Windows 10 Boot Manager Becomes Disabled

[Sonny]

I am not saying this is a Windows 10 problem. I just have had my boot manager disable itself more in 10074 than I like. Getting tired of going into the bios at least twice a day to enable it.

If anyone has any idea how I might be able to fix it, I would appreciate the help.

 

[Sonny]

It was always in the UEFI mode. Now I have put in legacy + uefi. It has only been a few hours so far so good. I should know more by tomorrow if this is going to work. I still don't understand why UEFI is giving me the trouble at this time.

 

[Trouble]

Is that, GUI Application (for BIOS settings), that you've attached images from in your post above, what you are calling "boot manager", and is that what is becoming "disabled"?

 

[Sonny]

My mistake, yes it is Trouble. So far since switching Legacy+UEFI no problems but then it usually takes a while until it acts up. I don't know if it will this way. It seemed like only in the UEFI mode that it did.

 

[Trouble]

You may want to check and see if there is or are any associated service(s) running that are being stopped randomly that the program needs to work.
I'm having some random problems with Acronis True Image Home 2014 and its' Scheduler Services. Windows 10 doesn't seem to like it much. It sometimes starts like it's suppose to and then stops for some unknown reason.
If I restart it manually then it seems to be OK
I may have to upgrade to the 2015 version and see if that works any better but I'm reluctant to do so because I really don't like the interface as much. Even though I already bought and paid for the upgrade.

 

[Saltgrass]

When you go into the bios to reset the boot manager, what exactly are you doing?

If the boot drive is disappearing during boot and doesn't stay as the primary boot device, it may be something related to that. Some SSDs would be missed during boot and not be available. Once you boot without a device present, it may have to be reset back to the primary position.

What message are you getting when it refuses to boot?

 

[Sonny]

There is no message, All I get is a black screen with the line in the upper left corner. I will shut the computer down and turn it back on then I can enter the bios. When I get to the boot section it says something like boot manager or something is disabled. I can then enable it and it will be good for several hours. You never know when you reboot or start up from a shutdown what is going to happen. Right now I switched from UEFI to Legacy+UEFI. I don't know if that will make a difference or not. It does show three boot Items as #1 where as UEFI only showed the one.

 

[Sonny]

Hi Trouble I will check that out. Thank you. I did notice on this build 10074 it shows I am running Windows 10 Preview. Before on all the other builds it still showed Windows 8.1. Not that it matters I don't think.

 

[Sonny]

I have a Toshiba Sata drive. Haven't used my SSD for quite sometime as it was only 60 gbs.

 

[Sonny]

This shot shows what becomes disabled and I have to click on it and change it to enabled.

 

[Trouble]

Is that just something you notice within the software interface or does your computer exhibit other symptoms when it happens either while running or when you reboot?

 

[Sonny]

Everything is running fine until you reboot or after a shutdown you turn it on. It doesn't happen every time but you never know when it is going to happen.

I found someone talking about UEFI and they was talking about it in windows 8. According to them you had to have secure boot turned on or at times it would revert back to legacy. I don't know if that is true or not. I just went and put it back in to UEFI and went and turned on the secure boot. I really don't know. That might be just a bunch of crap but figured I could try it and see what happens. I don't know how that is going to work with Windows 10.

 

[Sonny]

Does this make sense?

"All systems with the Windows 8.1 certification use Secure Boot (part of the UEFI specification) to protect hardware-related firmware and the operating-system loader from tampering. Secure Boot can prevent the system from booting if unauthorized changes have been made or possibly even refresh the some boot components, such as the UEFI firmware, to a known good state."

https://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/dn168169.aspx

 

[Saltgrass]

I found someone talking about UEFI and they was talking about it in windows 8. According to them you had to have secure boot turned on or at times it would revert back to legacy.

Not true. Secure Boot does need UEFI, but UEFI works fine without using Secure Boot.

It looks like for some reason it is loosing the drive during boot, and it checks very early in the process. If the drive is slow to start it might be missed. Can you change the SATA port it is on for testing?

You might also try turning off the fast startup for a while to test. Any problems with the drive itself?

 

[Sonny]

Ok, I will try that Saltgrass. I haven't had any problems with the drive that I know of. That doesn't mean there isn't a problem. I will change the port it is on and see what happens. Right now it is on a port the puts out 6gbs. I will see what happens and let you know. Thanks!

 

[Sonny]

I changed the port, turned off the fast boot and secure boot. I guess if it is going to act up as usual it will be within the next 24 hours or so. Let you know what happens.

I am finding this weird. With those changes I am actually booting up from a shutdown state two seconds faster than I was with fast boot turned on. Man I hope this fixes the problem.

 

[BIGBEARJEDI]

You may want to check and see if there is or are any associated service(s) running that are being stopped randomly that the program needs to work.
I'm having some random problems with Acronis True Image Home 2014 and its' Scheduler Services. Windows 10 doesn't seem to like it much. It sometimes starts like it's suppose to and then stops for some unknown reason.
If I restart it manually then it seems to be OK
I may have to upgrade to the 2015 version and see if that works any better but I'm reluctant to do so because I really don't like the interface as much. Even though I already bought and paid for the upgrade.

>>>Hi Trouble;
Good thread going here!! I wanted to mention that Win10 Build10049 and earlier all had problems with the FREE 2015 version of Acronis (the version that shipped with my Kingston V300 SSD 120GB drive). Also, I tested the FREE version of Macrium Reflect Beta 2015 software as well. Of course, I don't know about the paid versions of either of these programs on versions newer than 10049; but I did extensive testing on both my Kingston SSD and 2 mechanical SATA HDDs and I couldn't produce a Rescue Disk; without that Macrium didn't want to seem to do a disk-to-disk clone from an image backup, so I couldn't re-image an older build over a newer build from my external drive. The free Macrium Reflect works very well on Win7/Vista/XP in this method. I think I did a Win8.1 image & restore recently as well.

