GA-P55A-UD3 not booting from cdrom

[dh22r]

here's my setup:

i5 750
gigabyte GA-P55A-UD3
4GB corsair DDR3
pioneer DVD-RW
zotac nvidia 9800GT 1GB
seagate 500MB SATA HD

i d/l'd and burned the P55 boot cd. the burn is valid as i've verified this on my IP35/Q6600 hackintosh (10.6.3).

i've set the SATA to AHCI for both the SATA2/SATA3 on the P55 board. the problem is the MB doesn't boot from the CD consistently. if i disconnect the harddrive leaving just the dvd-rw, the install cd is recognized and i see the bootloader. after re-connecting the harddrive, it's stuck on "Loading Operating System".

originally, the hard drive was blank and i was able use the bootloader to launch and subsequently install snow leopard from the retail DVD. per tony's instructions, post installation i'm to reboot with the P55 boot cd again. this is when the problem appears. like for some reason, if there's a harddrive present, the P55 ignores the cd.

any ideas from anyone? maybe my dvd-rw is incompatible with this motherboard -- it worked fine on the IP35-pro hackintosh.

any help appreciated.

-DH-

 

[adamsmasher]

Is your DVD drive IDE or SATA? Also, you might want to try USB installation if your DVD drive is on the fritz.

 

[dh22r]

the pioneer is a SATA dvd-rw. can i burn the boot.iso to a usb flash drive? the F12 option allows me to boot from any device.

 

[adamsmasher]

I just re-read your posts again now that I've got more time to give other than a cursory glance... Make sure the boot priority is set to boot from the DVD drive first. Next, make sure that in Hard Drive Priority that you have the drive with Snow Leopard installed on it listed first.

What SATA ports on the motherboard do you have your drives plugged into?

When it says "Loading Operating System", is that after seeing the Chameleon boot prompt, or before it?

 

[IceBear]

Two simple things you can try. First try using the boot options menu (is it F8) as the machine boots???

You'll get a list of drives and chose your DVD rom. That might work.

Secondly go with the USB Stick method. I had the same problem and after 3 different DVD's and a whole lot of grief I never managed to install off the DVD. It should have worked, and the drive work great now; but during install it was tragic.

 

[jlpaquay]

Hello.

My config : GA-P55-UD3, intel core i5 750, 2 G RAM G Skill and nVidia GeForce 250...

Blank HDD on sata 0 and CD/DVD burner on sata 1 (intel !). Bios : optimized settings except of course 64 bits and AHCI... First boot device : CD/DVD, second HDD...

I have exactly the same problem : impossible to boot from CD... (I tried several CDs boot) : always the same message : "loading operating system"... and nothing else ! I burnt the boot CD on a imac at a speed of 8X.

On another HD I have installed XP professionnel without problem, except that I had to make an update of the SATA controllers drivers to enable AHCI mode...

Both of the HDD are never plugged together...

How to do to boot on the CD ???

 

[tonymacx86]

Make sure you're using the latest iBoot. It will solve most issues. Anything that says P55BootCD for the most part contains a DSDT- which may or may not be suitable for your mobo. Good luck!

 

[dh22r]

tony: i booted up with latest iBoot in AHCI mode and still i'm stuck on "Loading Operating System". btw, my bios version for the GA-P55A-UD3 is F6.

if i switch back to IDE mode, i am able to use the bootloader and see the "iBoot" icon. after swapping out/in the SL DVD and pressing F5, i'm able to boot the SL DVD -- but then i eventually see the "no root device found". this make sense as i'm not in AHCI mode.

but the crux of the issue with me is that in AHCI mode, i'm not able to boot from the cdrom period. not via either F12 nor the boot sequence set in bios.

i've no luck with either the sony dvd/rw nor the pioneer dvd/rw.

also, i tried swapped the SATA ports for both cdrom and hard disk -- makes no difference.

any other ideas? anyone? i'm borrowing a usb dvd/rw tomorrow and see whether it makes any difference.

thanks again all!

-DH-

 

[Crucial]

I had the same problem today. An iBoot disk that always worked, and several P55BootCD's that did not work. I tried burning the CD's with different settings, and eventually created a good one that works reliably. I created the CD's on my iMac using Disco. I think the settings that worked were to drag the un-mounted iso image onto Disco, go to preferences and check that I was burning an ISO 9660 and that multi-sesion was off. My 4th disk is now the only way that my hack will startup as the EFI that I installed does not work.

 

[dh22r]

Re: GA-P55A-UD3 not booting from cdrom ... SOLVED!

ok, i'm not very smart ...

according to the boot method step #2:
"Burn to CD"

i burned the .iso to a DVD-R!!! when i swapped in a CD-R, everything worked in AHCI/64 and the cdrom booted just fine.

i must've burned at least 15 DVDs using the various P55 and iBoot iso's.

i'm currently running the SL install on my drive. hopefully, every goes well from this point on.

thanks again all!

-DH-