ext4 formatting of ~100GB/120GB of it.

-S