Quite a pain really, but, in my Post to Saltgrass I discussed this on the 10049 bug-report I wrote. I'm sure both of these companies will get this fixed by RTM; or at least shortly after Win10 machines start hitting store shelves in August. *I hope!!*. I'm glad you mentioned this, as several of us Tech Previewers are playing around with multiple Win10 builds on multiple drives and multiple machines. The president of my Computer Club and I are working on a presentation for the Annual Soutwest Computer Conference (APCUG) here, and will be including this information to attendees. So, I'll be playing around with 10061 and 10074 I guess next. I'll report back on my findings to the thread.

Thanks!!
<<<BIGBEARJEDI>>>

 

[BIGBEARJEDI]

Not true. Secure Boot does need UEFI, but UEFI works fine without using Secure Boot.
>>>I concur on this. However, it's interesting to note that with some implementations of UEFI BIOSes I've been encountering the last year or so; I've had the weird problem of customers having their SATA hard drives changed out in their laptops, and the person or Tech doing so would replace a faulty SATA-II hdd with a SATA-I hdd. Secure Boot would need to be OFF in order to get the laptop to boot to WinXXX whatever version. Leaving Secure Boot ON caused similar Boot Failures as Sonny saw in his system. In some cases, I had to change UEFI to LEGACY+SecureBoot=OFF, in order to get the laptop to boot wihout stalling. This has been discussed in multiple forums, both here and elsewhere. The usual fix for this of course, is to check that the laptop UEFI BIOS has been updated to the latest version from the manufacturer's website--which I always do on new OS-HDD rebuilds anyway. Some machines; mostly HP so far, have given me the greates number of problems with this across several of their models. It's happened in Win7/8/8.1 in my cases. Of course, I usually tell me Customers that I need to replace the SATA-I hdd with a newer SATA-II or SSD to take care of this problem; but so far they are resistant to doing so, especially after some other Tech or Repair Shop stuck them with a HDD replacement and rebuild cost! One of my Customers was a friend and I did the upgrade to a better hdd for her anyway, and I just didn't charge her for the drive. (used my last good SATA-II laptop hdd). At least she was getting the security features she paid for on a modern laptop to work properly. Thought it might be worth mentioning to other readers following this thread.
Thanks-<<<BIGBEARJEDI>>>

It looks like for some reason it is loosing the drive during boot, and it checks very early in the process. If the drive is slow to start it might be missed. Can you change the SATA port it is on for testing?

You might also try turning off the fast startup for a while to test. Any problems with the drive itself?

 

[BIGBEARJEDI]

Ok, I will try that Saltgrass. I haven't had any problems with the drive that I know of. That doesn't mean there isn't a problem. I will change the port it is on and see what happens. Right now it is on a port the puts out 6gbs. I will see what happens and let you know. Thanks!

>>>Hi Sonny;
Not trying to hijack your thread, but you mentioned you were running a Toshiba hdd. You know they are notorious for failures, and they are tricky to test, since Toshiba doesn't write their own testing program for their own drives. They use either Fujitsu's or HGST's (WD). Don't know what you used to test the Toshiba; but, if you used SEATOOLS, even if it passes, it's not conclusive at all. Some thoughts on this part of it which is one of my specialties. Have you considered using a different brand HDD for the 10074 build test and see if you get the same booting difficulties? This follows along with Saltgrass's very good suggestion of changing the Mobo SATA ports for the Toshiba-SATA hdd.
Lastly, I suggest you used PARTED MAGIC-GSMART CONTROL to test that Toshiba drive. This is the most reliable testing tool--all coded in ISO-Linux. You can download GSMART CONTROL ISO image via Google and burn a bootable dvd disc. Or if you have a copy of the UBCD (Ultimate Boot CD) disc by Benjamin Burrows. It contains GSMART CONTROL under the Main Menu. When you go to GSMART CONTROL, look under drive Attributes. Make sure that the REALLOCATION SECTOR COUNT < 6. If it is not, then your hdd is faulty and must be replaced. UBCD has some tools that can fix if RSC is less than 6. If more, it's beyond repair, junk it! Also look for any ECC or CRC sector read errors; if it has lots of these in addition to a high RSC count, that drive is toast. Replacing the Toshiba drive just for Win10 testing purposes would give you the quickest answer.
Let us know what you find.<<<

*Marc*

 

[Sonny]

Hi Marc, I am sure it is not my hard drive. I have shut the computer down now for two hours before turning it on. By switching ports to test it like Saltgrass said to try, there is a big difference. I timed my start up time that it takes to reach the logon page and it is a whole 1 second faster than before. I am also running some extra fans. I have a 120mm fan to pull in the cooler air and two 140mm fans to suck the warmer air out. Before it sounded like a freight train going through my living room. Now all you can hear is the steady hum that is not so noisy. I had my hdd plugged into a high speed port before now it is in what I would call a normal port. it is not only quieter but seems to be helping the monitor turn on a little quicker also. I will know for sure when I turn it on in the morning if the problem is solved. I have had off and on problems with my monitor in the past few weeks also turning on after being shut down for two or more hours. I have a gut feeling that switching ports is the answer that I needed. As I said I will know more in the morning.

By the way I know Toshiba has had a bad rap but this is my second Toshiba hdd. the last one I had for close to three years and only took it out to put a 2tb one in. This one I got now is a little over three years old. No problems. WD hdd's have given me the most fits.