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"Reboot and Select proper Boot device"

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by labrat Jul 31, 2006 last reply Aug 7, 2006 1 view

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I have a 6 month old laptop that just started balking on power up. I get this message when turning on my laptop:

"Reboot and Select proper Boot device or Insert Boot Media in selected Boot device and press any key"

This only happens on a power-up start. At that point, no keys do anything--until I press ctrl-alt-del and it will start. Once it starts, I can restart it with no problems. If I turn it off, on power-up, I get the msg again. It will boot to a bootable CD on power-up without the msg. It is like it just can't find the HDD on a power-up--but then is OK to restart from the error screen.

This is my personnal system and it is clean of spyware and viruses. I turned off all boot devices except HDD in BIOS--still have problem. I reseated the hard drive in case there was a slight connection problem. I did just install an iPod. Thought maybe that could have corrupted something. ??? Any suggestions for what to try next?

9 replies

by hal 9000 Aug 1, 2006

It sounds as if the BIOS is set to boot from A CD ROM HDD and for some reason is being held at the CD ROM if there is one inserted and not allowing it to continue on from there.

You can try changing the Boot sequence to A HDD CD ROM and see if that makes any difference. If it doesn't I would be looking at the HDD as a possible problem and testing it with the Makers Testing Utility or you could have a Power Supply that isn't working properly and not delivering sufficient power to start the HDD running at initial startup.

Because it's a NB I would first look at the HDD as a possible problem as they have a habit of failing on a regular basis. If you have one of the T $X Series of IBM so say a T40 -45 or something similar it could be the M'Board malfunctioning as well because these M'Boards have a Motion Detour on them to prevent physical damage to the HDD if the unit gets bumped around or dropped.

Either way I would backup all your data and return it for Warranty Repair as the Guarantee should be longer than 6 months. The first thing that most builders do is to wipe the HDD and perform a reinstall of the OS and software that originally comes with the NB and then if its still not working correctly they will start to change parts till it works properly again. This is why it's extremely important to Backup all your Data so it doesn't get lost forever.

Col

by labrat Aug 7, 2006

Thank you for answering

by pierrejamme Aug 2, 2006

Possibly corrupted NVRAM,depending on type of laptop you may be able to reset it. Call your support or look into their database. We use Dell desktops and I have seen this three or four times. Dell NVRAM is cleared by going into setup, turn on all three LEDs (Num Lock, Scroll Lock, CAP Lock) and then Alt E.

by labrat Aug 7, 2006

A combination of reflashing the BIOS and reinstalling the iPod fixed it. I didn't understand the iPod was looked at as an attached drive and had pulled it off rather than correctly removing it. Thank you for answering.