Firmware update made my system unbootable

[adrinux]

I updated the firmware of an external WD My Book drive, with the official program. When the installation ended I followed the instructions and restart my computer and it was no longer able to boot from the internal HDD of my laptop. It shows this message:

Intel UNDI, PXE-2.1 (build 083)

This product is covered by one or more of the following pattents

US5,307,459, US5,434,872, US5,732,094, US6,570,884

US6,115,776 and US6,327,625

Realtek PCIe FE Family Controller Series v1,27 (10/31/11)

PXE-E61: Media text failure, check cable

PXE-MOF: Exiting PXE ROM

Reboot and Select proper Boot device or Insert Boot Media in Selected
Boot device and press a key

• 
  - Another change is that I am no longer able to enter on the bios (as I always were) with F12. I can't enter on the drives list nor the BIOS setup. Before this, I could do the two: pressing several times F12 and holding it and I would see BIOS options (I could enter on the setup using both of the methods).
  
  - Also if I try too boot from a usb windows installer it doesn't recognize it either.
  
  - The computer is able to boot from a Ubuntu LiveUSB, in GRUB I can choose the Windows OS. However if I remove the internal HDD it is not able to boot from the Ubuntu LiveUSB.
  
  - BIOS setup was to boot from a HDD first, USB was second, I enabled fast boot, intel ia was enabled (I don't remember the exact name of this option).
  

Using an hex editor, in both the Windows USB and internal HDD, I can see the same message written just before the code of the partition table:

Invalid partition table. Error loading operating system. Missing operating system.

Also I have to say that I have just installed the operating system (I installed two OS in two different partitions) and that I strongly believe that I had updated all of the drivers before this happened. I say this because maybe it is some driver update fault but I strongly believe that before installing the firmware everything was working fine (i.e I could start the computer). I am not 100% sure because I restarted the computer many times, and I believe that the last driver I installed was the Intel Management Engine. What I do know is that the BIOS version was not updated.

Anyone knows what happened here?


Laptop specifications:

PC: Toshiba laptop P850-31M

Operating system: two partitions with Windows 8.1 Pro

External updated Hard Drive: Western Digital My Book 1230 SN: WCC4E1476734

Firmware: updated from default to v1.065 using WDFirmwareUpdater (official)

Processor: 3rd generation Intel® Core™ i7-3630QM with Intel® Turbo Boost Technology 2.0

 

[JeckeL]

You should still be able to get to BIOS, that's strange... what kind of PC/motherboard is it? Are you sure F12 is what you press to get to bios settings and not just the boot devices list? If so, try holding it down before powering on the machine or pressing it repeatedly during startup/post

 

[Phillip Corcoran]

Have you tried booting with My Book disconnected (and no bootable CD in the drive either)?

 

[adrinux]

You should still be able to get to BIOS, that's strange... what kind of PC/motherboard is it? Are you sure F12 is what you press to get to bios settings and not just the boot devices list? If so, try holding it down before powering on the machine or pressing it repeatedly during startup/post

Thank you for your fast response and sorry for the delay. I have been checking my email instead of the post in the forum, I didn't enable the option of sending an email when post thread updated. I edited the post with the information you asked for.

 

[adrinux]

Have you tried booting with My Book disconnected (and no bootable CD in the drive either)?

Thank you too for the fast answer. I tell you the same as JeckeL.

Concerning your question: yes, I have tried even disconnecting the mouse.

 

[adrinux]

I solved the problem. I installed a manufacturer system settings program, which allowed me to acces the BIOS from the operating system. Then I changed the order of search for operating systems and put the USB first. When I did this I recovered acces to the BIOS as usual. I still couldn't start the system from the internal HDD. Then in BIOS settings I changed the boot configuration from CSM to UEFI and then I changed it again. Everything worked fine again. I have no idea of what happened.