Asus N550JK Problem with Windows 8.1 Install

[Seth Knight]

The actual title of this thread my be a bit deceiving but its the closest I could come to what the actual problem is. Recently, I've purchased an Asus N550JK and its a very excellent laptop. When ordering, I also bought an SSD to go with it. To go about using Windows 8.1 on my system, I figured that I could go ahead and setup the laptop on the included HDD and use Samsung's cloning software to drop it all on the SSD. This all seemed to work until I started having major startup issues, freezing, and components not being recognized. After a visit to these forums, I realized that Samsung's cloning software was not adequate for the job, and fresh windows installation is the most recommended way of going about a hardware upgrade(as far as a boot drive, anyways). I ended with actually getting Windows 8.1 free through college and did a fresh install and no problems that I previously had seemed to surface.

Where the problem persists is upon turning on the laptop. Normally, I would turn the laptop on from being completely shut down, and it should come on fairly quick. What now happens is the laptop seems to turn on then off again, repeatedly. There is an easy fix to this though. I simply hit F2 like a mad man when it starts up, I then go to BIOS, and can save and exit through there, and the laptop would boot after that, as if nothing was wrong. Please note I have tried this being plugged and unplugged from power so I really doubt its a power issue. This may not be part of the problem but I also have a small delay when actually booting windows when it asks me what volume I want to load from whenever I only installed windows once on the SSD, and wiped the HDD. This may not be part of the on off cycle, but I thought it was worth posting. I appreciate any help in advance.

 

[darkbreeze]

Go into your BIOS and make sure AHCI is enabled, not IDE. There may be no option for it in the BIOS since it's a laptop. In that case AHCI is generally the default setting. When you installed windows on the SSD did you delete any existing partitions and allow windows to create a partition and format the drive during the installation process by choosing the "custom" installation, or did you just choose "install now"?

If you didn't choose the custom method you should reinstall and use the custom method. Delete any and all existing partitions on the SSD and then create a partition with the available space. Then install windows. That way it creates a GPT boot record instead of an MBR or master boot record which is used with Windows 7 and older systems. This may not be YOUR actual problem, but it's the most common problem I see with new windows installations. Almost always choosing the custom method fixes the issue.

You might also want to go to the OEM webpage for your model and see if there is a more recent BIOS version available and if so then install it prior to doing the above.

 

[TechnPr06]

http/windows.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-8/install-latest-update-windows-8-1 I hope thath will help you