Lost bootloader!

[vulgo]

I had already reflashed the MB but I did it one more time. I also reset the bios but it's still rebooting as soon as it hits the gigabyte logo. I'm now going to play around with Dual Bios but this is real uncharted territory for me. Any thoughts on what could have caused this in the first place? again, big thanks!

Remove the SSD you used bootcamp on for now as it is in an unknown state.

• You say the system reboots as soon as it hits the gigabyte logo, yet you are able to enter firmware settings, reflash BIOS, see the bootmenu etc. Presumably the reboot happens at the point where control would be handed to e.g. a bootloader?
• What USB are you trying to boot / seeing in the boot menu?
  
• Can you create a bootable USB from a suitable image e.g. windows installer, linux live etc?
• Make sure you have 'Other UEFI OS' or similar selected, and fast boot is disabled.

 

[splnlss]

• You say the system reboots as soon as it hits the gigabyte logo, yet you are able to enter firmware settings, reflash BIOS, see the bootmenu etc. Presumably the reboot happens at the point where control would be handed to e.g. a bootloader.

• Yes, this appears to be the case

  What USB are you trying to boot / seeing in the boot menu?

• UEFI UNIBEAST

  Can you create a bootable USB from a suitable image e.g. windows installer, linux live etc?

• Windows install USB Drive doesn't boot either

  Make sure you have 'Other UEFI OS' or similar selected, and fast boot is disabled.

• Yes both are correct. Other UEFI OS and Fast Boot Disabled

I'm going to go through and triple check things but everything you mention appears to be correct. But why would the machine reboot a that point rather than give me a no disk found error? Again, my humble thanks!

 

[vulgo]

But why would the machine reboot a that point rather than give me a no disk found error? Again, my humble thanks!

Did the rebooting problem start immediately after you ran the Windows installer or after you flashed the BIOS? Did Windows ever boot?

 

[splnlss]

Did the rebooting problem start immediately after you ran the Windows installer or after you flashed the BIOS? Did Windows ever boot?

It happened before I flashed the BIOS so I don't think that caused it.

But it did happened after I ran the windows installer usb stick. I canceled out of the main install because I just wanted to see if it would boot into the installed. I wasn't ready to do the full install until I had checked online hackintosh tutorials.

Prior to that I had used bootcamp to partition the OSX drive to create a second partition for Win 10. That was fine. Then I switched to see if the win10 USB installer would boot and it did. I canceled out of that before the install happened but did get the MS logo and background. Then I rebooted to get back into Sierra and got a no disk found error. After thatr I ran a clover usb stick to try to get things up and running and the constant rebooting started. That's all I really did, i think.

 

[vulgo]

I had used bootcamp to partition the OSX drive to create a second partition for Win 10. That was fine.

Next time just create an empty HFS+ volume using disk utility. Any other format and especially using boot camp to do this is going to go wrong. That might explain why you can't boot from that disk, but not why you can't boot anything at all.

During all this have you at any time had the blue gigabyte screen with the message that the firmware has been reset with an option to load defaults or enter setup?

 

[splnlss]

Next time just create an empty HFS+ volume using disk utility. Any other format and especially using boot camp to do this is going to go wrong. That might explain why you can't boot from that disk, but not why you can't boot anything at all.

The option to create a partition on the boot drive was greyed out in disk utility. But yes, point well taken. Ultimately, from now on, I'll always install Windows on a separate drive.

During all this have you at any time had the blue gigabyte screen with the message that the firmware has been reset with an option to load defaults or enter setup?

I don't remember it being a blue screen but regardless, I did get this message every time I reset CMOS. I don't think I got it any other time.

But I'm not sure how else to get this MB up and running. I've reached out to Gigabyte, but I'm guessing it will take a few days to get a response. Aren't auto reboots usually an indication of a hardware issue or loose cable?

 

[vulgo]

Aren't auto reboots usually an indication of a hardware issue or loose cable?

Could be. In that case removing the motherboard from the chassis might help. Corrupted nvram is another possibility.

 

[splnlss]

Could be. In that case removing the motherboard from the chassis might help. Corrupted nvram is another possibility.

I just got off the phone with Gigabyte and it sounds like the second Ram slot on MB had gone bad. Odd timing. Their support and RMA handing is really professional. I was impressed. But a new board will take a week.

@vulgo Thanks for all your help trouble shooting this.