SOLVED Odd quirk of latest update

[larrydonline]

A few days ago I got updated from v. 1607 build 14393.576 to build 14393.953. Ever since then my computer will not boot until I unplug some external hard drives from their USB port. After rebooting is finished I can plug them back in and they work fine. I've experienced this with every reboot since the update.

Any ideas how they could be connected and what might be going on here. I've been running Windows 10 home since 2015 with all those external drives and it's never affected rebooting before.

Thanks,
Larry

 

[Regedit32]

Hi Larry,

I'm not sure how installing an update would affect the BIOS, but that is the first place I'd be taking a look to ensure that the C partition is booting before any external hard drives. If the external drives boot first no OS will be found and hence the computer will not boot up.

Take a look in your BIOS settings and let us know if that turned out to be the problem or not.

Alternately, do you have an Express Card handy? The drivers for that start on Startup but not before the BIOS checks for drives, so in theory that would avoid this entire boot order issue.

On that note you might also want to check the Drivers for your External Drives and USB ports have not been reset to generic ones since the Update; it may be as simple as reinstalling the drivers.

Regards,

Regedit32

 

[larrydonline]

Hi Regedit32,
Here's the boot order in my BIOS:
1st Internal ODD Device
2nd USB Storage Device
3rd Internal HDD Device
4th USB Floppy Device
5th Onboard NIC Device

I don't understand the difference between the ODD and the HDD device.
This computer has a 500 gigabyte regular hard drive (C) with the operating system on it and a 2 TB solid state drive for storage.

Larry

 

[larrydonline]

I forgot to address the Express Card comment. I don't know what that is so I'm sure I don't have one.

But as for the USB ports I've never understood why the OS has assigned drive letters to five USB ports but they can't be accessed by me. Every time I've plugged an external hard drive into a USB port it assigns a new drive letter to that drive. All the pre-assigned letters are just five that I can't use because the system has already assigned them to USB ports but won't keep those letters when I use them.

 

[Norton]

To me (novice) you have a USB HD booting before your HDD The boot order doesn't appear right. I would expect the (ODD) optical disk drive to be first in the boot order, then your internal (HDD) Hard Disk Drive C:\ 2nd.

 

[Tim Locke]

I think you want the USB drive first and then the first hard disk/ssd so that if you need to do a full repartition reinstall you can just plug in the USB stick and off you go...don't need any working OS on the machine. Who has working optical disks any more AND IIRC the latest Windows ISO needs a 2 level DVD to fit.

 

[larrydonline]

So my computer is looking first at my built in DVD player, then it's looking to see if there's anything plugged into a USB port with an OS on it and finding nothing it looks at the hard drive for an OS to load. If that's the case, then putting the hard drive first should speed up booting.
I plan on changing that order then, but I don't see how that current order would have anything to do with it not being able to find the OS until I've disconnected the external hard drives?
This current order was set in the BIOS long before it started balking at the external hard drives being connected.

 

[larrydonline]

Following up on Regedit32's suggestion to check the drivers I'm finding some strange things in Device Manager.
It's showing a USB Mass Storage Device at location 0000.0014.0000.001.000.000.000.000.000
and at Port_#0003.Hub_#0007 also
Port_#0004.Hub_#0008
Port_#0002.Hub_#0008
Port_#0005.Hub_#0006
Port_#0004.Hub_#0007
Port_#0002.Hub_#0007
Port_#0006.Hub_#0006
Port_#0003.Hub_#0006
Port_#0003.Hub_#0008
Port_#0001.Hub_#0006
Port_#0003.Hub_#0009
Port_#0007.Hub_#0003
Port_#0002.Hub_#0006 which is malfunctioning (Device descriptor request failed)
PCI bus 0, device 29, function 0
PCI bus 0, device 26, function 0
PCI bus 0, device 20, function 0
Then six generic USB Hubs
Port_#0001.Hub_#0001
Port_#0001.Hub_#0002
Port_#0010.Hub_#0003
Port_#0009.Hub_#0003
Port_#0007.Hub_#0006
Port_#0001.Hub_#0008

I could believe that the bad device could be the problem, but how do I fix it? Should I uninstall it in Device Manager and let the system reinstall (if appropriate) on the next reboot? With so many external devices I have no idea which one is failing. I suppose I can unplug them one by one and see what changes in Device Manager?

 

[Norton]

I would unplug them all and start the process of elimination.

 

[Jake B]

I forgot to address the Express Card comment. I don't know what that is so I'm sure I don't have one.

But as for the USB ports I've never understood why the OS has assigned drive letters to five USB ports but they can't be accessed by me. Every time I've plugged an external hard drive into a USB port it assigns a new drive letter to that drive. All the pre-assigned letters are just five that I can't use because the system has already assigned them to USB ports but won't keep those letters when I use them.

Express cards replaced PCMCIA cards used before devices came with internal cards that connect to the At&t, Sprint and Verizon networks. They are basically removable unlike the cards of today.

 

[larrydonline]

Thanks for the info, Jake.
I found that the malfunctioning port was because a WD My Book 3 TB drive had died. I've replaced it but don't know yet if the booting problem has been fixed. I'll post back when I know more.

 

[larrydonline]

I'm happy to report that the defective hard drive must have been the problem and that it was just coincidental that that drive died immediately after the last Windows 10 update.
Apparently before loading the operating system the computer checks that all the ports are in working order. It found one that was not so it refused to boot up.

 

[bassfisher6522]

On a personal note: For my my boot order, I all ways set that to my HDD as first. As there is no need (for me) to have anything else set to boot first as I'm not booting from those other devices.

If I do need to boot from another source, I just restart and at post beep tap F12 to bring up the boot menu, then select the device I want to boot from and I'm off to the races. This eliminates the need to go into the BIOS and change the boot order.